At the macro level, it’s impossible to look at the Nationals’ 2025 season to date and deem it a success. The team has been in a tailspin since early June, losing 28 of its last 38 games and plummeting to 20 games under .500. That tailspin cost both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez their jobs, firings few could have accurately predicted when they closed out May with a respectable 28-30 record.
Now, the strange part. At the micro level, there actually have been a few positive developments through the season’s first half. Several key young players have performed exceptionally well. Several prospects called up to debut amid the turmoil have done a nice job to date.
Those individual positives don’t add up nearly enough to salvage the big picture. But they have created a weird dichotomy to the first 96 games of the season. All is not well around here, but all is not lost, either.
There’s much that still needs to take place in the second half to determine the fate of the 2025 Nationals, and we’ll explore that Friday morning before the guys return from the All-Star break. Today, we’ll look at what already transpired, what went right and what went wrong through a first half that won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who had to experience it. …
RIGHT: JAMES WOOD
This can’t be said enough: Wood is having the best individual season by a National since Juan Soto. The team hasn’t had a qualified hitter finish with a .900 OPS since Soto’s .999 mark in 2021. Wood currently sits at .915, and that’s down 43 points over his last eight games. If he gets that number back to .950, he’d joint an awfully select list of players in club history (Soto, Anthony Rendon, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper). That’s it. Oh, he’s also on pace for 41 homers and 116 RBIs. Only Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) have hit 40-plus homes in club history. Only Rendon (126) has driven in more than 110 runs. If the Nats were a more competitive team, Wood would be in the MVP discussion over the rest of the season.
WRONG: DYLAN CREWS
This wasn’t the first half Crews or the Nationals wanted. Expectations were high when the season began, but the 2023 first round pick came out of the chute in an 0-for-19 slump and has faced an uphill climb ever since. And just when it looked like he was starting to figure things out (5-for-14, two homers) he suffered an oblique strain and has been stuck on the 10-day injured list for two months now. It does look like he’s close to returning at last, but he’s got a lot of ground to make up the rest of the way to change the narrative of his first full big league season.
RIGHT: CJ ABRAMS
All those worries about the way Abrams’ 2024 season ended, both on and off the field? He has put them to rest with a really strong first half that statistically was even a bit better than his All-Star first half of a year ago. Abrams has been much more consistent at the plate, with an OPS over .800 each of the first three months. He’s back to stealing bases at an elite clip again (20-for-22). And his defense, while still not as sharp as it could be, has been consistently fine. If there’s one player who needed a bounce back first half like this, it’s Abrams.
WRONG: KEIBERT RUIZ
And if there’s one player who couldn’t afford a first half of regression like this, it’s Ruiz. The franchise catcher has been a massive disappointment, and this is coming off a hugely disappointing 2024 season to begin with. Ruiz’s current .595 OPS is worse than his .619 mark from a year ago. He homered in each of his first two games and hasn’t homered again since, leaving him with a wretched .318 slugging percentage. His defense has gotten a bit better, especially when it comes to stopping the run game (he’s increased his caught stealing rate from 15 percent in 2023 to 19.8 percent in 2024 to 25.8 percent this year) but he still doesn’t rate well overall. And now he’s made two recent trips to the 7-day concussion IL, raising real concerns about his long-term viability at the catching position.
RIGHT: MACKENZIE GORE
The Nationals wanted more consistency from their promising young left-hander, and that’s exactly what he has given them so far. Gore has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 16 of his 19 starts. He’s completed at least six innings in 14 of those starts, failing to complete five only once. His ERA has stayed right below or above the 3.00 mark, his WHIP below 1.200 and his strikeout rate north of 11 per nine innings. In short, Gore has pitched like the ace everyone always believed he could be. Now, if his teammates could just provide him a teeny bit more run support.
WRONG: THE REST OF THE ROTATION
While there have been some moments here and there, as a whole nobody else in the rotation has come close to pitching well enough to merit consideration as the No. 2 arm. Gore entered the break with a 3.02 ERA. Every other starter combined has a 5.25 ERA. That’s not going to cut it. Jake Irvin remains a workhorse but needs to cut down on his league-leading 22 homers allowed. Michael Soroka needs to figure out how to turn good stuff into actual good results. Mitchell Parker needs to get out of his own way. And the No. 5 starter currently is … well, Trevor Williams is scheduled for season-ending elbow surgery today, and Shinnosuke Ogasawara was optioned back to Triple-A Rochester after two uninspiring starts. Maybe we’re finally about to see Cade Cavalli in the major leagues for the first time in three years.
RIGHT: YOUNG STARTERS TURNED RELIEVERS
There’s been some bumps along the way, but one of the sneaky positive developments of the first half was the emergence of two former rotation prospects who were converted into relievers and have performed quite well under the circumstances. Brad Lord did make six starts when Soroka was on the IL, but he’s been much better out of the bullpen, where he’s got a 2.79 ERA and 1.164 WHIP while blossoming into one of the team’s few reliable setup men. Cole Henry was even better for a stretch, with 14 consecutive scoreless appearances in May and early June, though he has faded more recently, the heavy and new-to-him workload perhaps catching up. Regardless, for an organization that has never been good at developing its own young relievers, the Nationals have to be excited about the emergence of these two former starters.
WRONG: DEFENSE (ESPECIALLY THE INFIELD)
For all the preaching about “the little things,” Martinez’s team wasn’t particularly good at them. And that was most evident in the field. The Nationals reached the All-Star break 27th out of 30 teams with minus-26 Defensive Runs Saved. They rank 29th with minus-23 Outs Above Average. They’re actually OK in the outfield, rating in the middle of the pack. It’s a different story around the infield (including pitchers and catchers). The Nats sport a negative DRS rating at all six non-outfield positions, including an atrocious minus-20 at second base. They convert only 69.1 percent of all ground balls into outs (tied with the Twins for worst in the majors).