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As the dust settled from last week’s trade of MacKenzie Gore, with plenty of thoughts coming to the forefront about the five prospects the Nationals got from the Rangers and what this all means about the new front office’s short-term and long-term intentions, another question eventually came to mind: Who exactly is going to fill out the Nats’ 2026 rotation at this point?
It’s a question, quite honestly, that doesn’t come with a very reassuring answer.
Even with Gore, the Nationals’ projected rotation looked thin on sure things. Now, it’s even thinner.
If he had to pick five starters right now to open the season, new manager Blake Butera probably would choose (in no particular order) Cade Cavalli, Brad Lord, Jake Irvin, Foster Griffin and (if healthy and ready to go) Josiah Gray. The options beyond that include Mitchell Parker, Andrew Alvarez and maybe Rule 5 Draft pick Griff McGarry (who you’d think is more likely to open the year as a long reliever). Then there are DJ Herz and Trevor Williams, each still recovering from elbow surgery but perhaps ready to go sometime around May.
Is that what the Nationals rotation will actually look like come late-March? Maybe, though again it would feature a lot more questions than answers.
