PHILADELPHIA -- The Nationals approached the 2026 Trade Deadline in Wild Card contention, but also needed to build toward their future. Over the course of nine days, the Nationals dealt two of their top offensive players and their best starting pitcher for a haul of predominantly young players, including several prospects.
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“Zooming out, what we're trying to thread the needle in doing is figure out a way to create this stable foundation over the long run while also giving ourselves a chance to win this year,” first-year president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said after the 6 p.m. ET Deadline on Monday. “I think it’s inherently tough to find those opportunities.”
The Nationals were 54-52 when they made their first trade on July 26. A six-game losing skid ensued, with the Nats losing to the Phillies, 6-3, on Monday.
Here is a breakdown of the Nationals’ Trade Deadline deals:
July 26
Nationals receive: LHP Connelly Early
Red Sox receive: INF Curtis Mead
Aug. 2
Nationals receive: RHP Jake Bird, RHP Jack Cebert (Yankees' No. 14 prospect, now Nats' No. 14), RHP Yovanny Cruz (Nats' No. 30) and RHP Ben Grable (No. 25, now Nats' No. 26)
Yankees receive: INF Luis García Jr.
Aug. 3
Nationals receive: LHPs Josh Hartle (Guardians' No. 25, now Nats' No. 29) and Will Dion, RHP Kendeglys Virguez and OF Nick Mitchell
Guardians receive: LHP Foster Griffin
Nationals receive: RHP Joe Glassey
Orioles receive: OF Christian Franklin
“I believe in this team,” said Toboni. “I believe both those things can be true, where you want to make sure that this foundation is really, really strong, but at the same time, just speaking from the heart, I believe in the guys in the locker room and I believe in what they can do.”
The final trade was sending Griffin to Cleveland less than 30 minutes before the Deadline. The Nationals were in an interesting situation with Griffin, who excelled on a one-year deal in his return from Japan. A 2027 qualifying offer for Griffin would have been worth around $22 million. Toboni described the Nationals as having “a clear desire to want him around,” making the decision to trade him even more difficult.
“It could have gone basically any number of paths,” said Toboni. “We could have extended him, we could have traded him, we could have just kept him and he could have helped our team win down the stretch. Then we’re faced with potentially offering him a qualifying offer at the end of the year and seeing how that goes. So we carefully considered all the different avenues here. At the end of the day, we thought that this was the best thing to do. But it was also the hardest thing to do because it was the one scenario where he was going to be with our club, obviously.”
The Nationals’ first two trades involved position players. At the time of their deals, Mead and García had hit a combined 40 home runs and 124 RBIs for the Nationals’ league-leading offense.
“It’s really tough to replace those guys,” Toboni said. “They've been two of the best hitters in the Major Leagues this year, and I don't think it's reasonable for us to expect folks to just hop right in and replace them one-for-one. Having said that, a huge reason our offense has been really good to date is that it's been a huge team effort. …
“I don't want to place unfair expectations on the group, but I really believe in this group, and I think we can still string together a bunch of really, really quality at-bats over the course of the next two months before the playoffs.”
In spite of trade buzz that began in the offseason, All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams remains on the roster. And an offensive focal point at that, with 28 homers and 85 RBIs. Toboni was transparent with Abrams, who has two years remaining on his contract, during the Trade Deadline process.
“In short, I’ll put it this way, if we wanted to trade CJ, we surely could have traded CJ,” said Toboni. “He’s such an awesome player. There were a lot of people really wanting him. … We're going to hold a really high bar for him because of, honestly, not just the player he is but what he means to this organization, what he means to this city. I think it adds up to more than just what he's producing out on the field. …
“That's not to say that we would never consider anything for him. We were keeping our ears open if teams wanted to throw stuff at us. But I told CJ when the team left for Atlanta [last week], ‘Hey, I'm not going to be on the trip. I think there's probably less than a 10% chance that you're traded, and these are the reasons why.’ That’s how it shook out.”