Expectations for the Washington Nationals’ 2025 season were lukewarm from the beginning, but the summer brought unexpected disappointment after disappointment to the young team.
Six years removed from a magical World Series run in 2019, the Nationals are unrecognizable: Not a single member of that team remains on the active roster. Then-veterans right hand pitcher Max Scherzer, right hand pitcher Stephen Strasburg, and third baseman Anthony Rendon have signed elsewhere or since retired, while then-promising rookie Juan Soto is now the highest-paid player in baseball — for the division rival New York Mets.
The Nationals have not made the postseason since 2019, nor have they come close. They have put up a losing record for six consecutive years and have already clinched a seventh for 2025.
Still, fans expected 2025 to be a year of growth for the team, which was supposedly entering the tail end of a total rebuild. Instead, they have been met with growing pains, minus the “growing.”
The Nats treaded water until the beginning of June, playing close-to-.500 ball to start the season. Since then, the Nats have collapsed entirely, with a horrific 28-53 record since June 1 and the third-worst overall record in MLB at 56-83. To match their identical — and subpar — 71-91 records from 2023 and 2024, the Nats need to finish the season an unlikely 15-8.
The team acknowledged its failures at the 2025 trade deadline, shipping away every player with a shred of value to a contender and accepting minor league talent in return. The front office traded infielder Amed Rosario to the New York Yankees, pitchers Andrew Chafin and Luis García to the Los Angeles Angels, pitcher Michael Soroka to the Chicago Cubs, closer Kyle Finnegan to the Detroit Tigers and outfielder Alex Call to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The turnover did not end there. Just weeks before the trade deadline, the Nats’ struggles catapulted their long-time manager Dave Martinez into the spotlight. Asked to explain the team’s poor performance, Martinez deflected the blame from the front office and coaching staff, saying the lacking performance was the players’ fault.
“You’ve got to put the onus on the players,” Martinez told reporters in a press conference after the team’s seventh consecutive loss. “It’s never on coaching.”
The response from players — many of them rookies — was less than positive; a source in the organization reported that players were “shocked, dismayed and pissed” at Martinez’s comments.
Unsurprisingly, both Martinez and General Manager (GM) Mike Rizzo — both of whom served during the 2019 World Series run — were fired shortly thereafter.
In a text message to the Washington Post, dismissed GM Rizzo offered a subtle jab at his former employers.
“The sun will come up tomorrow,” Mike Rizzo said in a text message to the Washington Post after being let go. “That’s the job. I had a great run. Navigated that ownership group for almost 20 years.”
Since July 6, former bench coach Miguel Cairo has served as interim manager and former assistant general manager for baseball operations Mike DeBartolo as interim GM.
The Nationals spent this past week getting swept at the hands of the Yankees, and will play a weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays before the calendar turns to September and their season — mercifully — ends.