Left fielder James Wood is one of three Washington Nationals named as the best young prospects across baseball
The Washington Nationals will look to rebound after a 66-win season under former manager Dave Martinez after turning the page to the Paul Toboni and Blake Butera era. The start has been quiet, though, with only a handful of roster additions after Foster Griffin's return to the major league following a stint in Japan marked the first signing of the offseason.
While the continued uncertainty around starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore has put a question mark on what to expect from the Nationals in 2026, what has been clear is the young core that Toboni and Butera will look to build around beginning this season. And in ESPN's rankings of the top young stars across Major League Baseball, the Nationals were well represented with three selections.
Left fielder James Wood was ranked the fourth-best 23 year old, along with shortstop Eli Willits as the fourth-best 18 year old. Meanwhile, shortstop CJ Abrams was ranked the ninth-best 25 year old in baseball. Abrams briefly found himself involved in offseason trade rumors.
“Well first of all, I didn’t see the CJ Abrams stuff until today and so I didn’t think that was a thing,” Toboni said in one of several media appearances on Monday. “I haven’t talked to CJ about this. CJ and I have been talking - I chatted with him live the other day," Toboni said during winter meetings.
“CJ or otherwise, we’ll have our ears open. And the worst that can happen is we say ‘no’ and we go back to having our regularly scheduled programming and go from there."
It's the latest acknowledgment of the young core surrounding the Nationals as the trio join others like Dylan Crews and Daylen Lile in 2026.
“I think more than anything, we have some young, exciting players,” Toboni said. “I've been in touch with a number of them to date, and they're fun to watch. And I've told many of them, while I haven't had the chance to reach out to everyone, I've told many of them, and I really believe it, I think there's another gear to tap into with many of them. So it's not just that they're already really talented players. It's that it's easy for me to see a world a year or two down the line where we're seeing a different caliber player in a good way.”
Whether the Nationals see the trio take the next step to anchor the team into a bounce back year remains to be seen with preseason outlook still bearish. ESPN ranked Washington second-to-last in their pre-spring training power rankings.
"As Paul Toboni takes over the Nationals, he will be working with as close to a blank slate as any head of baseball operations has in the industry. The only player under contract beyond 2026 is catcher Keibert Ruiz, so if Washington wants to make an aggressive pitch to keep MacKenzie Gore on a long-term deal, it could do that. But with the Nationals in what is effectively a rebuilding situation, some rival execs still believe he will be traded before becoming eligible for free agency," ESPN's Buster Olney wrote.