The Nationals are coming off a season with the second-worst team ERA at 5.35 where the starting pitching played a big part in it, often losing the Nats' games in the first couple of innings.

The Nationals only had three pitchers start over 20 games in 2025: Mackenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, and Mitchell Parker. 

Mackenzie Gore cemented himself as the main bright spot of the Nationals starting rotation, while Irvin and Parker both had down years compared to their 2024 campaigns, which put both of them as key names in the Nationals starting rotation going forward. In 2025, Irvin ended with an ERA of 5.70 in 33 starts compared to a 4.41 ERA in 2024 in 33 starts, while Parker had an ERA of 5.68 in 30 starts in 2025 compared to a 4.29 ERA in 2024 in 29 starts. 

Irvin and Parker will likely still be main names in the Nationals starting rotation in 2026, but their performance in 2026 will likely determine whether or not they will stay in the Nationals long term plans. 

The Nats will also get the option of more flexibility in 2026 with Josiah Gray and Trevor Williams returning from injury, along with the offseason signing of Foster Griffin. They will go along with a couple of young arms who made starts for the Nats in 2025, like Brad Lord, Cade Cavalli, Mike Soroka, and Andrew Alvarez as possible candidates in the starting lineup.

Gray received an All-Star bid in 2023 before tearing his UCL at the beginning of the 2024 season, which sidelined him for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025. 

No matter who the Nationals decide to put out there it cannot perform as it did in 2025 or else this team will be staring down the barrel of uncompetitive losses all season long. 

In 2025, the Washington Nationals were 20th in the league in batting average (BA), 24th in the league in on-base percentage (OBP), and were walked the third lowest of all teams in the MLB.

Going into 2026, the Nationals bring back a lot of its key players, bring back its entire starting 2025 opening day starting lineup, besides three players, 1B Nathaniel Lowe, 3B Paul DeJong, and DH Josh Bell. Neither of the three will be big losses for the Nationals, as Bell was the most efficient batter listed with a .237 BA. 

Of the six other opening day starters, none of them had a batting average of more than .260. Can the Nationals bring in enough production for 2026?

The two other highly projectable spots were given to LF Daylen Lile, who had a .299 BA in his 91 games, and 3B Brady House, who had .234 BA. 

The Nationals may expect a leap in numbers with some of the guys on their starting lineup, for example, Dylan Crews, who batted only .208 but played his best baseball towards the end of the season and is hoped to be a breakout candidate in 2024.

Luis García Jr. and Jacob Young are two other guys who will be expected to see an increase in numbers in 2026. They both saw decreases in their averages in the 2025 season as García dipped from a .282 BA and .318 OBP in 2024 to a .252 BA and .289 OBP in 2025, and Young dropped from a .256 BA and .316 OBP in 2024 to a 0.231 BA and .296 OBP in 2025.

The Nationals will also be looking for a first baseman in free agency to fill in the last gap in the starting lineup. 

Before the first baseman signing, the oldest projected starter on the Nationals' starting lineup is Keibert Ruiz at 27 years old, and with so many young batters, only a year can make a lot of difference.  

The Nationals have two established all-star-level batters in James Wood and CJ Abrams, but can somebody else step up and give the Nationals some extra star power?

Well, there are a couple of young breakout candidates for the Nationals with Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile and Brady House jumping to mind.

Crews was the Nationals' second overall pick in 2023, coming out of LSU, where he had a dominant .426 BA and 0.567 BA in his final season with the Tigers. Crews has found success in the minor leagues before being called up in both the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Crews performed well in 2023 while playing for the Nationals' minor league affiliates, the Fredericksburg Nationals (A) and the Harrisburg Senators (AA), with a .292 BA, a .377 OBP and a .467 slugging percentage. He continued batting well in the minors with a .270 BA and .342 OBP in 2024 when he played 100 games for the Senators and the Rochester Red Wings (AAA). 

In 2025, his minor league performance would decrease, but in a small sample size of only 13 games before getting called up to the major leagues. In the major leagues, Dylan Crews has struggled, batting only 0.208 in 2025 while striking out 76 times in 293 plate appearances. But the potential is still there for Dylan Crews, who is only 23 years old, and can still blossom into a star player.

Lile was the Nationals' second round pick in 2021 and saw his major league debut in 2025, where he shined putting up a .299 BA, .347 OBP, while hitting 9 home runs and 11 triples in his 91 games played. He will be 23 years old during the 2026 season and is somebody who may be primed for a big breakout season.

House was the Nationals' first-round, 11th overall pick, and he also made his major league debut in 2025, where he showed some flashes but ended the season batting 0.237 and ended the season with an OBP of 0.252 after only getting walked eight times compared to the 76 strikeouts he took. House is still the youngest player on the Nationals lineup and comes with serious power. If he can put it together with some better discipline at the plate, he has a chance to take a big leap next year.

Whether it is one of the three mentioned high-potential youth pieces for the Nats, or if they can finally get more out of players like Luis García Jr. or Keibert Ruiz, they will be hoping somebody can prove themselves as true stars in 2026.

The Nationals' bullpen took a big hit after trading away their long-time closer, Kyle Finnegan, at the 2025 season deadline. 

Without Finnegan, it looked like the Nationals would marry Jose A. Ferrer to the closer role, but in an offseason trade, they moved Ferrer for top catcher prospect Harry Ford, along with pitcher Isaac Lyon.

So with the Nationals in need of a closer, who will step into the role?

Cole Henry finished the 2025 season with 13 finishes to go along with 2 saves. He pitched a total of 52.2 innings, with an ERA of 4.27 and only allowing 43 hits. One big problem is his walk percentage, where he is in the bottom 2nd percentile according to Baseball Savant, allowing 32 walks on the season. 

Clayton Beeter is another big candidate for the closing role. He appeared in 24 games after the Nats traded for him near the deadline, and pitched 21.2 innings with a 2.49 ERA. The 27-year-old has good speed, throwing around 96-97, and is good at avoiding big contact, having a good Whiff%, and a high strikeout rate. He also struggles with walks, allowing 12 walks in his 21.2 innings. 

Another player worth mentioning is Jackson Rutledge, as he played a big part in the bullpen in 2025 and finished the most games behind Finnegan and Ferrer. 

The three outfielders in the Nationals' projected starting lineup all share one thing–potential. LF Daylen Lile, CF Jacob Young and RF Dylan Crews will all be entering 2026 with something to prove.

Young will be entering his fourth season in the major leagues, where he will need to prove that he can be a consistent piece in the lineup as a batter. Young saw his first real starting experience in 2024, and since then, he has shown off some elite fielding, being 98th percentile in Outs Above Average according to Baseball Savant, and being a finalist for the Golden Glove Award. But the Nationals will want to see some more success from the plate from Jacob Young in 2026. After averaging a BA of 0.256 in 2024, he had an underwhelming BA of 0.231 in 2025 while only having an OBP of 0.296. Going into 2026, the Nats will be hoping to see a bump in performance at the plate for Young, giving them higher hopes for him as a long-term piece.

As said before, Lile had a strong start to his Major League debut on the plate and will be a breakout candidate in 2026, but there is a lot of room to improve in the outfield. Lile will bring elite speed to the outfield and has made occasional highlight-level plays in the outfield, but in 2025, he was in the bottom 5% of outfielders in Outs Above Average, according to Baseball Savant. But if he can improve on his positioning in the outfield and keep up his batting efficiency in a season-long sample size, the sky is the limit.

For Crews, he is somebody who comes in with the highest expectations. After his success at LSU, he was expected to be a franchise cornerstone. Now everybody is hoping it will come together in 2026. But what needs to happen in 2026 is that Crews can become more consistent. He needs to become more patient at the plate and choose his swings more wisely. He had only 24 walks to 76 strikeouts in his 322 plate appearances while having a 26.7% chase rate according to Baseball Savant. He has shown an ability to be patient at the plate, as in his final year of college, he had 71 walks to 46 strikeouts. If Crews can have a more disciplined season at the plate, he could be right back on track to developing into a future cornerstone of the Nationals.