ESPN was bearish on the Washington Nationals in 2026, while details of a supplemental training camp starting Jan. 20 emerge.
ESPN bearish on Nationals in offseason report...The Washington Nationals have undergone a quiet first offseason under Paul Toboni with only a handful of moves and just $5.5 million in spending, ranked the fewest among NL teams and third-fewest across baseball ahead of 2026.
Couple that with Washington looking to turn the page from a 66-win season while staring at another likely rebuild season, the Nationals ranked 28th across baseball in ESPN's midwinter progress report released on Monday.
Only the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies ranked below Washington across baseball.
"The Nationals are starting over. New manager, new coaching staff, new front office. The position group is baseball's youngest. The pitchers aren't far behind. The resetting might not be over either, as you will recall the recent past when CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore were among those frequently mentioned in the rumor mill. The race for the No. 1 pick appears to be on," ESPN wrote.
While the Nationals just beat ESPN's 2025 preseason win total with its 66 wins just above the 63.7 projected line, ESPN was bearish on Washington's chances of eclipsing last season's limited success with a 2026 projection for just 62.6 wins. ESPN also projected a 0.4% chance to make the playoffs, somehow worse than last season's 0.7% chance, to make clear that a rebuild season is on the way for new manager Blake Butera.
Supplemental training camp set for next week...While the Nationals are looking ahead at the future, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is looking to capitalize on his young roster with a chance to work with around 60 minor leaguers in a supplemental training camp at the team's facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, per The Washington Post. Camo is expected to start on Jan. 20 and run through the start of minor league spring training in March.
“Something we want to establish as just part of what we do is the offseason is just as important as the season. Especially on the (player development) side, there’s a lot of training and development that happens in the offseason, so we want to take advantage of that," said Devin Pearson, who followed Paul Toboni and joined the Nationals as the new assistant general manager after previously serving as the scouting director of the Boston Red Sox.
The Nationals are expected to have several key players in attendance including shortstop Eli Willits, who was the top overall selection in the 2025 MLB Draft, along with pitcher Miguel Sime Jr. and infielder Coy James who were selection in the fourth and fifth round of the same draft.
The Washington Post added that the invites to next week's training camp was on a case by case basis with Washington looking to capitalize on its revamped player development plan under Toboni and general manager Ani Kilambi. Whether it's enough to reshape the outlook of the organization remains to be seen with development and technology expected to become focal parts of the regime change, but how soon it translates to success will be what fans are looking for out of the young core.