Washington Nationals avoid arbitration with two key players

The Washington Nationals have avoided arbitration with a pair of key players in shortstop CJ Abrams and pitcher MacKenzie Gore.

Gore and the Nationals agreed to $5.6 million to avoid arbitration, per Robert Murray, while Andrew Golden of The Washington Post reported Abrams and the Nationals have agreed at $4.2 million to avoid arbitration.

The Nationals also announced that both second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. and pitcher Jake Irvin also avoided arbitration on a $2.8 million agreement.

After entering the offseason with seven arbitration-eligible players, the Nationals have just one remaining ahead of 2026 in pitcher Cade Cavalli. Josiah Gray was among those eligible but previously agreed to terms on a one year, $1.35 million deal.  

Abrams was one of three Nats named by ESPN among the best players across baseball 25 years old or younger

Abrams was previously one of two Nationals alongside starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore who drew trade speculation in December.

"The Washington Nationals aren’t simply drawing heavy interest in left-hander MacKenzie Gore. They are also getting pushed aggressively on shortstop CJ Abrams, according to people familiar with their discussions," Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote last month "The Nationals are open to conversations on both players, but the bar is high, league sources told The Athletic on Monday."

Paul Toboni expressed surprise that Abrams was mentioned in trade discussions after noting "we'll have our ears open" regarding trade offers along the roster. As for Gore, he's been connected to several teams throughout the offseason with reportedly over half the league inquiring about his status while the New York Yankees became the latest team to do their due diligence on the starting pitcher.

“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. MacKenzie [Gore] was different because I saw this stuff coming up with MacKenzie and I’m like man, I’m going to call him just because if I put myself in MacKenzie’s shoes, I’m probably wanting to hear if this is real or not or if this is BS. And more than that, man, I said it the other day, one of the most gratifying parts for me is building relationships with staff and players. To me, it’s like I had already talked to MacKenzie, I was just calling again to check in to say by the way, like you’re going to see this and this is how I think through it. If you have any questions, hit me up whenever you want. That’s how I’d approach it with anyone. At the same time, I’m not sure it’s the best thing to set a standard that every single time someone’s name pops up in the media, I’m giving them a call and updating them. Trying to balance those two things but so much of this in my opinion comes down to relationships. If you have great ones, they trust what you’re telling them and want to keep them informed but probably don’t want to overcommunicate too.”