What will the Washington Nationals do at the trade deadline? President of baseball operations Paul Toboni explains where the team stands less than two weeks out
While a trio of pitchers combining to allow no hits over nearly five innings marked game one of the road series against the Colorado Rockies, it was a performance that served as an outlier given the bullpen for the Washington Nationals has been largely disappointing in 2026.
Washington ranks last across MLB with the bullpen owning a 5.30 ERA while the 27 blown saves this season remains ten away from tying an MLB-record. It's been a sore spot for a Nationals' squad whose offense has been among the best after leading the league in both home runs and hits, pointing to a chance for even a slight upgrade to put the organization in the postseason for the first time since 2019. Yet with the trade deadline less than two weeks away, the lack of activity from the front office hasn't been for a lack of effort after president of baseball operations Paul Toboni noted relievers that the Nationals have been "deep in conversations with to try and go get."
Those efforts haven't materialized into any moves as the front office has turned to the waiver wire and dipped back into Triple A Rochester to work through the bullpen's struggles and injuries over the last six weeks while other trades have materialized around the league, like Nate Pearson headed from Houston to Kansas City.
Washington has been mentioned as a trade fit by other outlets for several pitchers given the clear chance to upgrade the undoubted biggest weakness, whether it be across the rotation or bullpen.
Yet even with the deadline less than two weeks away, the tight wild card race has put a slight pause on an all-out frenzy in the trade market as Toboni admitted a "there are a good amount of teams that don't exactly know what they're doing yet." That could change "three, four days from the deadline" with the Nationals among the teams evaluating how the next ten games fare before analyzing whether the front office will become a buyer or seller.
While a report on Tuesday pointed to Foster Griffin being unlikely to be dealt, another on Wednesday morning pointed to executives around the league believing a trade is "inevitable," but he hasn't been the only one subject to the rumor mill. Shortstop CJ Abrams has drawn interest from teams as Toboni declined to answer what the current interest has materialized into. Yet with a chance to potentially upgrade the roster given Toboni admitted the season's success has at least accelerated the rebuild timeline "by some amount," the Nationals play both sides of the fence.
"[Trade talks] hasn't worked out to date, and we're still going to be active in those conversations and trying to upgrade in any way we can," Toboni said.
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