The Washington Nationals are cleaning out their lockers and signing yearbooks as the 2025 season comes to a close.
The Nats finished 66-96 after jettisoning their manager and general manager in midseason, with Boston executive Paul Toboni reportedly in place to run the team’s baseball operations. We’ll likely see plenty of new faces on the field, in the bullpen, in the dugout and in the front office between now and Spring Training.
Season Leaders: James Wood — despite his second-half slump — led the club in hits (153), walks (85), doubles (38), homers (31) and RBI (94).
C.J. Abrams (92 runs and 31 stolen bases) and Daylen Lile (11 triples) also shined this year, with Lile leading the team after the All-Star break in hits, runs and RBI.
Jake Irvin paced the club with 180 innings pitched, and MacKenzie Gore led the team with 185 strikeouts.
Irvin and Mitchell Parker tied for team lead with nine wins, while Kyle Finnegan’s 20 saves remained the standard two months after his trade to Detroit.
Digesting the Division: Philadelphia (96-66) takes the No. 2 seed and they’ll face the winner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati in the Divisional Round. They went 4-2 against the Dodgers in the regular season and 3-3 against the Reds. The Phillies also boasted the NL batting champ in Trea Turner (. 305), while Kyle Schwarber led the league in homers and RBI (56 & 132).
A cruel winter awaits the New York Mets (83-79), who dropped two of three over the weekend to Miami and fell out of playoff contention, while longtime slugger Pete Alonso opts out of his contract to test the free agent waters.
Miami (79-83) got to play the spoiler behind the arm of Edward Cabrera, who posted a career-high eight wins this year.
Atlanta (76-86) delivered a little September fool’s gold by winning 11 of their last 14 games, including six of seven against the Nationals (66-96).
O’s Woes: Baltimore (75-87) finished in last place for the first time since 2021, even though they took two of three from fourth-place Tampa Bay. Do they stick with interim manager Tony Mansolino, who went 60-59 after taking over for Brandon Hyde?
The Orioles have plenty of pieces from their group that advanced to consecutive playoff berths, but it’s always a challenge keeping up in an AL East which snagged two of three Wild Card spots this September.
Last Week’s Heroes: James Wood hit .350 with four home runs (and only struck out six times, giving him 221 for the season-two shy of the MLB record), while Josh Bell batted .462 with two homers.
Luis Garcia Jr. added three home runs while Daylen Lile went .444 at the plate (his 0-3 Sunday dropped the rookie below .300 for the season). Andrew Alvarez pitched 4.1 scoreless innings while Jose Ferrer tallied two saves.
Last Week’s Humbled: MacKenzie Gore allowed four runs over two innings in his final start of the season and went 1-7 with a 6.75 ERA after appearing in the All-Star Game. Jackson Rutledge coughed up four runs over 1.1 innings. Brad Lord allowed four homers over 10 innings, in his final two starts. Rookie Dylan Crews hit .111, while the catching combination of Jorge Alfaro (. 125) and Riley Adams (. 077) had issues at the plate.
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