The trade deadline is 15 days away. This is the first for Washington Nationals interim-GM Mike DeBartolo as the person in control. Usually after the All-Star game, the trade market starts to heat up. Unfortunately for the Nats — they are sellers once again for the 5th consecutive season.

Of course the name garnering the most attention in trade “what if’s” is MacKenzie Gore. If you ever wanted a future signal of how ownership sees this team and the rebuild, Gore will be that barometer. If they keep Gore, the rebuild continues towards contention. If Gore is traded, that seems to clearly point to that the team is taking a step back for 2026.

The current James Wood/Dylan Crews window is through the 2030 season. If you trade Gore and punt on the 2026 season, that gives you an urgent 4-year window on that duo. CJ Abrams team control is through the 2028 season. The teeny-tiny window with Gore is through the 2027 season currently. It is Gore where the urgency is right now. This draft of 17 1/2 year old Eli Willits is your heir apparent to Abrams. That is encouraging if Willits meets the star level in his evaluations by Baseball America. But how do you replace Gore? That is the $30 million question.

The Nats star pitching beyond Gore is murky at best. Travis Sykora is nursing a triceps injury in Double-A, and he represents the best top pitching prospect because nobody is convinced that 2020 first round pick Cade Cavalli will ever get to be a star in the rotation. Maybe DJ Herz, Jake Irvin, and Mitchell Parker can step up. The Nats second best pitching prospect, Jarlin Susana, is also injured and evaluators aren’t convinced that he will be a starter in the future.

Here are potential trade candidates:

• Kyle Finnegan: He’s having a good season as a closer in the final year of his contract with his best HR9 of his career, his second best WHIP, and the lowest FIP of his career. Saturday was hopefully just an outlier that did skew his excellent numbers. Contenders needing bullpen help will likely target him. Trading him would allow the Nationals to acquire a shot at a good prospect.
• Michael Soroka: While not currently having a great season on his statline, as you dig into his numbers, his first 3.0 innings of work is where his value is with a 3.23 ERA and a 2.77 in his first inning of work. Put him into analytics with a good defense, and he would be a good pickup for a team.  
• Nathaniel Lowe: He’s a solid RBI guy on a 103 pace for the full season. The OPS won’t excite you as he is showing limited power. A team looking to bolster their lineup could be interested in his left-handed back and hope a change of scenery gets him back to what his ceiling could be. He has one more year of team control which could be a plus for an acquiring team.
• Luis Garcia Jr.: He’s a young, versatile player who could be attractive to teams needing infield depth as Garcia has improved his defense and he has a good lefty bat with a .729 OPS against RH pitching, and years of team control. But the Nats would need a good prospect for him to consider trading him.
• Amed Rosario: The lefty killer platoon bat would have value to a playoff contender, but don’t expect more than a warm body lotto ticket back in return. Rosario is batting .305 with an .841 OPS against lefty pitching thus season.
• Josh Bell: The DH got hot at the right time. Since June 22, he is hitting .333 with a .937 OPS and smashing lefties and righties. Like Rosario, the trade return wouldn’t be much more than a lotto ticket, but the team would save $2.4 million by trading him today.

Could teams come calling for reliever Andrew Chafin, Luis Garcia or infielder Paul DeJong? Just like we found in 2021, Jon Lester had a team that wanted him — and the Nats got back Lane Thomas for him. That was one of the most surprising trades in Nationals’ history.

When the Nats have made trades in the past, sometimes it gives an opportunity to a player to make their MLB debut or a second chance for a player. You could think that Nick Schnell, Yohandy Morales, or Andres Chaparro could get a chance. It might be a waiver claim or a player picked up in a trade. Remember how Joey Meneses got his chance back in 2022.

The days of getting lucky when the Nats acquired Wilson Ramos for closer Matt Capps was another amazing deadline trade. But most of the trades fail because prospects are still never sure things. However, sometimes it takes longer for a trade prospect to progress. Look at Kevin Made who was part of the deal with Herz from the Cubs for Jeimer Candelario. Made finally showed some progress at the Double-A level but fell off after his promotion. He turns 23 in September.

Look at the Nats trade deadline in 2018. The Nats got nothing, even for players like Gio Gonzalez, Daniel Murphy, Matt Adams and Brandon Kintzler. Then you have the blockbuster trade of Max Scherzer and Trea Turner that got back two Top-100 prospects in Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray. They say hindsight is the best way to judge trades — and this is why you can be skeptical on even a Gore trade that at a minimum would require the two best prospects in any system.

While teams wish to be the recipient of a Pete Crow-Armstrong in a rental package trade, that was the fleecing that the Cubs pulled off for Javy Baez and Trevor Williams. Those are the trades you wish for but rarely happen. Again, times have changed and even a Ramos trade for someone like Finnegan wouldn’t be a trade to count on.

Remember, DeBartolo is juggling many balls as the signings of the draft picks need to be done, the major league roster is always needing work, and the trade deadline could be pivotal. When DeBartolo was promoted he talked about how he was the person behind the scenes piecing together the Juan Soto trade. He has been here before — but that was nothing like being the one to press the button as the control person.