At the end of July, the Washington Nationals traded Alex Call at the trade deadline from their crowded outfield. Ho hum, he’s in the World Series with the Dodgers. The Nats had six outfielders at the time and pared that down to five at the MLB level with Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell III, Daylen Lile, James Wood, and Jacob Young all competing for playing time.
After Nathaniel Lowe was DFA’d, the Nats were able to move Josh Bell to first base, and the lineup started to utilize the DH spot for Lile and Wood to get at-bats. That allowed Hassell and Young to platoon in center field, and Crews played most days in right field. This could be the same plan for the 2026 season — or PoBO Paul Toboni and his new manager might have other plans because they need more production from Crews, Hassell and Young.
If you used the trade deadline as the statistical line of demarcation to assess the players, Lile was the team MVP. He put up a +1.8 WAR and a 1.008 OPS in the final two months. Heck, your Top-4 players by OPS were Lile, Nasim Nuñez, Drew Millas, and Josh Bell. If you go by WAR for your outfield in that timeframe, it’s Lile, Wood, and Young. And yes, a lot of Young’s value was from his tremendous defense. He robbed more homers (four) than he hit (two). By the way, Young got his second consecutive nomination for the Gold Glove award.
Again, the team might stick with all five of the outfielders and continue to use Lile and Wood at the DH and left field. Then again, Hassell III didn’t have a great season at the MLB level. He had the lowest OPS (.571) as well as the lowest WAR of the outfielders at -0.5. That means his overall value was negative, even though most of his games were platoon matchups. Also, Hassell, Young and Crews had a disappointing OPS range of .571 to .631. That won’t cut it for a corner outfielder.
There was a time when it looked like the September 1 call-up for roster expansion could have been another outfielder. In Triple-A, Christian Franklin, Andrew Pinckney, and Nick Schnell were all impressing, but Pinckney had an injury, and Schnell and Franklin both had mini slumps at the wrong time. None of them were on the 40-man roster, and interim-GM, Mike DeBartolo, went with Nuñez as his Sept. 1 call-up. It is possible that Schnell goes back into minor league free agency. Pinckney is part of the Nats’ outfield depth at the minor league level that includes Ethan Petry and Sam Petersen, who are both currently playing in the Arizona Fall League.
If you go by MLB Pipeline rankings, Petry is the top-ranked minor league outfielder at No. 8 overall in the Nats’ system followed by Franklin who was acquired in a deadline trade with the Cubs for pitcher Michael Soroka. After Franklin in the rankings, Petersen, Cristhian Vaquero, and Pinckney round out the ranked outfielders in that order. In 2022, Vaquero, an international free agent signing by the Nationals was paid $4.925 million in a bonus, the largest in Nats’ history. His nickname was “El Fenomeno” which translates to: The Phenomenon — a nickname that he hasn’t lived up to yet. Phillip Glasser isn’t even on the rankings, and he was named the organization’s Hitter of the Year for the minor leaguers.
Glasser, 25, led Washington’s Minor League system in average (.302), on-base percentage (.389) and hits (143). He also ranked in OPS (2nd, .793), walks (2nd, 60), stolen bases (T3rd, 32), runs (4th, 71) total bases (5th, 191), slugging percentage (5th, .404), triples (T6th, 4) and doubles (T7th, 19). His 143 hits were the most by a Nats’ Minor Leaguer since Andrew Stevenson recorded 152 in 2022. Glasser finished the season slashing .302/.389/.404 with 19 doubles, seven home runs, four triples, 49 RBI, 60 walks, 62 strikeouts and 71 runs scored in 124 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester.
One name noticeably missing here is Elijah Green who was an outfielder drafted at the top of the 2022 draft by the prior front office in the first round (5ᵗʰ overall). Green has repeated the lowest rung of the ladder in Single-A Fredericksburg for three straight seasons after he failed in High-A and quietly disappeared from the radar. TalkNats broke the news two years in a row that the front office snuck him back to the Florida Complex League to work on his swing. Having to do this without an injury is a major fail in the draft and player development process. The resources of time and money that were sunk into Green is just another reason so many front office people are no longer with the team. Green is no longer in the team’s Top-30 top prospect rankings.
Many of the aforementioned players will get Spring Training big league camp invites. But here’s the thing — Toboni has no emotional ties to any of these players. Time will be getting short for Hassell to show he can put up — or shut up. His top of the first round draft pedigree (8th overall) that had him as one of the best prep school hitters in the 2020 draft, hasn’t been seen since he was part of the trade package to the Nationals in the Juan Soto deal. Hassell suffered a hamate injury upon arrival to the Nats, and that gave him an excuse for a while. Truth be told, Hassell just isn’t hitting consistently, and his controlled bat swing isn’t yielding positive results. He’s near the bottom of Nats’ hitters with an average bat speed of just 68.7 mph which would be fine if he put up numbers like Lile and Luis Arraez.
What might sound nuts is that the Nats could look to shore up what Hassell couldn’t do and get a platoon bat to complement both Crews and Young and delve into free agency for a inexpensive stop-gap piece. You know who might fill that spot as a free agent? Mike Yastrzemski. Yes, he ranked 22nd in the Majors with an .809 OPS as a lefty against right-handed pitching in 2025.
Don’t be surprised if Toboni goes with a couple of free agents for better platoon splits in free agency. But getting more creative into the future, what if Paul Toboni asks James Wood to get a first baseman’s glove? A 6’7 guy with a glove would give a big target for his infielders. Yes, yes, we know that first base isn’t easy. First base is a hole in the team. Ethan Petry had been getting some reps there already [in Single-A]. No telling what the future holds in Toboni’s eyes. The heir apparent to first base was Yohandy Morales, and the one-time first round talent who was picked by the Nats in the second round of 2023, had his struggles in the previous developmental system. Unfortunately, Morales isn’t the only one who struggled under the old regime. Even Crews and Brady House haven’t hit well in their short MLB tenures, and this is certainly a reason for the mass turnover in the Nats’ coaching tree with dozens of firings earlier this month.
Yes, there is a lot of work to do — and again, for the Nats to reach potential their potential, the prospect stars must become MLB stars. That was a direct quote from former Nats’ GM, Mike Rizzo, he was certainly correct on that. But it was his poor developmental staff coupled with poor draft choices that have put the Nats in the situation they are currently in. If not for Rizzo’s trade of Soto, there’s no telling how bad this Nats team would really be.
Just combining Vaquero and Green’s signing bonuses of $4.925 and $6.5 million respectively, Rizzo’s front office looks like they swung & missed big time. That’s nearly $10.5 million wasted when there were other opportunities to spend that money on. The new player development personnel and coaches will get their shots to try to make something of the struggling players. Again, it might be sink or swim time for many of the names in this article. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the organization has put a lot of grease into these players with diminishing results.
So while the Nats’ outfield looks crowded, looks can be deceiving. You see big names with big potential. But until Crews, Hassell, Young and the minor leaguers step up, the outfield is an issue both offensively and defensively. Lile looks like a left fielder based on his defense, and his bat looked promising. Young is one of the best defenders in baseball and has to hit better, and you could say the same about Crews. And Wood had an MVP first three months of the season then fell off a cliff from July 3 and forward for the most part. Hassell is the weakest link right now.
Basically, nothing should be a given on this team. There is a lot of work to get done.
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