WASHINGTON, DC | Nationals Park | Photos show the five active players acquired in the Juan Soto trade from 2022. Photos are from March 26, 2024 with CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III, MacKenzie Gore (mound), James Wood (batting), and Jarlin Susana. Photos by Andrew Lang (left) and Sol Tucker (right) for TalkNats.
Healthy, well-nurtured cherry trees can bear fruit for decades. The better the care — the better the bounty. While George Washington could not tell a lie about cutting into his father’s cherry tree, it is now the new President, Paul Toboni, who must protect and nurture Washington’s tree of life that sprung up from the Juan Soto trade like a Montmorency.
With MacKenzie Gore pruned from the tree, that leaves CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III, Jarlin Susana, and James Wood as the active Washington Nationals’ pieces from the original trade. Friday’s Gore trade with the Washington Senators Texas Rangers brought back five new branches with Yeremy Cabrera, Gavin Fien, Devin Fitz-Gerald, Abimelec Ortiz, and Alejandro Rosario. In all, that is a total of nine players who are now active in the Nats’ system from the Soto trade.
Typically, a well-nurtured Montmorency cherry tree will begin to bear fruit in 3-to-5 years after planting which is just like Fien, a teenage high schooler who was just 18 years old when he became the №12 pick in last year’s draft, and 11 spots after Eli Willits was taken at №1 overall by the Washington Nationals.
This duo of Willits and Fien were teammates on the USA Baseball 18U National Team that won the gold medal at the Baseball World Cup on August 12, 2024, and then they flew from that game in Panama to San Diego to compete on opposite rosters just two days later in the 2024 MLB High School All-Star Game. Less than 1½ years later, they are teammates in pro ball.
Back to August 2024, Fien and Willits went from the international stage to this premier national game, the two teenagers showed their skills in that All-Star game too. Fien was named the Most Valuable Player of that showcase invitational game for the best non-senior high school players in the country. And Willits showed his tools by manufacturing the first run of the game after he worked a walk then stole two bases and scored on an errant throw by the catcher.
Of the Top-5 ranked stars of that high school All-Star game, four of them can now be directly tied to the Washington Nationals. Fien, as the MVP of the game, was ranked as the №1 star of the game, and three of the next four standouts of that game, were all drafted by the Nats with Miguel Sime Jr., Mason Pike, and Willits all selected by Washington. As you might remember, Pike indicated he was going to college which affected his draft status that dropped him to the 19th round pick by the Nats, and he did choose to go to college at Oregon State. Also in that game was Landon Harmon, who was the top drafted pitcher by the Nats, and Howie Kendrick was one of the managers of the stacked roster in that game. Fien certainly helped propel himself to the top of the draft board going into 2025.
A source told us that Fien will fly to West Palm Beach on Monday to join the Nats, and start training with the “Early Camp“ on Tuesday. He should be a full participant after having a minor procedure on his hand after his short minor league season. By the way, a source also told us that Fien is repped by John Boggs as his agent with the JBA Agency. Boggs grew up in DC coincidentally. And Fien might be the best player in this trade when we evaluate this blockbuster in about five years. He was among the Top-5 best high school prospects in the 2025 MLB amateur draft class.
Like a fine wine, trades are best evaluated years into the future. Any great year of a vintage needs the proper aging, and a sommelier can tell you a Top-100 from a fake, like wine connoisseur Maureen Downey did for years. Putting a Château Lafite Rothschild or Château Mouton Rothschild label on a bottle can confuse the untrained senses when fooled by a spurious fraudster. While wines go through the taste test, prospects are evaluated by the eye test, hearing, and of course the analytics test. Give it time before declaring this trade a bust.
Some might say that Rosario is the jewel of this Gore trade for the Nationals. He just turned 24 earlier this month and was a very inconsistent pitcher for the University of Miami which dropped him to the 5th round of his 2023 draft class, and he was snagged by the Rangers. Known for a blazing triple-digit fastball, Rosario was immediately transformed by the Rangers developmental staff. At the age of 22, he pitched in Single-A and High-A and had 14-of-17 of his games in 2024 that would rank as dominant. On June 1, 2024, he mowed down the Fredericksburg Nationals for 6.0 scoreless innings of 1-hit baseball and 11 K’s. He was promoted to High-A and pitched to a 2.83 ERA without giving up a home run in his eight games. His pro K/BB rate is an exceptional 9.92:1, and his WHIP is 0.928. This is why he was the №49 ranked prospect per Baseball America’s Top-100 a year ago.
The difference a year makes, Rosario dealt with two injuries during 2025 and didn’t pitch in a minor league game. Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline dropped Rosario from their Top-100 prospects list. It was revealed that the rehab on Rosario’s injured right throwing elbow did not work, and the torn UCL will lead to a Tommy John surgery in the coming weeks. We won’t see Rosario in a game again until mid-2027 which is why the evaluators considered the Gore trade as an “major underpay” by the Rangers. By the time Rosario returns, it will be nearly 2½ years without pitching a game. If he picks up where he left off in 2024, he could be a huge acquisition for the Nats. Toboni called the Rosario acquisition a “worthwhile bet to make.” Rosario was college teammates with Nats minor leaguers Yohandy Morales and Maxwell Romero Jr.
The third name in the trade has been ranked by some as the best prospect in this trade. The kid with the hyphenated name, Fitz-Gerald, 20, was Texas’ №8 prospect according to Baseball America. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote, “Evaluators love Fitz-Gerald.” He hit .302 with seven doubles, six homers, 20 RBI, 28 walks, eight stolen bases, and 33 runs scored in 41 games between the Arizona Complex League and Single-A Hickory in his first professional year in 2025 until he had a shoulder injury that ended his 2025 campaign.
Fitz-Gerald grew up miles from the Nats’ facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is a switch-hitter, and hit .274 with all six home runs from the left side of the plate. He hit .455 (10-for-22) as a righty. Defensively, he converted all 78 chances at shortstop and third base last season. A fifth-round draft pick from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. where his father is the coach, Fitz-Gerald was the 50th-ranked overall high school prospect and 12th-ranked shortstop in that class according to Perfect Game for that 2024 draft class. In 2021 and 2022, Fitz-Gerald was high school teammates with Roman Anthony who was extensively scouted by Toboni and his staff when with the Red Sox. By the way, Fitz-Gerald and Anthony won the Florida State baseball championship in both of their years together.
If not for that shoulder injury last year, some believe that Fitz-Gerald had a chance to climb up the prospect boards. He is expected to be healthy enough to be a full participant this year, and a source tells us that he will report to the Nats facility in West Palm Beach on Tuesday.
We would rank the toolsy Cabrera, 20, as the 4th piece in this trade. He was the Rangers №14 prospect according to Baseball America. He ranked in the top-10 among Texas farmhands in stolen bases (2nd, 43), on-base percentage (7th, .364), runs scored (8th, 66) and average (10th, .256) in 2025. In all, Cabrera hit .256 with 12 doubles, three triples, eight home runs, 52 RBI, 52 walks, 43 stolen bases and 66 runs scored in 102 games for Single-A Hickory last season. He was an international free agent from the Dominican Republic, and Cabrera led the Arizona Complex League in home runs (9) during the 2024 season. He finished with a .301 average, 11 doubles, three triples and 39 RBI in 49 games.
Finally, you have the Abi Ortiz, 23, as the only acquired player in this trade on the 40-man roster. Toboni has already said that he will compete for a roster spot. He was the Rangers’ №18 prospect according to MLBPipeline and was originally signed by the Texas Rangers as an undrafted free agent for $20,000 in 2021 out of a JuCo.
The Rangers discovered a vision issue and corrected Ortiz’s eyesight with contact lenses in 2022. Listed at 5-10, 230lb, he plays the corner outfield and first base, although not a tall target as a first baseman. He was second in all of Minor League Baseball with 258 RBI and tied for fourth in MiLB with 77 home runs since the beginning of the 2023 season. He has hit double-digit home runs in each of his five professional seasons, including 34 in 2023 on his way to being named South Atlantic League Most Valuable Player. But there is some skepticism as his best part of his season was in the hitter’s paradise of the Pacific Coast League in Triple-A in 2025. A native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, he led all Rangers farmhands in home runs (25), RBI (89), extra-base hits (53) and runs scored (85) last season. In all, Ortiz hit .257 with 25 doubles, three triples, 25 home runs, 89 RBI, 65 walks, four stolen bases and 85 runs scored in 130 games between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock in 2025 of the PCL.
There you have the five newest players added to the Nationals roster as part of the Soto tree. How much fruit they will bear is all part of the future — and that is the fairest way to judge a trade like this. Remember when fans were disappointed after the Soto trade, and former-GM Mike Rizzo said, “I think it accelerates the process. I think that you lose a generational talent like that, but you put in five key elements of your future championship roster.”
As we know, Soto was never going to stay. The Padres and Yankees learned that lesson too harshly, and all the Yankees were left with was a comp draft pick in a latter round after Soto departed. At least the Nats now have nine players to help the team coming from Soto and now, Gore.
“I hear it, and I empathize with it,” was Toboni’s message to the fans who were disappointed in seeing Gore traded.
— Toboni said on Friday night after the Gore trade was official
“But I would paint a much more optimistic picture. I think the excitement that comes with these players we’re getting in return exceeds the disappointment of seeing MacKenzie go. That’s just me talking as the head of baseball operations now. I’m really excited about the package we’ve gotten in return. And I hope fans see it in the same way.”
Again, time will tell on this trade. Most evaluators felt like with Soto, that Gore was going to head to free agency as a Boras client. The optimal time was to trade him now. Could Toboni have done better on the trade? That’s the only debate, and Toboni’s critics have been lining up to throw in their 2-cents. And since pennies are no longer minted, it will have to be throwing in their Silver Dollars across the Potomac. Inflation is a b!tch as they say!
By the way, Walter Johnson tried to match George Washington‘s feat on February 22, 1936, and succeeded by throwing a silver dollar over 286 feet across the river in the DMV. Now if Toboni can do as well with the Gore trade as Rizzo did with the Soto trade, Washington fans will have a lot to celebrate! A tree of life.
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