An offseason that had already featured several starting pitchers traded for sizable returns just delivered another blockbuster: The Texas Rangers acquired left-hander MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals in exchange for five prospects, a package headlined by infielder Gavin Fien, the 12th overall pick in last year’s draft. The Nationals also received first baseman Abimelec Ortiz, shortstop Devin Fitz-Gerald, outfielder Yeremy Cabrera and right-hander Alejandro Rosario.
With each successive starter moved this winter — from Sonny Gray to Shane Baz to Edward Cabrera to Freddy Peralta, among others — the spotlight grew brighter on Gore, the most likely candidate to be dealt next from a rotation. Under team control for two more seasons, and on a rebuilding club with a new front office looking to chart a different course, the talented lefty checked all the boxes of the kind of player who could be moved before Opening Day.
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Sure enough, new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni was able to find a prospect package that warranted dealing Gore now. The swap to send the southpaw to Texas might not have the same industry-rattling ramifications as the first trade Gore was part of — he arrived in Washington as part of the return for Juan Soto in 2022 — but it’s a significant transaction nonetheless.
What to make of Texas as his landing spot? Fun fact: The Rangers had the best team ERA (3.49) in MLB in 2025, ranking first in rotation ERA (3.41) and fifth in bullpen ERA (3.62). That remarkable achievement was completely lost amid a miserably mediocre season that ended in an 81-81 record. It’s also a reminder that Texas’ shortcomings in the standings were the result of its lackluster offense, not its pitching staff. That offense remains largely unchanged outside of swapping Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo and signing backstop Danny Jansen, so crucial questions remain about the lineup’s ability to bounce back.
But there is also some uncertainty on the mound, even after Texas’ quietly excellent year of run prevention. The Rangers were active in restocking the bullpen (Alexis Diaz, Tyler Alexander, Chris Martin, Jakob Junis, Carter Baumler), but the rotation had been unaddressed until now. Texas’ two best arms, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, are both still in the fold after brilliant seasons, but each is in his late 30s with a notoriously spotty track record of durability. Jack Leiter showed promise as a rookie but has a long way to go to prove himself as a reliable rotation member. Veterans Patrick Corbin and Tyler Mahle, who combined to make 46 starts last season, had yet to be replaced since departing as free agents.
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In other words, there was room for improvement in this rotation. But given Texas’ minimal appetite to spend in free agency, such upgrades evidently needed to come via trade. So after laying low since their deal for Nimmo in late November, the Rangers emerged to pull off one of the biggest trades of the offseason to land Gore.
How much Gore will help the Rangers is, however, its own intriguing question. Because of his prestigious prospect pedigree and how dominant he looks when he’s right, it’s fair to say Gore’s reputation as a frontline arm far outpaces his actual body of work. Yes, he made his first All-Star team last year after shining in the first half. But the totality of his time in the Nationals’ rotation tells a more uneven story.
Here are Gore’s ranks among the 61 pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched over the past three seasons:
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7.3 fWAR (33rd)
4.15 ERA (42nd)
100 ERA+ (44th)
4.49 xERA (48th)
4.01 FIP (34th)
1.39 WHIP (56th)
Some of those ugly numbers are a product of bad luck — Gore’s .326 BABIP allowed is the highest among that 61-pitcher sample, and porous defense in Washington hasn’t done him any favors — but he gets into trouble on his own as well, as evidenced by his 9.3% walk rate, which ranks fourth-highest.
All together, these would not seem to be the metrics of a budding ace, particularly over a sample of innings that large. But as we’ve seen from the contracts handed out to pitchers with bloated ERAs such as Dylan Cease or the high prices paid in trades for guys such as Cabrera, Baz or Ryan Weathers, teams are eager to pay for big-time stuff nowadays, regardless of results or limited track records. And Gore’s arsenal — a 95-mph fastball that touches 98, two different breaking balls and a changeup that garners consistent swing-and-miss — still entices. Plus, if you are looking for the leaderboard that views him more favorably, look no further than the whiffs: Gore’s 27.2% strikeout rate in 2025 was a career high and ranked fifth among lefty starters behind only Chris Sale, Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Jesus Luzardo.
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There’s also reason for optimism that Gore can reach another gear as he joins a new organization. It’s no secret that prior to the recent regime change, the Nationals’ reputation for pitching development was one of the worst in the league. In Texas, Gore will pursue the improvements to become a true frontline arm under the tutelage of a pitching infrastructure that has proven effective in recent years. His numbers should also benefit from his new home venue, Globe Life Field, which has recently played as one of the most extreme pitchers’ parks in MLB.
For Washington, trading Gore marks the most dramatic rebuilding move yet from its new front office. The Nationals had made a couple of lower-profile trades, dealing lefty reliever Jose Ferrer to Seattle for catching prospect Harry Ford and swapping one of their upper-level pitching prospects, Jake Bennett, for one with potentially greater upside, Luis Perales from Boston. But this deal is an entirely different beast, parting with the arm that was likely to be the team’s Opening Day starter for a huge infusion of young talent that could pay enormous dividends for the organization, albeit not right away. Outside of Ortiz, who finished 2025 with a strong couple of months in Triple-A and could compete for big-league at-bats at first base or DH in 2026, the four other new Nationals have yet to reach Double-A.
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Rosario, Texas’ fifth-round pick in 2023 out of the University of Miami, was enjoying a massive breakout in his first professional season (2.24 ERA in 88⅓ innings with 129 strikeouts) before an elbow injury ended his campaign prematurely in August 2024. He hasn’t pitched since then but hasn’t had surgery, either. Toboni said Thursday after the trade that Rosario is expected to finally have elbow surgery soon, meaning the right-hander will miss two full seasons before he returns in 2027 at age 25. His pre-injury form had him tracking like a top-tier pitching prospect, but he’s a real mystery box until he’s back on the mound.
Cabrera is a 20-year-old center fielder who posted a 120 wRC+ with 43 stolen bases with Class-A Hickory last year as one of the youngest regulars in the Carolina League. Fitz-Gerald, a switch-hitting infielder, is a month younger than Cabrera and hit his way to Hickory before a shoulder injury ended his season in July. Still, his strong pro debut had many evaluators wondering how he was only a fifth-round pick the year prior.
Fien, though, is the prize. The California native was considered one of the best hitters in the 2025 high school class, a status earned by excelling on the summer showcase circuit before his senior year. His somewhat unusual setup and swing, combined with an uneven spring performance, made him divisive in the industry by the time the draft arrived. But certain teams were enamored with his potential as an impact right-handed bat, even with some skepticism about his ability to stick at shortstop.
The Red Sox — who then employed Toboni, among several other scouting brass who have since moved on to Washington’s front office — were reportedly targeting Fien at pick No. 15 before Texas snagged him at No. 12. Less than a year later and now leading the Nationals, Toboni arrived at a new opportunity to acquire Fien and tabbed him as the headliner in his first signature trade — one that won’t be properly judged until several years down the road.
