Washington

Washington Nationals’ Four Best Contracts on Next Season’s Payroll

Published

1 year ago

December 3, 2024

Washington Nationals’ Four Best Contracts on Next Season’s Payroll

The Washington Nationals showed the world in 2024 that their rebuild this time may not be as lengthy as their previous rebuilds.

While they do still have a long way to go to be competitive in the toughest division in baseball, the National League East, their young core has started to make their Major League debuts and prove that the hype surrounding them was justified.

It is only a matter of time before the Nationals are back on the island of relevancy, and these four contracts on their 2025 payroll are massive boons to their success.

All figures accurate as of December 2

Dylan Crews was the No. 2 overall pick of the 2023 MLB draft and quickly rose through the minor leagues before making his Major League debut on Aug. 26.

While his Major League numbers may not look that promising on the surface, it was a small sample size, and when you dive deeper, things begin to look much better.

First, Crews batted .219/.288/.353 with three home runs, eight RBI, 12 stolen bases, and an 82 OPS+ across 132 plate appearances in 31 games.

However, over the last week of the season, Crews batted a much better .286/.400/.429 with no home runs or RBI, three stolen bases, and a 144 OPS+.

The rookie had an xBA of .253 for his time in the Majors and an xSLG of .418, so there was a good bit of bad luck playing into his results.

Crews is under team control for at least five more years, and after seemingly finding his footing at the Major League level to end 2024, it could be off to the races in 2025.

Pre-Arb, League Minimum

Derek Law is a journeyman relief pitcher, who has been much too good throughout his career to not have a forever home with a contending team.

That was no different in 2024, as the reliever was a free agent until Washington signed him to a one-year, $1.5 million deal on February 21.

Law would go on to pitch to a 2.60 ERA across 90 innings in 75 games with 76 strikeouts and a 155 ERA+.

The 34-year-old is arbitration eligible for one more year and will spend more than one season with a team for only the third time since his Major League debut in 2016.

Arbitration Projection of $3 million

MacKenzie Gore is an interesting piece in the middle of the Nationals rotation.

He joined the club as part of the trade that sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres in 2022 and made his team debut in 2023.

He has improved his production and his innings count in each of his three seasons in the Majors, with an 84 ERA+ across 70 innings in 2022, a 96 ERA+ across 136 1/3 innings in 2023, and a 103 ERA+ across 166 1/3 innings in 2024.

His success this year came from an extra mile-per-hour added onto his fastball, seemingly from using it less throughout the campaign.

In 2022 and 2023, Gore used his fastball 61 percent and 59 percent respectively, but dropped down to 55 percent in 2024, mixing his pitches more, and throwing that pitch harder, leading to more whiffs.

If Gore can continue his string of yearly improvements, perhaps even dropping the fastball usage to 50 percent, he will be an even bigger piece of the team’s rotation.

Arbitration Projection of $3.1 Million

Left fielder James Wood was another part of the Soto trade in 2022, but he did not make his Major League debut until this year.

Patience proved to be a virtue, however, as the young star produced a promising 122 OPS+ across 336 plate appearances in 79 games.

When Wood connects with the ball, he does not miss, carrying an elite exit velocity (92.8 MPH) and hard-hit rate (52 percent) while pairing those skills with an elite chase rate (21 percent) and walk rate (11.6 percent).

Wood needs to get under the ball more and try and drive it into the gap if he wants to take that next step forward in his game, as he carried a 2.4 launch angle, showing that he got on top of the ball and drove it into the ground more often than not.

With how hard he can hit baseballs if he can improve that launch angle, he will quickly become one of the preeminent power threats in the game today, all at the low low price of league minimum.

Pre-Arb, League Minimum

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Washington

Deceased man may have slashed neck on window trying to break into DC home

Published

22 hours ago

January 29, 2026

Press Room

Deceased man may have slashed neck on window trying to break into DC home

Workers discovered a man’s body in a bush at a home in Northwest D.C. Thursday afternoon.

Detectives are investigating the possibility the man was trying to break into a home on Idaho Avenue in Cathedral Heights, sources familiar with the investigation told News4. He may have cut his neck on window class trying to get inside.

Police have not released details about the man.

The investigation closed Idaho Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue for a few hours Thursday afternoon.

News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.

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Washington

Saudi and Israeli officials visit Washington to discuss possible strikes on Iran, Axios reports

Published

1 day ago

January 29, 2026

Press Room

Saudi and Israeli officials visit Washington to discuss possible strikes on Iran, Axios reports

Jan 29 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is hosting senior defense and intelligence officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia for talks on Iran this week as U.S. President Donald Trump considers military strikes, Axios reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Uncertainty over the possibility of military action in Iran has lingered after Trump said last week that an “armada” was heading toward the country but that he hoped he would not have to use it.

The Israelis traveled to Washington to share intelligence on potential targets inside Iran, while Saudi officials sought to help avert a wider regional war by pushing for a diplomatic solution, the Axios report said.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that Riyadh would not allow its airspace or territory to be used for military actions against Tehran, state news agency SPA reported earlier this week.

Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson and Alison Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

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Washington

Washington Lands QB From Stanford

Published

4 days ago

January 26, 2026

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On Monday, On3 Sports insider, Hayes Fawcett, was first to report that former Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown transferred to Washington, officially ending his tenure on The Farm. This comes nearly two weeks after Brown entered the transfer portal, and he will head to Seattle with three years of eligibility remaining.

Brown will presumably to be the backup to Demond Williams at Washington. Williams, who signed a $4 million deal to play for the Huskies at the end of the season, initially entered the transfer portal himself on Jan. 8.

But after backlash and threatened legal action by the university, he ultimately decided to stay with the program for the ’26 season. As a result, Brown will likely use this season to continue to develop and compete for the starting job in 2027 after Williams’ presumed departure for the NFL.

A former four-star recruit, Brown started for parts of two seasons at Stanford, playing in three games with one start as a true freshman, which was limited due to an early season injury.

As a redshirt freshman in 2025, Brown played in six games with three starts, finishing the season with 829 pass yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. His best game of the season came against North Carolina on Nov. 8, where he threw for 284 yards, one touchdown and one interception in a 20-15 loss.

A star at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, Brown started all four of his years at the school and became only the fourth player in school history to earn the starting quarterback job as a freshman.

In his sophomore season, after throwing for 2,581 yards and 30 touchdowns, Brown led Mater Dei to a perfect 12-0 record and the CIF Open Division Title. As a junior, Brown once again shined for Mater Dei, throwing for 2,785 yards, 31 touchdowns and four interceptions as the program went 12-1.

After another dominant season that saw Brown throw for over 2,900 yards and nearly 40 touchdowns while winning another state title, he committed to Stanford over offers from several other big name schools including Alabama, UCLA, Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. After signing with the Cardinal, he became the highest rated quarterback to commit to the school since Tanner McKee in 2018.

But Brown’s college career has been far from what was expected. After a promising college debut against Cal Poly in his true freshman season, Brown injured his hand and missed basically the whole season, playing in only two other games where he struggled.

In 2025, Brown lost the starting job in training camp to Ben Gulbranson and even after replacing Gulbranson late in the season, he never was able to get Stanford’s offense to that next level. When he found success, it was typically late in games once the outcome was more or less decided.

New head coach Tavita Pritchard has a strong reputation for developing quarterbacks which could have benefitted Brown, but after Stanford signed Davis Warren from Michigan, in addition to bringing in new recruits such as Michael Mitchell Jr., the QB room got too crowded for Brown.

Now, Brown will be coached by another elite offensive mind in Jedd Fisch, a coach he hopes will bring out the best in him and have him playing like the four-star recruit he came into college as.