There wasn’t much sense that the Nationals would be trading MacKenzie Gore, though that didn’t stop the Cubs, Yankees, and surely several other teams from at least checking in on the southpaw’s availability. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman adds the Padres to the mix as a team that wasn’t just interested in Gore, but was perhaps at the top of the list of suitors. As per Heyman, the Padres were “maybe the most aggressive pursuer” for Gore, and “made a real run” at trying to work out a trade with Washington.
Obviously there’s a lot of familiarity between the two sides, as San Diego drafted Gore third overall back in 2017 and the left-hander’s first 16 career MLB games came in a Padres uniform in 2022. That same year, the Padres included Gore as part of a now-legendary trade package sent to the Nats in the blockbuster deadline deal that brought Juan Soto to southern California. Gore, CJ Abrams, and James Wood have already broken out at the MLB level and Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana could still provide even more future help for Washington down the road.
Even with so much from this particular trade going right, however, the Nationals have yet to turn things around. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez were both fired in early July, and the team ended up moving some short-term veteran talent at the deadline, rather than pursue any bigger-picture moves like trading Gore. Interim GM Mike DeBartolo said a couple of weeks ago that the Nats wanted to keep Gore and the rest of its young core together, and Heyman notes that there wasn’t any indication that even the Padres came close to getting Washington to actually considering moving Gore elswhere.
This year’s trade deadline saw Padres PBO A.J. Preller continue his reputation for bold moves, most notably the six-player swap that brought Mason Miller and JP Sears from the Athletics for a prospect package headlined by Leo De Vries. As one of the elite prospects in the sport, De Vries is the kind of trade chip that could start a discussion on virtually any player, and moving the young shortstop was probably necessary to convince the A’s to part with a controllable young closer like Miller. It could be that DeBartolo only would’ve budged on trading Gore if a true blue-chip young talent like De Vries was on the table, but it isn’t known if the Padres would’ve made such an offer.
The Padres ended up addressing their rotation by adding Sears and Nestor Cortes (who was activated today from the 60-day injured list) in separate trades, while dealing Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek to the Royals for catcher Freddy Fermin. Impending free agent Dylan Cease was also heavily discussed in trade talks, and given San Diego’s interest in Sandy Alcantara and now Gore, Preller seemed to be exploring a scenario that would’ve seen Cease head elsewhere in one trade while another frontline pitcher with more control was added in another swap. Given all of the moving parts in this two-pronged plan, the trade with the Athletics may have been the relatively simpler solution, as the Padres were able to instead focus their resources on bolstering their already excellent bullpen.
Gore is under arbitration control through the 2027 season, and there has already been speculation that he might not be a long-term candidate to remain in Washington. Scott Boras is Gore’s agent, for one, but there’s also the possibility that the Nationals may not be ready to truly contend during Gore’s remaining two years, so trading him would be a logical move to add more pieces to the next competitive Nats roster. More rumors about Gore’s availability figure to swirl for months, though that will be a decision for whomever the Nationals hire as their next full-time president of baseball ops.