Opening Day The season kicked off at
Nationals Park on March 27, 2025, against the
Philadelphia Phillies.
MacKenzie Gore was selected as the #1
Starting pitcher, and he answered the call by striking out 13 Phillies' batters over the course of six innings, only giving up one hit and zero walks, allowing zero runs during his time on the mound. His 13 strikeouts broke a team record for an Opening Day starting pitcher, last held by
Max Scherzer, who pitched a 12 strikeout performance in
2019's Opening Day. Unfortunately, the Nationals' offense had trouble taking advantage of Gore's hot start, with only two hits (both by
Keibert Ruiz) and one walk (taken by
James Wood) throughout their first six innings, though one of Ruiz's hits was a home run, giving the team a 1-0 lead. However, once both teams turned to their bullpen, the offense increased.
Bryce Harper and
Kyle Schwarber immediately smacked solo home runs against relief pitchers
Lucas Sims and
José A. Ferrer, respectively, giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the 7th inning. They added a run to their lead in the 8th on a
wild pitch by Ferrer, going up 3-1. The Nats managed to put 2 runs across the plate in the 8th inning to tie up the game at 3-3, eventually sending the game into extra innings. However, despite holding strong at the Top of the 10th,
Colin Poche was unable to get the 3rd out as the Phillies jumped back in the lead 5-3, and a dropped fly ball by
Dylan Crews in right field led to a 7-3 score before
Eduardo Salazar slammed the door shut. The Nats went down in order in the bottom of the inning, losing the opener by a 7-3 score despite a strong performance by Gore that earned him 0 ERA to start the season. Sims was credited with a
blown save, and Poche with the official loss.
March/April The Nationals started off their season poorly, only notching one win in their first 7 games, a 5–1 win against the Phillies on March 30. Brad Lord made his MLB pitching debut in relief that game, but exited with an infinite ERA, having gotten no batters out but 2 walks and a hit that resulted in the Phillies' only run that game. Mitchell Parker notched his first win, and Kyle Finnegan his first save, of the Nats' 2025 season. Dylan Crews started off in a dramatic slump, not even recording his first hit of the season until an April 4th game against the Diamondbacks. In fact, after going 0-3 with a walk and a run scored in the season opener, Crews didn't even get on base until then, and flirted with matching an MLB record for most consecutive strikeouts (by a non-pitcher) over multiple games, ending it with 8 after hitting a groundout on his first at-bat against the Blue Jays on March 31. On the pitching side, the new acquisitions were even worse:
Michael Soroka turned in a poor performance in his first 2025 start against the Blue Jays before immediately going on the IL. Meanwhile, Poche and Sims each accrued a double-digit ERA, struggling to get opposing batters out in multiple games. The team arguably reached their nadir on April 28, in a home game against the Mets. Despite putting up solid performances the previous three games, the Nats were decimated 19-5. The team's pitching was so awful that utility infielder
Amed Rosario was tabbed to finish the game as a relief pitcher. However, the Nationals also had some positive signs, rolling into a 4 game win streak split between series against the Diamondbacks and Dodgers between April 5-8. Lord, who had to make a spot start in Soroka's absence, pitched a solid 3 innings and allowed 0 runs while notching 4 strikeouts, 2 of them against the Dodgers' star player
Shohei Ohtani. The Nats would win that game 8-2. Closer Kyle Finnegan went a perfect 9/9 in Save opportunities between March 30–April 23. Ruiz re-emerged as a solid hitter, maintaining a .300 or higher Batting Average throughout the month of April, and Wood emerged as a potential home run leader, having hit 9 from the start of the season through April. Following his strong performance on Opening Day, Gore tallied up several strikeouts over his next several starts, and led all MLB pitchers with 59 Ks by the end of April.
July After a 37–53 start to the 2025 season, Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez were fired on July 6, 2025. Mike Rizzo had 19 seasons with the organization. Dave Martinez had eight seasons with the team. At the time of the firings, the Nationals had not achieved a winning season since their World Series run in 2019. They promoted assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo to interim general manager. Mike DeBartolo was with the Nationals since 2012. He started out as an intern, then worked his way up to become the assistant general manager over the past few years. DeBartolo has a background in analytics. On July 7, 2025, Cairo was named interim manager of the Nationals. He won his first game as the Nationals manager in an 8-2 win against the
St. Louis Cardinals on July 9, 2025.
Regular season transactions • May 1, 2025: The Nationals signed left-handed pitcher
Andrew Chafin to a major league contract and designated left-handed pitcher
Colin Poche for assignment; he elected free agency. • May 6, 2025: The Nationals signed right-handed pitchers
Parker Dunshee and
Adrian Sampson to minor league contracts. • May 9, 2025: The Nationals released right-handed pitcher
Lucas Sims. • May 23, 2025: The Nationals selected the contract of outfielder
Daylen Lile. • May 28, 2025: The Nationals signed outfielder
Delino DeShields Jr. to a minor league contract. • May 31, 2025: The Nationals designated right-handed pitcher
Jorge López for assignment. • June 10, 2025: The Nationals claimed right-handed pitcher
Ryan Loutos off waivers from the
Los Angeles Dodgers. • June 16, 2025: The Nationals selected the contract of third baseman
Brady House and designated first baseman
Juan Yepez for assignment. • July 6, 2025: The Nationals fired manager
Dave Martinez and general manager/president
Mike Rizzo and promoted assistant general manager
Mike DeBartolo to interim general manager. • July 8, 2025: The Nationals signed right-handed pitcher
Luis García to a major league contract. • July 22, 2025: The Nationals selected the contract of left-handed pitcher
Konnor Pilkington. • July 26, 2025: The Nationals acquired right-handed pitcher
Clayton Beeter and minor league outfielder
Browm Martínez from the
New York Yankees for infielder
Amed Rosario. • July 30, 2025 • The Nationals traded right-handed pitcher
Luis García and left-handed pitcher
Andrew Chafin to the
Los Angeles Angels for left-handed pitcher
Jake Eder and minor league first baseman Sam Brown. • The Nationals traded right-handed pitcher
Michael Soroka to the
Chicago Cubs for minor league shortstop Ronny Cruz and minor league outfielder Christian Franklin. • July 31, 2025 • The Nationals traded right-handed pitcher
Kyle Finnegan to the
Detroit Tigers for minor league right-handed pitchers Josh Randall and RJ Sales. • The Nationals traded outfielder
Alex Call to the
Los Angeles Dodgers for minor league right-handed pitchers Sean Paul Liñan and Eriq Swan. • August 14, 2025: The Nationals designated first baseman
Nathaniel Lowe for assignment. • August 17, 2025: The Nationals claimed right-handed pitcher
Julián Fernández off waivers from the
Los Angeles Dodgers. • August 29, 2025: The Nationals selected the contract of catcher
C. J. Stubbs. • September 1, 2025: The Nationals selected the contract of left-handed pitcher
Andrew Alvarez. • September 2, 2025: The Nationals signed catcher
Jorge Alfaro to a major league contract. • September 3, 2025: The Nationals claimed right-handed pitcher
Sauryn Lao off waivers from the
Seattle Mariners and designated infielder/outfielder
Darren Baker for assignment.
Major league debuts • March 30, 2025:
Brad Lord • April 13, 2025:
Cole Henry • May 22, 2025:
Robert Hassell III • May 23, 2025:
Daylen Lile • June 16, 2025:
Brady House • July 2, 2025:
Andry Lara • July 6, 2025:
Shinnosuke Ogasawara • August 5, 2025:
PJ Poulin • September 1, 2025:
Andrew Alvarez,
C. J. Stubbs Overall Season standings National League East National League Wild Card Record vs. opponents Record vs. National League Record vs. American League ==Game log==