Nationals Rebuild Coming Together After Dominant Sweep Over Local Rivals

Two years ago, no one quite knew what to expect from the Washington Nationals.

MacKenzie Gore hadn't quite hit. CJ Abrams was going through some major struggles in the field and inconsistent play on offense. The star prospects in their pipeline appeared to be a ways away from making an impact. And they kept losing at a high rate.

In comparison to other rebuilds taking place around Major League Baseball -- especially the one down the Beltway featuring the Baltimore Orioles -- the Nationals' looked bleak.

Fast forward to 2025, and that notion has been completely flipped.

The Orioles now look like a complete mess after finishing the 2023 season with the best record in the American League and last year with a Wild Card spot.

Meanwhile, Washington has a plan in place that features some future big league stars who are all on full display right now with multiple other pieces still being developed further down the pipeline.

The Nationals put an exclamation mark on this phase of their rebuild over the weekend.

After winning two out of three at home in late-April, Washington went on the road and swept Baltimore in dominant fashion over the weekend, winning this series by a combined score of 24-13 that earned them a season-series win over their Beltway rivals for the first time since 2018.

No one is looking past what the Nationals are doing now.

While Washington is still far away from reaching the levels of success that the Orioles have accomplished by owning the best record in their respective league and winning a division title, it's also safe to say that the future has never been brighter for this era of Nationals baseball after they decided to start over following their 2019 World Series win.

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