Washington Nationals Ace Mackenzie Gore’s Season Over Due to Injury

The 26-year-old has seen a steady rise in his performance since going to the Nationals. His first season came in 2023, when he had a 4.42 ERA and 10 K/9 in 136.1 innings. He improved his ERA the next season, dropping it to 3.90 in 30 more innings, but his strikeout rate (9.8 K/9) went down and his bWAR lowered from 1.9 to 0.8.

In his third season with the team, it was time for the left-hander to step up. He went and set a few career highs and made his first All-Star team.

Some of the surface numbers might look a little ugly. For instance, 5-15 record and 4.17 ERA are not truly indicative of how good he was. His FIP was at 3.75, suggesting he got pretty unlucky in the ERA department.

He did make some pretty major leaps in the stuff department. According to Baseball Savant, his whiff percentage went up from the 74th percentile to the 79th this season. More importantly, his chase percentage took a huge leap, going from the 33rd to the 70th percentile. Thanks to this, he strikeout percentage went up from the 65th to 82nd percentile.

In terms of his arsenal, he dropped his fastball use from 55 to 49 percent, raised his curevall from 19 to 24 percent and started using the slider more often.

The slider, as it turns out, was a huge weapon for Gore. He cut down on throwing his cutter with the slider replacing it as his third pitch. In the end, he got a 40.5 whiff percentage and it was his second best put away pitch, at 24 percent.

All of these changes allowed him to set career highs in strikeouts (185), K/9 (10.4) and bWAR (3.0).

He stepped up to prove that he can lead this pitching staff when he's healthy.

He had just returned from a throwing shoulder injury before going on the IL again. Now, Gore will work to get healthy in the offseason and lead this team into a new era with a new manager and front office staff coming in this offseason.