The Washington Nationals are still in the midst of a rebuild that began when Juan Soto left a few seasons ago. The team has struggled to win games at an alarming rate, largely due to some pretty bad contracts they signed over the last four or five seasons.

As the 2025 season approaches, this organization must continue its rebuilding journey. The front office will have to make some tough decisions, but they are decisions that will push the team in the direction it needs to go.

Which of their next free agents will they let go this offseason?

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Joey Gallo has continued to make his way onto MLB rosters due to his innate hitting ability. He’s one of the best pure power hitters of this generation, but at this point he’s simply unplayable at the big league level unless he makes some changes.

Gallo, 30, slashed .161/.277/.336 with 10 home runs in 223 at-bats. His .613 OPS is the worst OPS he’s had in his career, outside of his 17-game 2016 season. When you’re a .200 hitter for your career, you have to find a way to bring value to the team. For years, Gallo did it with the ball and solid defense.

At this point, Gallo just isn’t the hitter he once was. He is set to enter unrestricted free agency and after posting a .161 batting average for the Nationals, it is very unlikely they will decide to bring him back.

There’s a chance Gallo lands with a team that thinks they can fix his bat. There may be some small adjustments he can make that will make him the hitter he once was. The Nationals don’t know the adjustment, if there is one, though.

He probably played his last game with the team.

Most of the time when we talk about free agents who won’t be back with a team next season, it’s because the team wouldn’t want to bring back that particular player for a multitude of different reasons. The first and third players on this list are here because the team probably won’t want to use a spot on them next season. But that player, Trevor Williams, won’t make the roster because he’s likely to pursue a team that offers him more money and gives him a chance to win when it counts.

Williams, 32, has made 13 starts for the Nationals this season, posting an ERA just above 2.00 and a WAR of 2.6. He was 6-1, which is especially impressive considering the Nationals’ poor performance in the win column this season.

As he approaches the second half of his career, Williams doesn’t have many opportunities left entering free agency with the chance to contribute to a playoff team. Right now is one of the times where he can decide where he wants to play and if I were a betting man I’d say he’ll want to play for a competitive team rather than a rebuilding team.

There’s a chance the Nationals offer him a good amount of money and he ends up with the team, but that’s not the most likely option.

Patrick Corbin probably pitched his last game as a Washington National. During his time with the team, he simply wasn’t good enough to compete at the MLB level, but given his contract and the state of the franchise, they continued to use him. But since he is a very respected member of the Nationals, I prefer to keep the reasons why he will not return and then discuss more of his best moments with the team.

Corbin will not be a part of the team moving forward as he is no longer an MLB caliber arm. The team is looking to push their franchise in a different direction, led by a young core of starting pitchers. That’s the end of the story of why he won’t come back.

During his time with the Nationals, Corbin made 170 starts. He was an integral part of the Nationals’ 2019 World Series where he pitched ten innings and earned a win in the 2019 World Series against the Astros. Corbin finished 11th in Cy Young voting that season.

He has eaten up innings over the past few seasons, making at least 31 starts in each of the last four seasons.

His time in Washington wasn’t the best experience overall, but the World Series in 2019 was worth it.