Washington Nationals Watch CJ Abrams Make History as the Wild-Card Chase Slips

For about 48 hours last weekend, the Washington Nationals were a playoff team in everything but the standings page. They'd taken two straight from Arizona, CJ Abrams was rewriting the franchise record book, and Sunday night they sat one game out of the final National League wild-card spot. Then the week happened. Washington dropped four of its last five — two of three to a last-place Toronto club, then back-to-back losses in Atlanta — and limped into August at 55-56, watching the race from the group-photo row again. That's the whiplash version of this week's Washington Nationals news: the future showed up loudly, and the present reminded everyone it isn't quite here yet.

The Week That Was for the Washington Nationals

Saturday, July 25, was the Foster Griffin and CJ Abrams show. Griffin worked 6.2 innings of three-run ball on 108 pitches to improve to a preposterous 12-2, Abrams went 3 for 4 with three RBIs — including a 390-foot solo homer, his 25th — Daylen Lile tripled home two, and Clayton Beeter closed out a 5-3 win over the Diamondbacks. Sunday was even better: a 10-7 slugfest in which Abrams and James Wood each homered twice. Abrams finished 3 for 5 with three RBIs, pushing him to 27 home runs — a franchise record for a shortstop — and a major-league-leading 82 RBIs, per CBS Sports. Wood drove in three, Dylan Crews had three hits, Brady House and Jacob Young doubled twice apiece, and Riley Cornelio picked up the win in relief of a short Miles Mikolas start. At 54-52, Washington sat a game behind Arizona for the last NL playoff spot.

Monday's series opener against Toronto had a storyline nobody in D.C. could ignore: Max Scherzer, back from injury, making his return to Nationals Park in a Blue Jays uniform. The old man only lasted 2.2 innings, but Washington still lost 3-2 — Luis Urias homered for Toronto, Andres Chaparro answered with a solo shot, and reliever Eddy Yean wore the loss. Tuesday the bats fixed it, hanging four first-inning runs on Shane Bieber, who recorded just two outs. Luis Garcia Jr. crushed a two-run homer, Crews added a solo shot, and Cade Cavalli gave the Nationals six strong innings of two-run ball in an 8-6 win. Wednesday, Zack Littell held Toronto scoreless into the fifth, but the offense managed almost nothing against Trey Yesavage and the game got away late in a 5-2 loss that cost Washington the series.

Then Atlanta. Thursday night the Nationals built a 3-0 lead behind two Daylen Lile home runs and a 3-for-5, homer-and-a-triple night from Garcia — and gave it all back. Jake Irvin surrendered five runs in five innings, Ozzie Albies broke a tie with a two-run single in the sixth, and Raisel Iglesias slammed the door on a 5-4 loss. Friday was less dramatic: Matt Olson and Michael Harris II hit long home runs, Bryce Elder held Washington to a run over six, and Griffin finally looked mortal, charged with six runs in 5.1 innings of a 6-2 loss. Abrams and Chaparro homered late to avoid the shutout. Braves 65-45; Nationals 55-56.

Abrams and the Kids Are the Whole Story

Zoom out from the losses and the week was a showcase for the young core this rebuild was always about. Abrams — 25 years old, a shortstop with 27 homers and the RBI lead in all of baseball — is having the kind of season that ends with MVP votes even on a .500-ish team. Wood's two-homer Sunday was a reminder of the most feared left-handed swing in the organization. Lile hit three home runs and a triple in a five-day span, Crews kept stacking multi-hit games, House doubled twice in one afternoon, and Garcia quietly had one of the best offensive weeks on the roster. The pitching is thinner — which is exactly what the front office spent the week addressing.

Deadline Watch: Buying and Selling at the Same Time

One note before the panic sets in: the trade deadline is Monday, August 3, at 6 p.m. ET this year, so deadline week is still very much live. MLB Trade Rumors reported the Nationals plan to both buy and sell, and honestly, they already pulled off their headline move. On July 26, Washington sent Curtis Mead to Boston for left-hander Connelly Early. It's a classic new-regime flip: the Nationals grabbed Mead for next to nothing in March, watched him hit .254 with 17 homers and an .852 OPS, and cashed him in for a young starter with a 3.44 ERA over 17 starts and 91.2 innings this season, controllable through 2031. Early is currently on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation — the club says it's not ligament-related — and CBS Sports graded Washington's side of the deal an A, calling Early "one of the brightest young pitchers in the game." For a rotation this banged up, that's the exact right gamble. Expect more movement on veteran spare parts before Monday evening, but the core — Abrams, Wood, Crews, Cavalli — isn't going anywhere.

Where the Washington Nationals Sit in the NL East

The standings are unforgiving. Atlanta leads the division at 65-45, Philadelphia is second around 57-52, and Washington sits fourth at 55-56, roughly ten games back — the division race is a rumor at this point. The wild card is the real conversation, and the week did damage there: the Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Phillies held the three NL spots entering the weekend, and the 1-4 finish turned a one-game deficit into a multi-game climb. The good news is that nobody in that middle tier is running away, and Washington plays Philadelphia four straight times next week. The path exists; the margin for another 1-4 week does not.

Injury Report

The IL remains a pitching graveyard, which explains both the Early trade and the bullpen games:

• Connelly Early — 15-day IL, elbow inflammation (the newly acquired lefty)
• Mitchell Parker — 60-day IL, elbow
• Josiah Gray — 60-day IL, flexor strain
• DJ Herz — 60-day IL, elbow
• Trevor Williams — 60-day IL, elbow
• Ken Waldichuk — 60-day IL, forearm
• Richard Lovelady — 60-day IL, triceps
• Brad Lord (side) and PJ Poulin (flexor) — 15-day IL
• Drew Millas — 10-day IL, finger

That's most of a big-league staff sitting in street clothes, and it's why Griffin, Cavalli, Littell, Irvin, and Mikolas are being asked to carry so much.

What's Next

No soft landings on this schedule:

• Aug. 1-2 — the final two games in Atlanta (7:15 p.m. and 1:35 p.m. ET), trying to salvage a split of the four-game set
• Aug. 3-6 — four at Philadelphia, opening on deadline day against the team directly above them in the wild-card scrum
• Aug. 7-9 — home for three against Cincinnati, with a Sunday matinee on Peacock

So no, the sky isn't falling on South Capitol Street — but the window for this particular season is narrowing by the series. If Washington takes care of business in Philadelphia, this week becomes a blip in the Washington Nationals news cycle; if not, August turns into an extended audition for 2027. Either way, Abrams and the kids have made one thing non-negotiable: the Nationals are worth watching again, and that hasn't been true in a while.