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WASHINGTON — All-Star left-hander MacKenzie Gore is headed to the Texas Rangers in a trade that sent five prospects back to the Nationals on Thursday in the biggest move of new Washington president of baseball operations Paul Toboni's roster-rebuilding efforts.
Gore gives the 2023 World Series champions a starter who should be able to help the front end of their rotation along with Jacob deGrom — a two-time Cy Young Award winner who was the American League Comeback Player of the Year in 2025 — and Nathan Eovaldi, who dealt with a rotator cuff strain and had surgery for a sports hernia after compiling a 1.73 ERA in 22 starts.
"We're at a moment right now in time where we have a team we believe is capable of winning, and winning a championship," Rangers general manager Ross Fenstermaker said. "And when you add a player of MacKenzie Gore's status, it's not that you look past what you're giving up, but you're excited on what you're bringing in and what that does to the clubhouse, what this does for our fan base, what this does for excitement around the club."
Gore is under team control for the next two seasons; he can't become a free agent until after the 2027 World Series. He is scheduled to make $5.6 million in 2026 after agreeing to a one-year deal with the Nationals that avoided arbitration.
Gore, who turns 27 next month, is 26-41 with a 4.19 ERA in four major league seasons, the past three with Washington. He was an NL All-Star last season, but he faded in the second half and ended up going 5-15 with a 4.17 ERA and a career-best 185 strikeouts in 30 appearances, all starts.
"Our goal is to help him put together a complete season," Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said. "But we anticipate, with knowing the person, the competitor, the desire to be great, he fits all the criteria of great starting pitchers and we're excited to help him."
Gore was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 amateur draft by the San Diego Padres and was sent to the Nationals in the 2022 trade that included Juan Soto.
The players Washington is receiving from Texas are Yeremy Cabrera, Gavin Fien, Devin Fitz-Gerald, Abimelec Ortiz and Alejandro Rosario.
"We see high-end talent with this return, but we also see intriguing depth," Toboni said. "We did see untapped potential with MacKenzie, so we baked that into basically the level of return that we wanted."
Fien is an 18-year-old shortstop taken out of high school in the first round of last year's amateur draft.
"Getting a player of this caliber that's young, has the upside that he has — I don't think any of these players are sure-fire bets," Toboni said, "but we're really excited to be bringing him into the system."
Rosario is a 24-year-old right-hander who missed all of last season and is slated to have Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery soon. Toboni said the Nationals hope he'll be ready to play at the start of the 2027 season.
Fitz-Gerald is a 20-year-old infielder, Cabrera is a 20-year-old outfielder and Ortiz is a 23-year-old first baseman and outfielder.
Fien, Fitz-Gerald and Cabrera played in Class A ball last year, and Ortiz spent time at Double-A and Triple-A.
All five are considered among the top 20 prospects in the Rangers' system.
"What we're hopefully doing is raising our ceiling as a farm system, but then also increasing the depth," said Toboni, who replaced fired president and GM Mike Rizzo. "You can't predict perfectly, kind of, what these guys are going to turn out to be, right? But the more shots you take on goal, the more goals you're hopefully going to have."
Note: The Nationals also claimed RHP Gus Varland off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks and designated C Riley Adams for assignment.
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AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas, contributed to this report.
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