Nationals flirt with keeping their breakout ace at the deadline

For most of July the Foster Griffin trade math felt like a formality. He's a 30-year-old lefty on a one-year, $5.5 million deal, he's having a career year, and rebuilding teams don't usually pay ace prices to keep rentals around. Rival executives even told The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon that a Griffin trade felt "inevitable." Then MLB Trade Rumors dropped a report that complicates the tidy narrative.

MLB Trade Rumors

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Nationals Reportedly Considering Keeping Foster Griffin t.co/9tt7AcAXJx

Here's why the Nationals even have a decision to make. Griffin signed with Washington after 3 seasons pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball, and the bet has paid off in a big way — he's 11-2 across 20 starts with a 2.68 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP, striking out 111 batters against just 27 walks over 117.1 innings. That line got him his first All-Star nod and turned into one of the best pickups of new president of baseball ops Paul Toboni's short tenure so far.

The complicating factor is the standings. Washington sits at 51-51 and just 1.5 games out of the final NL Wild Card spot, which is not where anyone expected this roster to be in late July. That's the tension MLBTR is flagging: sellers with a fringe playoff pulse don't usually blow things up, and dealing away the guy fueling the surprise run is a tough sell to a fanbase that's actually paying attention to the standings for once.

Griffin's contract is exactly what makes this so interesting either way. Because it's a cheap, one-year deal, he's simultaneously the ideal buy-low target for a contender chasing rotation help and the ideal extension candidate for a team that suddenly likes what it's building. An extension has reportedly been floated as a third option beyond the binary trade-or-keep framing, which tells you Washington isn't treating this as a simple auction.

With the deadline landing on Aug 3, the runway to decide is short. If the Nationals hang on, it's a real statement that this stretch-run push is legitimate and not just a fun accident before a fire sale. If they move him, it's confirmation that the front office still views 2026 as a bridge year no matter how the record looks in July. Either way, Griffin's name is going to be the headline of Washington's deadline.