The Texas Rangers have acquired left-handed starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore in a trade with the Washington Nationals, according to Jon Heyman, who was the first to report the news in a tweet.
Gore, who’s 26 years old, posted a 5-15 record with a 4.17 ERA and 185 strikeouts in 30 starts and 159.2 innings pitched. While the surface numbers for Gore, looking at his 2025 season, don’t jump out at you, he pitched to a 2.63 ERA in May and a 2.93 ERA in June, striking out 70 batters combined in those two months, with 57.3 innings pitched in those two months, according to StatMuse.
From there, Gore really struggled down the latter half of the season, posting an average 5.38 ERA in the remaining three months of the 2025 season (July-September), according to StatMuse.
Gore Is A Young Pitcher With Upside And Control
There is a lot of upside with Gore, though. Aside from being a 3-WAR pitcher in 2025, he’s a left-hander that ranks in the 80th percentile for whiff percentage (29.7%) and K percentage (27.2%), according to Baseball Savant.
Gore throws an array of pitches, including a 4-seam fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, and cutter. He relies most heavily on his fastball and curveball to generate swing and miss. He ranks in the 79th percentile in breaking run value, where he relies heavily on his big 12-6 curveball in his pitching repertoire, according to Baseball Savant.
Aside from being a young pitcher with upside, Gore also has years of control left on his current contract. Gore is making just 5.6 million in 2026 and isn’t set to reach free agency until 2028, per Spotrac.
When factoring all of this in when looking at the trade, it’s understandable that the Rangers did have to part with 5 players (top prospects) to get this deal done.
Nationals Get Significant Return In Prospects
The Rangers, in return, are sending the Nationals their No. 2-ranked prospect, shortstop Gavin Fien, their No.12 prospect, shortstop Devin Fitzgerald, their No.6 prospect, right-handed pitcher Alejandro Rosario, their No.18 prospect, first baseman Abimelec Ortiz, and their No.16 prospect, outfielder Yeremy Cabrera, reported Jeff Passan of ESPN.
It’s quite the haul of prospects going back to Washington for Gore, having the Rangers departing with five of their top 20 prospects, with the headliner being their second-best prospect in shortstop Gavin Fien, who was drafted 12th overall by the Texas Rangers in the 2025 MLB Draft, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.
For the Rangers, though, it’s an upgrade to a starting rotation that could use another arm, and a team still in contention alongside other core players on this roster, such as shortstop Corey Seager, recently acquired outfielder Brandon Nimmo, and young talent like 23-year-old left fielder Wyatt Langford.
Gore will join a rotation alongside veteran pitchers Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, and younger up-and-coming pitchers such as Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.
The addition of Gore into the middle of that rotation will make Texas have one of the best and deepest starting pitching staffs in all of baseball in 2026.
When looking at what Texas gave up but what they will gain in the immediate present for 2026 and 2027, it makes sense that Texas is going for another title in this competitive window and is willing to do whatever it takes to get there and maximize, similarly to what they did in 2023.
