Washington Nationals, Ace Starting Pitcher Agree to One-Year Deal, Avoid Arbitration
It has been a busy day for the Washington Nationals as they have been working hard on agreements with players who are arbitration eligible to agree to contracts avoid having to go to a hearing in February.
Catcher Riley Adams and relief pitcher Derek Law both agreed to deals ahead of the deadline, which left four players remaining to negotiate with. If no deal was reached, the two sides would have to exchange arbitration numbers later in the day.
One of the players who were able to avoid having to do that was ace starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore.
As shared by the official X page of the team’s communications department, it was shared that the Nationals and Gore agreed to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, but no contract figures were shared.
The Nationals agreed to terms on a one-year contract with pitcher MacKenzie Gore, avoiding arbitration.
— Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) January 9, 2025
It is fair to assume he will be receiving a sizable raise over the $749,600 that he earned in 2024 as he put together a strong campaign.
In his third season in the Major Leagues, the former top prospect began showing some of the potential that had evaluators believing he was one of the best up-and-coming young pitchers in the game.
Career highs were set across the board with 10 victories, a 3.90 ERA, 166.1 innings pitched and 181 strikeouts. His 3.53 FIP indicates he pitched even better than his raw numbers would suggest.
The only blemish on his stat line was an MLB-leading 14 wild pitches.
Almost all of his other advanced stats, such as home run percentage, walk percentage, average exit velocity, and hard hit percentage are all heading in the right direction.
Over the final month of the season, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball.
In five starts he pitched 28.2 innings, recording a sterling 1.26 ERA with 35 strikeouts as opponents found basically zero success against him.
