With a 40-man roster crunch, we knew the Nationals would have to make some moves today. A little while ago, the Nats announced a plethora of roster moves that got the 40-man roster back down to 40. Players on the 60-day IL had to be removed, so there was some shuffling required here.
As you can see, there was a lot going on at the back of the 40-man roster. Several players were DFA’d, but in my opinion the two most notable are Mitchell Parker and Jose Tena. Those two have gotten meaningful playing time for the Nats over the past few seasons. Each has shown glimpses, but at the end of the day, they had not done enough to justify bringing them back for next season.
Tena is honestly a player that I have been intrigued with for a while. He is a smaller guy at 5’10 195 pounds, but he has a lot of raw power in that frame. Tena has hit the ball hard throughout his Nationals career, including a 90.6 MPH average exit velocity this year.
This season, Tena had a career high 257 at bats. He hit .222 with 7 homers and a .672 OPS. Those numbers were actually slightly better than fellow left handed hitting bench infielder Jorbit Vivas. However, Vivas’ defense and on-base skills gave him the edge over Tena. In 2026, the Nats did not trust Tena in the field, mainly playing him at DH. Honestly, that lack of a defensive home is the biggest reason he was DFA’d.
I still think Tena has some interesting offensive traits, especially after having a big bat speed increase this year. However, there is a lot of swing and miss in his game and he could not really play the field. That is just a tough profile to roster.
Over the last three seasons, Mitchell Parker has gotten a lot of burn in the Nats pitching staff. He was used as a starter in 2024 and 2025, before being converted to a relief role this season. After a solid rookie season where he posted a 4.29 ERA in 151 innings, Parker fell off in a big way. His ERA was 5.68 in 2025 and 6.58 in 2026. Following 22 appearances this year, Parker was forced to undergo Tommy John Surgery.
Despite the struggles, the Braves still decided to claim Parker. There is a chance they will try to sneak him through waivers later in the offseason, but it is clear that the Braves like something about Parker. The lefty did just turn 27 and has plenty of big league experience.
Both Tena and Parker have been mainstays on the Nats roster the past couple seasons, but now they are gone. Paxton Schultz was also claimed by the Reds during this flurry of activity.
We also saw two lefty relievers hit free agency after exiting the Nats 40-man roster. Both PJ Poulin and Richard Lovelady had somewhat respectable ERA’s, but their under the hood data was poor. The low slot lefties both cleared waivers and are now free agents. Poulin is a guy I wouldn’t mind seeing back on a minor league deal.
I was expecting Matt Waldron to be DFA’d, but he survived this round of cuts. Waldron’s knuckleball makes him a unique arm, so it seems like the Nats want to experiment further with him. The 40-man roster is back to 40, but I would not be surprised if we see more minor moves in the coming days.
