MacKenzie Gore Reportedly Traded to Rangers from Nationals, Updated Roster for 2026 MLB Season

The Texas Rangers are reportedly making a major addition to the top of their rotation ahead of the 2026 season.

The Rangers are acquiring left-hander MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals, the New York Post's Jon Heyman reported Thursday.

The Nationals are receiving five of the Rangers' top 20 prospects in return, per FanSided's Robert Murray and MLB Pipeline.

Here's a look at a projected Rangers rotation following the trade.

1. Jacob deGrom, RHP
2. Nathan Eovaldi, RHP
3. MacKenzie Gore, LHP
4. Jack Leiter, RHP
5. Jacob Latz, LHP
6. Kumar Rocker, RHP

Gore earned his first career All-Star nod last season while recording a 4.17 ERA over 30 starts and 159.2 innings pitched for the Nationals.

One of the prospects heading to the Nationals as part of the trade is shortstop Gavin Fien, ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the Rangers' farm system by MLB Pipeline, per Murray.

Right-hander Alejandro Rosario (No. 6 in the Rangers' pipeline), infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald (No. 12), outfielder Yeremy Cabrera (No. 16) and first baseman/outfielder Abimelec Ortiz (No. 18) were also included in the trade, per Murray.

The deal gives the Rangers a 1-2-3 punch at the top of the rotation alongside deGrom, who is coming off an All-Star campaign of his own in 2025, and Eovaldi, who recorded a career-best 1.73 ERA over 22 starts before his season was cut short by a rotator cuff strain.

Gore improved in both whiff rate (29.7 percent, a 1.1 percent jump from last season) and strikeout percentage (27.2 percent, a 2.4 percent year-over-year improvement) during his final season with the Nats.

Part of the reason he was a popular trade candidate this winter was because he was able to achieve those results while using a variety of pitches, per MLB.com's Thomas Harrigan.

Harrigan noted in December that Gore was the only qualified starting pitcher last season who recorded a whiff rate of at least 35 percent on four different pitches (curveball, slider, changeup and cutter).

DeGrom topped a 35 percent whiff rate on three pitches last season with his changeup, slider and curveball, per Baseball Savant.

The Rangers will hope having multiple pitchers with that effective of a repertoire at the top of the rotation can help the club get closer to postseason contention for the first time since their World Series win in 2023.