Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore trade stunner underscores the Padres’ miserable offseason

The MacKenzie Gore trade isn’t just loud because it’s MacKenzie Gore. It’s loud because of the number attached to it.

Five prospects. That’s what Washington pulled back from Texas in a 5-for-1 deal for Gore — headlined by 2025 first-rounder Gavin Fien, plus Alejandro Rosario, Abimelec Ortiz, Devin Fitz-Gerald, and Yeremy Cabrera. 

And if you’re a Padres fan, that’s the part that makes your stomach drop. Gore isn’t some random name. He’s a former top Padres pitching prospect — drafted third overall, developed under San Diego’s watch, then shipped out in the Juan Soto blockbuster… and now he’s the centerpiece of the kind of return the Padres haven’t been in position to chase all winter. 

Padres’ frustrating offseason gets louder after the Rangers land MacKenzie Gore from the Nationals

This is the theme of San Diego’s offseason, distilled into one brutal moment: other teams are weaponizing their prospect depth, and the Padres are stuck watching.

The most painful part: this isn’t a one-off. The Nationals weren’t the only team cashing in on the market’s appetite for controllable arms. The Marlins just dealt Ryan Weathers (another former Padres arm) to the Yankees for four prospects — Dillon Lewis, Brendan Jones, Dylan Jasso, and Juan Matheus. 

So within the span of days, the sport basically held up two neon signs:

1. Pitching is currency right now.
2. If you’ve got a farm system you can spend, you can buy a seat at the table.

The Padres… don’t have that luxury at the moment. Not after another cycle of going “all-in,” not after more prospect capital has already been moved to keep the major-league roster afloat, and not in a winter where every meaningful upgrade seems to start with a question the Padres hate hearing: Which top prospects are you willing to part with?

The Padres can draft — but do they ever let it breathe? There’s an uncomfortable middle ground Padres fans keep getting shoved into: San Diego has shown it can identify talent. The system keeps producing names other teams want. But the organization has also built a reputation for operating on a short fuse.

Sometimes it’s development. Sometimes it’s role churn. And it’s the brutal reality that the Padres don’t behave like a patient organization. They behave like one that’s constantly trying to win the next 30 days. That approach has consequences.

When you’re always trying to win the headline trade, you eventually run into a winter like this one — where you’re not just cash-strapped, you’re asset-strapped. Where flexibility isn’t just about payroll; it’s about having the kind of prospect depth that lets you make a bold offer without gutting your future.

The Rangers could put five names on the table for Gore. 

The Yankees could put four names on the table for Weathers. 

It’s not that the Padres can’t trade prospects. It’s that their current prospect pile doesn’t get you to the front of the line for the kind of move they’re chasing.

Washington isn’t even “done” rebuilding — yet it still found a way to flip a controllable All-Star-level starter (team control through 2027) for a pile of upside. That’s the part that should bother San Diego: the Nationals didn’t trade Gore because they had to. They traded him because the market let them extract value.

That’s what the Padres can’t do right now. At least not cleanly. 

This Gore stunner is a Nationals story. It’s a Rangers story. But it’s also a Padres story — because it underlines the same harsh offseason truth San Diego keeps running into:

When the league starts buying with farm systems, the Padres don’t have enough chips to play.