Goodbye Patrick Corbin: 3 Washington Nationals free agents who won't be back in 2025 and why

The Washington Nationals are still in the middle of a rebuild that started when Juan Soto departed a few seasons ago. The team has struggled to win games at an alarming rate, largely because of some pretty bad contracts that they've had on the books over the last four or five seasons.

Heading into the 2025 season, this organization needs to continue down the rebuilding path. There are going to be some tough decisions that the front office will need to make, but they're decisions that will push the team in the direction that they need to go.

Which of their upcoming free agents will they let go this offseason?

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3. OF Joey Gallo

Joey Gallo has continued to find his way onto MLB rosters because of his innate ability to slug. He's one of the better pure power hitters of this generation, but at this point, he's just unplayable at the big-league level unless he makes some changes.

Gallo, 30, slashed .161/.277/.336 with 10 home runs in 223 at-bats. His .613 OPS is the worst OPS that he's put up in his career, outside of his 17-game 2016 season. When you're a .200-level hitter for your career, you have to find a way to provide value to the team. For years, Gallo has done so with the home run ball and some solid defense.

At this point, Gallo just isn't the hitter that he once was. He's set to enter unrestricted free agency and after posting a .161 batting average for the Nationals, it's highly unlikely that they decide to bring him back.

There's a chance that Gallo lands with a team that believes they can fix his bat. There may be some small adjustments that he can make that will turn him into the hitter that he once was. The Nationals don't know the adjustment, if there is one, though.

He's likely played his last game with the team.

2. RHP Trevor Williams

Most of the time, when we are discussing free agents who won't be back with a team next season, it's because the team wouldn't want to bring that specific player back because of a multitude of different reasons. The first and the third players on this list are here because the team likely won't want to use a roster spot on them next season. But this player, Trevor Williams, won't be on the roster because he's likely to pursue a team that offers him more money and gives him a chance to win when it matters.

Williams, 32, made 13 starts for the Nationals this season, posting an ERA just above 2.00 and a WAR of 2.6. He was 6-1, which is especially impressive considering how poorly the Nationals did in the win column this season.

Heading into the back half of his career, Williams doesn't have many more opportunities to enter free agency with the chance to be a contributor on a postseason team. Right now is one of the times that he can decide where he wants to play and if I were a betting man, I'd say that he's going to want to play for a competitive team rather than a rebuilding one.

There is a chance that the Nationals offer him a good chunk of money and he ends up back with the team, but it isn't the most likely option.

1. LHP Patrick Corbin

Patrick Corbin has likely pitched his last game as a Washington National. Down the stretch of his career with the team, he just wasn't good enough to compete at the MLB level, but given his contract and the state of the franchise, they continued to use him. But since he's such a respected member of the Nationals, I'd rather keep the reasons why he won't be back short and then discuss more of his best times with the team.

Corbin won't be with the team going forward because he's not an MLB-caliber arm anymore. The team is looking to push their franchise in a different direction, led by a young core of starting pitchers. That's the end of the story as to why he won't be back.

During his time with the Nationals, Corbin made 170 starts. He was an integral piece to the Nationals' 2019 World Series run where he tossed ten innings and earned a win in the 2019 World Series against the Astros. Corbin finished 11th in Cy Young voting that season.

He's been an inning eater for the last few seasons, making at least 31 starts in each of the last four seasons.

His time with Washington wasn't the best experience overall, but the World Series in 2019 makes everything worth it.