Nationals trading All-Star lefty Foster Griffin to Guardians for prospects

The Nationals are trading All-Star lefty Foster Griffin to the Cleveland Guardians, a source confirmed to The Banner.

Washington will receive pitchers Will Dion, Josh Hartle, Kendeglys Virguez and outfielder Nick Mitchell.

Griffin, who signed to a one-year, $5.5 million contract, was one of the best stories in baseball. After flaming out as a first-round pick with the Royals, Griffin went to Japan to prove he could thrive as a starter, found success with Washington and blossomed into an All-Star.

Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said trading Griffin was “probably the most difficult thing to do in practice.” The front office had to weigh the returns in a trade and a “clear desire” to keep the southpaw on a contract extension, he said.

“There were a lot of factors at play here,” Toboni said Monday on Zoom with reporters. “We were happy about the return that came back for him, which once again just makes it a tricky situation to balance all the the different things in the equation.”

After three seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball — which many consider the second-best league in the world — Griffin decided to return to the United States to ply his craft in the majors again. The Nationals, devoid of pitching talent, signed him and watched as he blew past their expectations this season.

He’s 12-3 with a 3.06 ERA in 22 starts. He doesn’t overwhelm hitters with a high-velocity fastball, but instead flummoxes them with seven pitches and a tremendous cutter. He was also consistent, which was imperative for a Nationals pitching staff light on experience.

Keeping Griffin and continuing extension conversations into the offseason was considered, Toboni said. The front office also pondered extending a qualifying offer to Griffin if they had kept him for the rest of 2026.

In that scenario, Griffin could still sign with a new team, but the Nationals would receive a compensatory draft pick. On the flip side, Griffin could accept the offer and be on the books for $23.1 million.

Toboni said that organization was “comfortable to roll the dice” and keep Griffin this season and let things play out. Ultimately, adding the arms in the trade outweighed holding onto the lefty.

“We carefully considered all the different avenues here, and at the end of the day, thought that this was the best thing to do,” Toboni said. “But it was also the hardest thing to do because it was the one scenario where he wasn’t going to be with our club.”

The Nationals know they’re not near their competitive window and need more cost-controllable arms. Dion is the lone major-leaguer of the group. He debuted in 2026 and posted a 4.58 ERA across 12 games in the majors, though his 29.4 strikeout percentage is strong and he rarely walks batters — an area where the Nationals’ current bullpen has struggled. He profiles best as a middle reliever.

Hartle is the only player in the trade among the Guardians’ top-30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. A strike-throwing lefty who doesn’t possess overpowering stuff, he has posted a 3.86 ERA across 19 starts at Double-A Akron.

Saying the Nationals are a better team in the short term is difficult after the trade deadline. They didn’t add many high-upside prospects, and only Dion and Yovanny Cruz — part of the package for Luis García Jr. — will likely impact the major league team immediately.

But it’s clear through his deadline moves that Toboni wanted to raise the floor of the organization. The one he inherited was behind in modern technology and lagging in its approach to player development. Under Toboni, the Nationals have proven adept at maximizing a player’s talents and extracting their best play.

Trading Griffin is an incredible blow for the Nationals as they look to reverse their five-game skid and get back in the wild-card race. But Toboni saw an opportunity to add more pitching talent in an organization that badly needs it.

“If the goal here is to be good for a long period of time, you only have so many opportunities to make this this foundation really strong, so to speak,” he said. “And that’s going to be our goal, and we’re going to try and do it. But if we pass up those opportunities to create this really strong foundation, we’ll be moving into the house without the foundation being totally strong, and it might turn out two to three years down the line, we might have to move out of the house because the foundation is is cracking.”