The Washington Nationals had been rumored to be considering a MacKenzie Gore trade for a while.
It was going to take a big return to get them to move the strikeout-happy southpaw with two years of club control left, and the Texas Rangers provided it.
News of the trade broke Thursday afternoon, with ESPN's Jeff Passan reporting that the Rangers were sending five players back to the Nats for Gore, a massive potential haul.
The two biggest names in the return were first reported by The Washington Post's Spencer Nusbaum: SS Gavin Fien and RHP Alejandro Rosario.
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Neither are top-100 prospects in the MLB Pipeline rankings, but they are both well regarded in the Rangers system, and other prospect evaluators are higher on them than MLB.com.
Fien is the No. 2 prospect for Texas, a shortstop who was the No. 12 overall pick in 2025 out of a California high school.
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Rosario is a 6-foot-1 righty with a strong fastball who was ranked No. 6 in the Texas system after improving drastically since being a fifth-round draft pick in 2023.
The Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant reported two more of the names: Abimelec Ortiz and Devin Fitz-Gerald.
Fitz-Gerald was ranked No. 12 in the Rangers' system and is a versatile infielder who was a fifth-round pick out of Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2024.
Ortiz probably ends up at first base with his 5-foot-10, 230-pound frame packing some power. MLB.com has him the No. 18 prospect in the Texas system.
The final prospect is reportedly Yeremy Cabrera, an outfielder ranked 16th in the Rangers' system who is originally from the Dominican Republic.
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