MacKenzie Gore’s season followed a familiar and frustrating path

MacKenzie Gore’s 2025 season was frustratingly familiar. He started the season red hot as always. Through the first two months of the season, he led all of baseball in strikeouts. Gore made his first ever All-Star team as well. It looked like the left hander had finally turned the corner. However, we learned that old habits die hard. Now his season is over after an ankle injury.

At the All-Star break, MacKenzie Gore looked like the ace he was always supposed to be. He pitched in the All-Star game and had a 3.02 ERA on the season. In his 110.1 innings of work before the break, Gore had 138 strikeouts to 35 walks. His WHIP was very good by his standards at 1.20 and opponents were hitting .236 against him. 

Gore looked like a pitcher finally blossoming. Usually, Gore would begin to tail off in June, but he had a strong month of June this season. That led many to believe that this was the year that he finally put it all together.

However, as has been the case for most of the decade, Nationals fans got hurt again. The good times did not last and Gore collapsed in the second half. Over 11 starts, Gore posted a gross 6.75 ERA in the second half. His rate stats also collapsed. In 49.1 innings, Gore struck out 47 and walked 29. His WHIP ballooned to 1.70 and batters hit .288 against him.

So why does this keep happening to Gore? Clearly, his body is struggling to handle a full season workload. It could be because he is not the biggest guy in the world. At 6’2 193 pounds, Gore has a pretty slender frame. 

When you look at some of the top arms in the game, they are sturdier guys. Tarik Skubal is 6’3 240 pounds and Garrett Crochet is 6’6 245 pounds. Logan Webb, the most durable pitcher in the MLB is only 6 ‘1, but he is a stocky guy at 223 pounds.

Gore struggles to hold up because a lot of his velocity and power comes from pure explosion. He is a twitchy athlete who explodes off the mound. As the season goes on, some of that twitch dulls and he is not as explosive of an athlete. A guy like Skubal uses pure power to get his velocity.

When Gore loses that explosiveness, his strikeouts begin to dry up. Even in June, which was a strong month for him, some signs of decline were appearing. His strikeout rate fell from 36.8% in May to 22% in June. As a strikeout guy, alarm bells should have been ringing even if the results were still there.

For Gore, I would consider adding 5-10 pounds of muscle this offseason if he can. Not all aces have this 240 pound frame, but I would love for him to get up to 200 pounds. Max Scherzer is listed at 6’3 208 pounds for example.

Another thing I would like for him to do is add to his pitch mix and become less predictable. While Gore throws 5 pitches, they are pretty platoon heavy pitches. He is pretty much a 3 or 4 pitch guy to righties and a 2 or 3 pitch guy against lefties. To get to the next level, Gore needs to be able to throw all, or almost all his pitches to any batter regardless of handedness.

There was an article by MLB that called 2025 “the year of the pitch mix”. In that article, they talked a lot about how starting pitchers are expanding their arsenals. Gore actually did that with his slider, but I want to see even more.

Specifically, I would also like to see Gore add a sinker, especially against left handed hitters. Having multiple different fastballs has become a popular thing for starters. It gives hitters different high velocity looks. Sinkers also work very well against same sided hitters.

The sinker fits Gore in particular because he needs a pitch that can get him ground balls and quick outs. Gore’s GB% was under 40% on the season and has always been low. Anyone who has ever seen Gore pitch also knows that he is not efficient and allows so many foul balls. He needs something to get him quick outs.

Given his smaller frame, multi-year track record and style of pitching, Gore might always be a guy that fades in the middle of seasons. However, there are ways to mitigate this and he will need to explore those.

His end of season numbers show he was similar, if not slightly worse than last season. Overall, Gore posted a 5-15 record with a 4.17 ERA. In 159.2 innings, Gore struck out 185 batters. That is high level stuff for a starter. Punching out 10.43 batters per 9 is elite for a starter. His 3.75 FIP and 3.78 xFIP are also solid, but not elite.

The real question now is can Gore take that next step. He turns 27 in February, so he should be entering the prime of his career. I think he has more in the tank. However, I am starting to give up on the ace potential. There are just too many holes in his game to be a true number 1. However, I do think he can be a good number 2 starter on a good team if he reaches his ceiling.

With only 2 more seasons until he is a free agent, the Nationals could also consider offers on Gore. They did so at the trade deadline, but decided to hold on to him. Given how the back half of his season went, that could be a regrettable decision.

If the Nationals internally feel that Gore has already peaked, they should try to trade him this winter. There will be teams out there willing to offer up good packages because they feel they can get more out of Gore. 

MacKenzie Gore is at a turning point in his career. He is no longer a young pitcher anymore. Gore will be 27 and has pitched in the majors for a pretty long time now. At a certain point, if he keeps telling us who he is, we need to believe him. Will MacKenzie Gore ever truly put it together?