The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.ATLANTA — Shortly after the Washington Nationals traded Luis García Jr. to the New York Yankees for pitchers Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable on Sunday evening, The Athletic’s Nationals beat writer Spencer Nusbaum fielded questions from our subscribers. He also offered his instant grade on the move.I’m leaning on the opinions of others around the game here, including Keith Law, but I’d give it a B. The Nats have opted for the quantity-over-quality route, which is curious but not necessarily the worst idea. It signals, at the very least, that they believe in their player development system, both to develop offense long term and also to develop at least some of these four guys into real pieces. My other skepticism comes from the fact that only one of these pitchers (Cebert) is a starter. But if you see Cruz as a potential back-end reliever, believe in Grable’s absurd strikeout rate and think that Bird can turn the encouraging Stuff+ model stuff into real results — all of which are fair claims — well, you can’t be mad at this. It is smart that the Nats, who need pitching, received four pitchers with upside. If the Nats made this trade four months ago, I’d give it an A-plus. That’s a credit to García and the coaching staff. Because García has the highest slugging percentage in the National League, this package gets a B.Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.Was there any intention of keeping García over the last few weeks or was the plan always to ship him at the deadline? — Aarush T.The Nationals have been open-minded throughout this process and maintained that they weren’t going to do anything they felt was the wrong deal. But García and Foster Griffin have always struck me as the most likely to move throughout this process. The Nats can develop power and believe help is on the way from within. This spring, the Nationals gauged league-wide interest in García, according to multiple MLB evaluators, which tells you they had laid the groundwork. But nothing is ever definitive until the deal is done.What should we expect with Cruz? And how does the front office view Grable and Cebert? — Joshua S. Cruz is a flamethrower with nasty stuff, something this bullpen has lacked. Cebert is projectable, can fill up the zone and has a well-above-average strikeout rate in Double A. That is meaningful. Also, there’s some bullishness on Cebert’s feel for the slider and cutter. Still waiting to hear more on Grable, but he comes over as a high K-rate reliever and the fastball is one of those pitches that front offices dream about. I will be asking, in the coming hours, whether they believe any of these guys can turn back into starters.Do you get a sense that Cruz heads to Philly and Bird gets optioned? — Jeremy G. Bird is headed to Triple A. TBA on Cruz.Does this affect the odds of trading Griffin, CJ Abrams, Zack Littell, etc.? How would you assess those right now? — Mark M.Not drastically. I’ve heard throughout this deadline that the Nats will be opportunistic and are holding a high bar on some of these guys. I think both of those are things you’ll hear about a lot of organizations, but it strikes me as especially true here. This move alone doesn’t really impact what they do with Griffin, but I believe he is more likely to be traded than he is to stay. It definitely doesn’t impact what they do with Abrams, who seems more likely to stay and whose movement seems more contingent on whether some team offers something laughable — and even then, he could stay. And I doubt they would get anything back for Littell at this point.Four pitchers. Nothing stands out to me. But what do I know? How much value do you see in these four guys? I’m not whelmed. — sbwhite73None of them are premium prospects, though all of them have real upside. Honestly, my read on this is that the Nats love doing bulk deals, in part because they really trust their player development system. (See: the MacKenzie Gore trade)Am I crazy to think this could be another win-win trade for both teams, like the Curtis Mead-for-Connelly Early deal (assuming Mead had stayed healthy)? Could we theoretically retool our bullpen and replace a great bat/poor defender with everyday at-bats for another high-potential bat? — phillips.zachPossibly, though candidly, I was more bullish on the Mead trade. Of course, I am still learning more about these guys, so take that with some grain of salt. Retooling the bullpen is great. Getting guys in bulk is a good way to do that.Hey Spencer, curious on your take as this as a short-term acquisition of controllable bullpen help vs. longer-term pitching development (don’t think either prospect is below AA + MLB pitchers). Does this bring into focus anything about 2027/28, or is this just “we can’t carry on with this bullpen regardless of the longer-term plan”? — James G.Hey, James, great question. This is kind of a classic hedge, but it is both. My instant reaction is that these guys can all help the Nats over the next 12 months. Of course, I’ll have to hear more about their development plan. I still think 2028 is the first year that we’ll probably be able to say, “Hey, should we think about the Nats making a deep October run,” but the fact we can even say they may have a shot to make the postseason in 2027 is progress. And some of these guys should be part of that.Were there other considerable offers on the table for García? Saw several teams first mentioned. And do the Nats view themselves as complete sellers now? — Chris D.I can not give you a specific package, but I was told that the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox showed varying levels of interest at various junctures. And the Nats are being opportunistic, so I wouldn’t go that far, but they are definitely fielding offers — and holding some incredibly high bars — on more than one player.Who will play first? — David R.I assumed that Abimelec Ortiz would be on his way up, but I haven’t heard anything definitive there. They really like him, as do I. He clobbers the ball, hits it in the air a ton and doesn’t chase very often. Honestly, without expecting him to be Luis García Jr. right away, you can squint and see a lot of similarities. There’s a chance Andrés Chaparro gets regular at-bats with Washington if Ortiz isn’t on his way up. He’s been a lot better recently, and Blake Butera recently mentioned that Chaparro, like Mead before him, could earn at-bats against same-sided pitching (right-handers) if he keeps it up.What will it take for Yohandy “Yoyo” Morales to get called up? — Christopher K.He is on the IL, so he’ll have to get healthy first.We now have the same or worse lineup than we had last year. True or false? — Anonymous U.False, but honestly, when you lose two hitters with an OPS over .850 … well, it would be a lot harder to weather a cold stretch from James Wood or CJ Abrams right now.