The Washington Nationals just closed out May with their most wins in a month since 2023, but it might take more than a good record to placate fans. Last week’s bombshell revelations that the team was blacklisting Christian players (among equally disturbing business practices like employing avowed communists, spying on fans, and trying to get kickbacks from government contracts) stunned the sports world. It also, people were relieved to hear, cost the team’s community relations director — and subject of the undercover video — his job. But with growing calls for the Justice Department to investigate, the Nats aren’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.

Sean Hudson, the chatty (and now former) employee who spilled all of the franchise’s secrets to the O’Keefe Media Group, painted the picture of a deeply discriminatory and opportunistic management group in the footage released last Wednesday. A self-described communist, he bragged about the staff’s decision to freeze out pitcher Trevor Williams for his faith. “He’s super Christian, Catholic,” Sean bemoaned, explaining that after Williams publicly objected to a controversial drag group that impersonates nuns and priests at a Dodgers game, the Nationals decided to cut him out of social media and promotional videos. 

That admission infuriated fans, who unloaded to O’Keefe Correspondent Michael Casey at the ballpark the next day. By Friday’s pre-game show, Nationals’ President of Business Operations Jason Sinnarajah announced that Hudson no longer worked for the team. He went on to deny the accusations, insisting, “First off, I want to say unequivocally we are not anti-Catholic.” Despite Hudson’s description of the situation, Sinnarajah pushed back, telling fans, “We’re horrified by the comments made on the video. The comments don’t reflect us as an organization, our values, and who we are. We took action right away, and the individual is no longer employed by the team.”

To Williams, the target of the Nats’ anti-Christian culture, Sinnarajah tried to apologize. “We feel awful that he has been dragged into this situation and hope this hasn’t been a distraction as he gets ready to get back on the field, which we’re excited to have him back on,” the executive said. “Trevor’s a valued member of the organization,” he insisted. “We’ve been proud to support him both on and off the field, including recognizing him last year as our Roberto Clemente award honoree.”

Earlier in the week, the Nats’ damage control machine shifted into overdrive, pushing back on Hudson’s admissions as pure fiction. “The statements are not only factually incorrect, but do not reflect the views, opinions, or actions of the Washington Nationals,” a spokesperson emphasized to Fox News. “The Nationals are dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for our players, fans, and staff, and we vehemently deny any allegations to the contrary.”

But no one is quite sure why Hudson would lie about the team’s hostility toward faith or its treatment of specific players. Why invent a story like that? Its believability is actually part of the problem, as several experts have noted. After all, it’s not like pro teams haven’t openly disparaged religion and conservative values before. On the contrary, former ESPN and Fox Sports broadcaster Jason Whitlock lamented, “This just proves how pervasive it is. It’s not just the NBA,” he noted. “We love to talk about how woke the NBA is and pretend like, ‘Well, Major League Baseball is not so bad.’” At the end of the day, he stressed, “They’re just as woke. They were doing all the Pride stuff, all the BLM stuff. … [It] has the exact same hostility towards a Christian worldview as the other leagues.”

The idea that the Nationals would create such a toxic culture is sparking calls for the government to act. Late last week, CatholicVote entered the fray, sending formal letters to both Washington Nationals Managing Principal Owner Mark Lerner and to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, demanding clarification from the team. “The Washington Nationals owe Catholics, Nationals fans, Major League Baseball, and their own players an immediate answer to a simple question: Is it the policy of the Washington Nationals to punish, exclude, sideline, or diminish players because they are Catholic, because they live their faith publicly, or because they object to public acts of anti-Catholic mockery?” Reinhardt wrote.

They requested a written response from the Nationals “addressing whether Hudson’s reported statement reflects any formal or informal team policy, whether Williams has been excluded from social media or promotional opportunities because of his Catholic faith, whether other Nationals players or employees have been treated differently because of religious beliefs, what personnel action the team intends to take, and what steps the organization will adopt to prevent religious discrimination against Catholic players, employees, and fans.”

The group followed up that missive with a complaint letter to Trump’s DOJ, calling for an investigation of possible religious discrimination against Williams, which, Reinhardt notes, would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “If accurate, this statement is alarming,” Reinhardt wrote to Assistant Attorney General Dhillon. “It suggests that a Major League Baseball franchise may have taken an adverse employment-related action, reputational action, promotional action, or workplace action against a player because of his religion and his sincere public expression of Catholic belief.”

If the Nats did, in fact, sideline the pitcher over his Christian views, that’s a serious allegation. “This matter is bigger than one player,” Reinhardt argued. “If a Major League Baseball organization in the nation’s capital believes that being a faithful Catholic makes a player unsuitable for public promotion, then every Catholic employee in America should be alarmed. The law does not protect only fashionable beliefs. It protects Catholics, too.”

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) agrees, firing off her own letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, demanding answers. “According to the reporting by James O’Keefe, it appears the Washington Nationals are engaged in unlawful religious discrimination,” she echoed. “Americans of faith should not face professional repercussions for objecting to the mockery of their sacred traditions,” the Colorado Republican insisted. “MLB’s privileged legal position should not become a license for exclusionary practices. … I urge the DOJ to take immediate and decisive action.” 

In response, the Justice Department promised to look into the situation, noting that it “is reviewing the matter and will evaluate all appropriate steps.” As always, the agency reassured Americans, “we remain committed to enforcing federal law and protecting civil rights.”

Just imagine, FRC Senior Fellow Dr. Chris Gacek theorized, if it were LGBT activists who were sidelined by the team in the nation’s capital. “The Biden DOJ would be all over it.” 

And despite management’s insistence that the franchise is tolerant of faith, he’s not buying the spin. “The Nats story is deeply troubling on a number of levels,” Gacek told The Washington Stand. This isn’t an executive who seemed to be “making up these Nats’ policies or activities. Rather, he just told the public about them.” 

Considering the significance of the Washington Nationals to the District — and the league — Gacek believes the Trump administration owes it to fans to get to the bottom of this. “The DOJ has a number of investigatory lines to pursue, and they should do it. No organization in D.C. interacts with the public on the scale this baseball team does,” he pointed out. “We need to know what the franchise was doing.”