The Nationals will call up righty A.J. Cole to start for the club tomorrow, Dan Kolko of MASNsports.com reports on Twitter. A starter was needed with Max Scherzer’s scheduled appearance being pushed back due to a thumb injury.
Cole, 23, opened the year rated as a consensus top-100 prospect. Baseball Prospectus, in particular, is quite high on him, rating him 30th overall. MLB.com, which had Cole in the 52nd slot, praises his “easy velocity,” quality change, improving breaking ball, and overall approach.
It appears that this could be nothing more than a spot start for Cole, given the Nationals’ still-loaded rotation, but it will nevertheless represent his first big league action and first chance to accumulate some service time. In the off chance that he does stick on the active roster, he would be set up to qualify for Super Two status down the line.
Cole was drafted by the Nationals before being shipped to the Athletics as part of the Gio Gonzalez trade. He struggled in one season in the Oakland organization, and was then sent back to D.C. (along with Blake Treinen and Ian Krol) in the three-team swap that sent Michael Morse to the Mariners and John Jaso to the A’s.
He has regained his stock since, obviously, and reached the Triple-A level last year. Across 134 innings in the upper minors in 2014, Cole worked to a 3.14 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. He has been fairly dominant in three starts in the highest farm level this season, permitting just four earned runs and one free pass while striking out ten in 15 frames.
Any idea why no Roark? Other then scummy service time things?
Roark is on the active roster, so there’s no service time benefit here. He has been in the pen so isn’t fully stretched out. He’ll be available in long relief if Cole struggles.
This will give them an extra arm at little cost (a day of service for Cole) – guessing they’ll option Martin back to Triple-A for the roster spot after he threw tonight.
The Nats have been under-estimating injuries a lot. Seems like going with Roark and at least stretching him to 4 innings now would be a good hedge if Scherzer needs to miss more than just 1 start…
Alright thanks.
They have a starter in the bullpen and now they start his service clock plus an option used… Why?
I would guess it’s because Cole has pitched well so far while Roark’s not stretched out.
The options for top players are not worth being worried about. I think this is a smart move assuming Roarak was unavailable
He was already on the 40 man so his option was already used at the beginning of the season, so that’s not a concern. One day of service time isn’t a big deal either.
Ok I guess I can kinda see it. Gives them a look at him and he picks up a big league pay for a day
Might it be that they’re looking to trade one of their starters and want to see if Cole would be a possibility for the rotation?
Nationals need a shake up, and that needs to be done with some of the position players. I can see them trading a starter and one position player for either an impact position player or 2 very good ones. They would be much better off getting Desmond off that team ASAP instead of waiting for him to leave at the end of the year.
That’s an interesting idea. I could see them making a deal with the Dodgers in a possible Guerrero for Fister deal or something of that ilk. The dodgers would need to add another piece to make that deal palatable for the Nats, but I could see that deal happening. Another trade would be to sell Zimmerman to the Sox at the deadline for some prospects.
Nats would do Guerrero for Fister in a second right now.
It seems like a pretty fair trade to me, although Guerrero’s value will likely never be higher.
And Fister will be a FA. Our offense is a mess and we have plenty of spare pitching. I’d make the trade if the Dodgers would.
Due to a clause in his contract, Guerrero would also become a FA at the end of season.
Didn’t realize that. I’d still consider it – we have Turner and Difo coming up for the middle infield next year.
But, getting the 1st pick for Fister isn’t a bad alternative.
I doubt that Turner will be called up until September next season. He still needs time in the minors. Would you value that pick more than Guerrero though?
Tough call. I think we need another bat right now, so I’d be inclined to trade for Guerrero.
Turner is hitting well in AA – I think the Nats are looking at him as hopefully ready a year from now if they needed him.
I think Yunel will be a good enough place holder to keep Turner in the minors until he shows he deserves to be in the big leagues. Do you think the Nats will bring back any of their major FA after this season? I think it’s plausible none return.
Yunel at SS, Rendon at 3B, but we need a 2B (or 3B if Rendon goes back to 2B). Danny Espinosa isn’t the answer.
I think they’ll likely sign a placeholder at 2B if Desmond really does leave.
We’ll see. Desmond is gone – a guy like Guerrero would be perfect to take pressure off of Turner and Difo if he were under contract next year.
I could also see the Nationals signing Howie in the off season and just letting Turner know that SS will be his in 2017.
IDK. My gut is Turner and Difo both get real shots to win the 2B job in 2016. The loser comes up in 2017. If all else fails, Danny Espinosa gets another chance.
Do you see any of the Nationals major FA returning? I think it’s a distinct possibility none return.
I think they are all gone. Span is only one who could accept the QO but I doubt it. The only one I could see signing long term would be Fister but that feels like a longshot.
To me that would be fine. We need to focus on signing Harper and Rendon long term. The minor league system is in great shape and hopefully can withstand the big losses this offseason, although it will be a challenge.
Out of them all, I think Fister would be the most likely to re sign. Taylor didn’t impress me with what I saw from him in spring training and to begin the year. It will obviously be hard to replace the ace caliber production of Zimmermann and Desmond’s elite bat at SS, at least his normally elite bat. I think next season will be a year where the Nationals are similar to the Angels this season. A competitive, yet rebuilt roster on the fly with some prospects taking on more important roles.
I agree, but next year the angels will have some choices to make as well with Weaver Wilson & Aybar in contract years, but I think Weaver should be kept, he’s the leader of the team. Aybar I think they could trade him if his value is good, they have depth in the system to replace him with Baldoquin
That was going to be my guess, if the angels didn’t bring him back, the nationals would be a great choice.
Doubt that. Guerrero by all accounts can’t play solid defense anywhere (a big problem for Nats already) and can opt out of his deal at end of year and not recieve a QO if traded. Fister is a good pitch on a slow start who will net them a draft pick.
The next 3 up have always been Roark, Treinen, and Cole. I think it’s as simple as TR and BT have been pitching an inning at a time in the pen while Cole is stretched out and on schedule to start tomorrow.
It only gives Cole 1 Day of service time and Roark is presumably not stretched out.
Why doesn’t Washington just move Tanner Roark back to the rotation from the bullpen?
They’ll say it’s because he’s not stretched out. If it was me, I’d at least let him start the game.
The A’s are just giving away guys…