The Nationals are re-signing reliever Joe Nathan to a minor league deal, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Nathan opted out of his previous minors contract with the Nationals on March 27, but he was then unable to land a major league pact elsewhere.
The 42-year-old Nathan threw just 6 2/3 big league innings over the previous two seasons, largely because he underwent his second Tommy John procedure while with the Tigers in April 2015. He returned to the majors with the Cubs and Giants last season and fired 6 1/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, though he did walk four. In 923 1/3 career frames, Nathan has posted a 2.87 ERA, 9.51 K/9 and 3.35 B/9. The longtime closer has also amassed 377 saves, good for eighth on the all-time list.
Now, Nathan will look to make it back to the majors with the Nationals, whose bullpen entered Sunday with a 7.71 ERA over its first 18 1/3 innings of the season. The club’s top late-game options are closer Blake Treinen and setup men Koda Glover, Joe Blanton and Shawn Kelley, another two-time Tommy John recipient. Glover took the loss against the Phillies on Sunday, when he entered a 3-3 game in the bottom of the ninth and allowed the winning run on two singles and a walk.
Good for Joe, hopefully he can crack their rotation and give up less than 10 runs in 2/3rds of an inning.
Rooting for Joe also. However, he’s not joining anyone’s rotation. He’s strictly a reliever. He might be able to beat Guthrie’s 10 run debacle.
A career reliever who’s 42 years old is not cracking the rotation. Seriously man.
Woooooosh. That’s the sound of my sarcasm flying over both of your heads….
Usually good sarcasm gets noticed by people. But still, he should do better than Guthrie.
Sick burn bro, you’re basically a professional funny man, right? And not just a boring, stick-in-the-mud baseball fan?
Someone’s “humor” here couldn’t even crack Shecky Greene’s Top Ten. Please study the pros at Second City.
Is Joe Ross in the minors because they want to save some innings from him/recovering from injury?
Really hard to believe the Nationals front office/ Dusty Baker thought Guthrie was the better option, even before last night
They couldn’t call Ross back up because he hadnt spent 10 days at AAA before yesterday. Not sure why Guthrie was their only other option, other than that they have zero depth.
Don’t think that’s entirely true as they could have called up Austin Voth or Matt Albers (who had a great spring training) for a spot start. Cole ineligible as he’ll has an impending MLB three-game suspension.
Yea, but why did they option him last week to begin with? For roster manipulation?
And my main issue with the Eaton deal is they blew away their pitching depth. If Scherzer or Strasburg have to miss significant time, they’re in trouble with no Giolito and Lopez as a safety net.
Good for Joe – hope it works out for him, but me thinks Mike Rizzo is second guessing himself now and is getting ready to call the White Sox to talk David Robertson.
Robertson will never join the Nats for the simple reason that he’s not worth the trade chips the Sox are asking. If the Nationals were to further deplete the minors, it would only be for someone who offers a return over several seasons… Alex Colome or Nate Jones come to mind.