The Nationals announced this evening that they have designated righty reliever Trevor Gott for assignment. His roster spot will go to starter Jeremy Hellickson, whose previously reported signing is now official.
Gott arrived in D.C. in the pre-2016 swap that sent Yunel Escobar to the Angels. At the time, Gott was coming off of a debut campaign in which he turned in 47 2/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball. While he had managed only 5.1 K/9 to go with 3.0 BB/9, Gott also maintained a hefty 57.2% groundball rate.
It came as a bit of a surprise, then, when Gott opened the ensuing season in the minors. He ultimately received little in the way of MLB opportunities over the next two seasons, before finally getting a longer look in 2018.
Unfortunately, Gott faltered in his most recent opportunity at the game’s highest level. His heavy sinker again generated loads of worm-burners (57.1% groundball rate), but he could muster only a 5.6% swinging-strike rate and ultimately allowed a dozen earned runs in 19 innings of work.
The Nationals evidently did not believe that Gott was going to turn the corner. He did post an impressive 38:8 K/BB ratio in his 29 1/3 Triple-A appearances last year, but has simply not been able to induce swings and misses in the majors. Other teams may well contemplate a claim, though, as Gott still possesses a live arm and is only 26 years old.
Gott really looked like a potentially nice arm as a prospect. shame he never translated it to the majors.
never? he’s 26. it’s very possible he’ll never pan out but it’s a bit too soon to talk about his career in the past tense
More likely he’s one of those pitchers that can sprinkle a couple nice seasons over the course of his career with the right coach/team which translates to jobs every other year on the potential a team can fix him. All said and done in eights years, he’ll have a career 4.36 ERA, nice 2020 and 2024 seasons, and a couple million in career earnings. Lol.
As far as the most recent DFA by the Nationals – GOTT it.
LOL
Another opportunity to Friedman to go dumpster diving. How about a legit major league catcher first…
I think you meant that he opened the ensuing season in the minors.
Was going to say the same thing… it would have been expected that he “opened the year in the bullpen” but instead didn’t and opened the year in AAA
It was never a surprise that he ended up in the bullpen. He has never started a game in pro ball. It was a surprise he didn’t make the Nats team, but instead started the season in the minors, that was a surprise.
It was a typo. Fixed, thanks.
“It came as a bit of a surprise, then, when Gott” reads a lot better if the sentence starts “Therefore, it came as a bit of a surprise…” ;)
Maybe,the Nats pitching coaches tried to tinker with his mechanics and he got away from what he was doing with the Angels. Maybe a change in scenery will do him well.
Look for the angels to get him back he like signing guy retread
Gotteeeem
Waiting for Gottot
Hellickson looks to have locked up the #5 spot. Ross and Fedde both have options, so they can start the season in Syracuse. I wonder what they’ll do with Henderson Alvarez, if he has a good ST?