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Nationals Name Austin Voth Fifth Starter

By Steve Adams | July 24, 2020 at 8:17am CDT

The Nationals have named right-hander Austin Voth the fifth starter in their rotation, manager Dave Martinez told reporters yesterday (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli). Right-hander Erick Fedde, who’d been his primary competition after Joe Ross opted out of the 2020 season, will head to the bullpen.

In many ways, this has been a long time coming for the 28-year-old Voth, who has appeared on the cusp of a bigger role with the team for several years. Back in 2016, Voth spent his age-24 season in Triple-A and racked up 157 innings with a 3.15 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.63 HR/9 and a 49.7 percent ground-ball rate. He looked MLB-ready at the time — or at least in line for a legitimate audition — but the Nats entered 2017 with a full rotation. Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Tanner Roark were all established arms, and the aforementioned Ross had just turned in 105 MLB frames of 3.43 ERA ball. Voth headed back to Triple-A, where he struggled through an injury-plagued season.

A year later, Voth was working on rebuilding his stock in Triple-A and pitched reasonably well — but offseason signee Jeremy Hellickson was pitching better as the fifth starter at the MLB level. The 2019 season brought Voth his first extended look in the big leagues, and the righty gave the Nationals 43 1/3 innings with a 3.30 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and 1.03 HR/9 in a quietly strong rookie effort.

Back in April, I took a look at some of the underlying numbers in that impressive eight-start run for Voth, noting that his curveball was an overwhelmingly effective pitch that featured top-of-the-scale spin rate. The hard-hit rate yielded by Voth and his opponents’ expected batting average, slugging percentage and weighted on-base average all pointed to someone who has the potential to be far more than a run-of-the-mill fifth starter.

The 27-year-old Fedde, meanwhile, will look to settle in as a full-time reliever it seems. The former first-round pick has made 26 starts in the big leagues but just nine bullpen appearances. Fedde’s average fastball as a starter last year was 92.1 mph, but that jumped to 93.3 mph when he spent the month of September in the bullpen working in shorter stints. Fedde has yet to find much success above the Double-A level, but he’s also worked primarily out of the rotation, with nearly 80 percent of his professional appearances being starts. He does possess strong K/BB numbers in the minors in addition to strong ground-ball rates, so perhaps airing it out in shorter stints and narrowing his pitch selection will help him to tap into his potential.

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Washington Nationals Austin Voth Erick Fedde

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23 Comments

  1. jdgoat

    5 years ago

    I never realized how mediocre their lineup is without Rendon and Soto. Could be a bad followup to their win last year if their arms can’t carry them this season.

    4
    Reply
    • philliesphan77

      5 years ago

      Let’s hope so lol

      Reply
      • bravesfan

        5 years ago

        Yup. Even if Soto was in it, I’m not sure it’s that amazing….

        Reply
        • Captain-Judge99

          5 years ago

          Huh? What? That makes no sense dude. Kind of like signing Cole Hamels this season. How’s that working out for the Braves?

          Reply
        • jleve618

          5 years ago

          It makes perfect sense. The lineup was average at best before, now without soto it is just plain bad.

          Reply
        • Natsman1

          5 years ago

          Actually, it makes zero sense. Their lineup 1-5 is still very good, even without Rendon.

          Reply
        • Natsman1

          5 years ago

          Their is about as amazing as The Braves without Markakis, Donaldson, and now both catchers

          Reply
    • 920kodiak

      5 years ago

      Aside from Trea Turner, it is mediocre. A lot rests on Robles taking a big step forward with the bat, which isn’t unreasonable.

      Reply
      • IBackTheNats6

        5 years ago

        Howie Kendrick is an extremely underrated bat. He slashed .344/.395/.572 last year.

        Reply
        • 920kodiak

          5 years ago

          Can’t argue that. Came up large in the post-season.

          Reply
    • GoLandCrabs

      5 years ago

      This was pretty obvious as soon as he left. The Nats made a huge mistake picking Strasburg over Rendon. They still would have had a solid rotation without Stras. Their lineup is a complete dumpster fire without Rendon. They won’t repeat. Take him off last years team and they don’t even beat the Dodgers.

      Reply
  2. whyhayzee

    5 years ago

    The yankees cheated like crazy last night. Without fans you could hear the whistling, the buzzers, the cans being banged, even someone saying “dinner!”.

    Oh wait, that was the neighbors.

    Reply
    • Captain-Judge99

      5 years ago

      Wait a minute. You must be talking about the Stros? I promise the Yanks didn’t know what was coming like José Altuve did. smh

      Reply
      • jleve618

        5 years ago

        I heard judge was signaling to stanton on the homerun.

        Reply
  3. WSox Fan Mark

    5 years ago

    Herb Washington 2.0 Twins extra inning pinch runner…

    Reply
  4. Captain-Judge99

    5 years ago

    If every game this year is like last night for Giancarlo why wouldn’t he opt out? lol The only reason why he wouldn’t is because of the pandemic. Sad to see the Yanks won’t be able to see Voth-Vader during this series.

    Reply
    • bravesfan

      5 years ago

      Huh?

      1
      Reply
    • pinstripes17

      5 years ago

      what?

      Reply
      • Captain-Judge99

        5 years ago

        I expected a better clearer response from a Yankee fan, truthfully. With a MVP season Giancarlo could always choose to opt out. That would be his choice not yours, right?

        Reply
        • gbs42

          5 years ago

          The questions are because your comment was unclear. If Stanton can hit a home run every game and stay healthy all season, sure he’d opt out. But no one can do the former, and recently he’s not shown he can do the latter.

          Reply
        • Captain-Judge99

          5 years ago

          You don’t have to hit a home run in every game to be the MVP. I was just impressed who the pitcher was (Max Scherzer) who he was teeing off on. Doesn’t get much better then that

          Reply
        • Mrivers

          5 years ago

          Stanton likely wants to play on a perennial contender. He’s made a ton of money already.

          Reply
  5. Natsman1

    5 years ago

    Love seeing the peanut gallery takes about the Nats so-called upcoming demise. There’s a 16 team playoff format this season, and they’ll make the playoffs even with an average lineup. Good luck facing Scherzer-Strasburg-Corbin in November

    Reply

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