The Nationals announced they’ve outrighted three pitchers — righty Steven Fuentes and southpaws Sean Nolin and Alberto Baldonado — off the 40-man roster. Nolin, who has previously been outrighted in his career, has elected free agency. Fuentes and Baldonado didn’t have that opportunity at the moment, although they’ll both reach minor league free agency this winter as players with seven-plus years in the minors.
Washington has four players on the 60-day injured list, and three of them will need to be reinstated to the 40-man roster at the start of the offseason. Veteran southpaw Luis Avilán will hit free agency this winter anyways, but Washington will need roster space for each of Stephen Strasburg, Will Harris and Kyle McGowin over the winter. Today’s series of outrights clears the necessary room for those activations.
Fuentes was added to the 40-man last winter to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft. Unfortunately, he missed most of the season on the injured list and still hasn’t appeared in a big league game. The 24-year-old struggled mightily around those injuries, posting an 11.23 ERA over 37 2/3 frames across four minor league levels. Before the disastrous year, he’d been among the better pitching prospects in a thin Washington farm system.
Nolin pitched in the bigs with the Blue Jays and A’s from 2013-15 but didn’t get to the highest level again until this past August. The 31-year-old worked 26 2/3 innings of 4.39 ERA ball for the Nats across ten appearances (five starts), albeit with a below-average 16.3% strikeout rate.
Baldonado, a longtime minor league veteran, got his first big league call in September. The 28-year-old made fourteen relief outings down the stretch, allowing ten runs in 10 2/3 innings with twelve strikeouts and seven walks. It wasn’t the debut showing he’d been hoping for, but Baldonado earned that look with a solid 3.31 ERA over 32 2/3 Triple-A frames.
Joe Ross is also on the Nats 60 Day DL list
It is injured list and not disable.
disable deez nuts
Yea. They don’t get a blue parking space.
Well, there are temporary disability parking permits. So some might to be fair
Fuentes had one heck of a year, that’s for sure
But he got paid very, very well. Nice work if you can get it!
Not that crazy for the Nats
Fuentes was up for 10 days in April and the Nationals didn’t use him. Pretty messed up even though he struggled after the injury
Avilán will sing with them again
Some other team will definitely take a chance on Fuentes. Chalk this year’s awful performance up to his injuries. Outside of 2021, his body of work is quite impressive. He could actually make the Orioles or Pirates opening day roster with a great spring training performance.
Where are all the Nats fans saying Scherzer will ‘definitely’ resign with Washington? Still drinking your red and white Kool-Aid, or has reality set in?
I am not on all the boards, but I don’t remember seeing fans saying Scherzer would be back. Did you make this up?
Given the multiple positions they need to fill, it is hard to imagine that management has a Scherzer reunion in mind. Something like $100 million over the next 3 years (or more) that Scherzer would cost….is going to be spent elsewhere.
Sounds like a salty fan of a team who couldn’t lock down a scherzer trade at the deadline!
Makes no sense resigning Scherzer IMO. Great guy, however money can be better spent elsewhere as the Nationals rebuild.