The Nationals announced a series of roster moves before tonight’s contest with the Braves. Right-handers Jackson Tetreault and Reed Garrett have been selected onto the big league roster, while southpaw Francisco Pérez was recalled from Triple-A Rochester. In corresponding moves, the club placed Stephen Strasburg on the 15-day injured list with a stress reaction in his ribs, designated infielder Dee Strange-Gordon for assignment, and optioned righty Jordan Weems. Strange-Gordon’s DFA clears one 40-man roster spot, while the other was created by transferring righty Hunter Harvey from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.
Tetrault, 25, will get the start tonight in his big league debut. A seventh-round pick in 2017 out of a Florida junior college, he’s posted capable numbers over his five-plus professional seasons. Tetrault owns a 3.85 career minor league ERA while starting the vast majority of his outings. He’s only punched out 20.8% of batters faced, but he owns a decent 8.6% walk percentage and appeared among the back half of the Nationals top 30 prospects at Baseball America each season from 2018-21. He’s spent the entirety of this season in Rochester, working to a 4.19 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate over a dozen starts.
Strasburg had initially been slated to start tonight’s ballgame, but manager Dave Martinez told reporters yesterday he’d go back on the IL after experiencing some discomfort following a recent bullpen session. The club has now provided a more specific diagnosis. Strasburg underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome last June, a procedure that involves the removal of a rib to alleviate nerve pressure.
Martinez told reporters today that the stress reaction is related to the surgery (via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). He’ll soon visit orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache to determine the source of the setback, but it seems he’s likely in for another lengthy absence. Martinez didn’t provide a specific timetable but noted the current plan is simply for the right-hander to rest.
In addition to the injury-necessitated rotation shakeup, the Nats move on from Strange-Gordon to add an extra arm to the bullpen. Washington signed Strange-Gordon to a minor league contract over the offseason and he cracked the Opening Day roster. The two-time All-Star made a return to the big leagues after topping out at Triple-A last season, but he only wound up appearing in 23 games in a Nationals uniform. That’s partially due to a two-week stay on the COVID-19 injured list between April and May.
Strange-Gordon hit .305 over his 59 trips to the plate, but he didn’t draw a single walk and collected only two extra-base hits. He’s always been reliant on his contact skills and speed, but he hasn’t made much of an impact at the plate since being dealt from the Marlins to the Mariners over the 2017-18 offseason. Strange-Gordon also rated very poorly in 103 innings as a shortstop this season, an unsurprising development for a player seeing his first semi-regular action there in nearly a decade.
The Nationals will have a week to trade Strange-Gordon or place him on waivers. The likeliest course of action is that he’ll pass through the waiver wire unclaimed and hit free agency in the coming days, either via release or rejection of an outright assignment to the minor leagues. As a player with more than five years of MLB service time, Strange-Gordon has the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers while still collecting what remains of this season’s $800K salary.
In his place, Garrett is up for his first major league look in three years. The 29-year-old reliever appeared in 13 games with the Tigers in 2019, serving up an 8.22 ERA with more walks than strikeouts as a Rule 5 draftee. Detroit eventually returned him to the Rangers, the club that had originally selected him out of VMI in 2014, but he never appeared in an MLB game with Texas.
Garrett spent the 2020-21 campaigns with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, totaling 106 2/3 innings of 3.46 ERA ball. He returned stateside via minor league pact with Washington in February, and he’ll head back to the big leagues after 22 appearances in Rochester. Garrett posted an even 4.00 ERA across 27 innings for the Red Wings, striking out 21.9% of opponents against an 8.8% walk rate.
Harvey, meanwhile, made four appearances after being claimed off waivers from the Giants. Today’s transfer is a procedural move, as he’s already been on the IL since April 21 due to a pronator strain. (The transfer is backdated to the date of his original placement). The former first-round pick has yet to begin a rehab assignment, so he surely would not have been ready to pitch in an MLB game within the next week.
Good riddance. Though one less player in the game I boo now. And as an O’s fan, not shocked about Hunter Harvey on the 60 day dl
Would not be surprised if the Orioles do sign Gordon. With Owings gone he might get a minor league deal.
That .305 BA plays very nicely….until it matches up with his OBP after 59 AB’s. Dee’s still one of my fave ex-Dodgers, and hopes he lands in a good place, and he can take a pitch or three.
In the currant state of the game .305 is miraculously, and preposterously not abysmal. He was only 8% below league average offensively with the Nats. I’m sure someone will take a flier on a middle infield/emergency outfield utility piece with passable offense off the bench
His offense is only just barely passable for the bench. Zero walks in 59 PAs is a bad sign.
Braves
Maybe not a coincidence the Nats waited until after the Braves made their roster moves.
What solution is a below replacement level player gonna bring to the Braves? Fans can say, “hey I recognize that guy’s name.” That’s it.
dee million miles member gordon!
Thank you Nationals. Time for this guy and that name of his to go away
Strange-Gordon > Zimmer
15-20 years ago, Dee Strange-Gordon would be an everyday player in the lineup with a .305 average. When I looked closer at his numbers, this move made a lot of sense.
Heh, 40 years ago he’d make the all-star team and get a couple of MVP votes.
I don’t think people were stupid 40 years ago. 40 years ago people just knew what kind of player they had. Didn’t need incredily overbearing drawn out sabermetrics. Didn’t over complicate everything. If a guy was good people knew. If his game had flaws they knew.
What? .305 with zero walks is NOT good. What people “knew” turned out to be utter nonsense. You know, these analytics are backed up by actual math, unlike old school assumptions which are backed up by nothing. What you call over complicated is actually more information, better tools, better understanding. Progress. They’ll always be fools judging hitters on stats like RBI; stats that have so many variables attached besides individual performance. But I guess I’m getting into those dreaded over complications now.
Pretty sure zero walks in 59 plate appearances is a flaw that you don’t know about if you look at batting average alone.
I don’t see teams breaking any records on offense these last few years so that math isn’t adding up :p
It’s about the misconceptions that existed about value in the 80’s. Also, the distribution of talent was different. Very few big hitting middle infielders back then. But really, the second basemen who did make all star games tended to be high OBP, low BA guys so it’s not necessarily true what I said, was really just a joke. (You might be joking too, I don’t know what “:p” means. I’m old).
I don’t think he was born 40 years ago.
I mean if he was a .305 hitter with speed over the course of a season then yeah I’d agree, but you’re right his underlying numbers suggest that .305 is fluky based off luck and a small sample size and his BA would plummet.
I wouldn’t say it’s that fluky. His BABIP is .353 but his career BABIP is .334. His hard hit% is 17.6 (career 16.2%), EV is 82.6 (career 82.7), and his line drive/fly ball/ground ball ratios are in line with his career averages. He’s always been a slap hitter who doesn’t walk. He’s been pretty much the same hitter that he’s always been. He’s just a little slower and his defense might be a touch worse (based on the numbers; I haven’t watched him much).
Yeah we’re talking about a guy with a career .319 OBP and a 4% walk rate. It’s not like he fell off a cliff, he’s just never walked.
Even when he was an all-star earlier in his career, his overall offensive production was pretty mediocre. It was just about the sheer amount of hits and SB that he was racking up.
His father had the best entrance out of any closer in the history of baseball. True story.
I’m kinda partial to “Enter Sandman” myself.
It wasn’t just the song. The big screen would have that Flash Gordon logo on it. Queen would start going. It was totally electric.
Gagne Welcome to the Jungle is up there
Mo walking to the mound with Enter Sandman playing was something else. Not even a Yankee fan, but it was still awesome to see. You knew he was walking out there to throw one pitch, over and over again, and the results rarely ever changed. Goat stuff.
Oh true I agree that Mo was the top tier entrance. Gagne and Hoffman are that second tier IMO.
Strange-Gordon is a Met killer. Mets should get him to block him from going to Atlanta
He’s not really a Met killer. That’s not a thing, he doesn’t suddenly get better cuz of who he is playing. His career against the Mets is likely against a completely different pitching staff, so… Mets have no need
His splits actually suggest he plays better against the Marlins, Phillies, and Braves than he does against the Mets. Sort it by OPS or tOPS+:
baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=gordo…
Dee to the Padrees.
.305 is better than all but two players.
He’s a worse overall hitter than those players. I can’t believe this still has to be said, but you can’t judge a player on BA alone. He provides nothing to the Padres.
.305 bro
Sample size, bro.
No psuedo-stats, but anyone placing that much stock in 59 AB would lose their job as GM; especially considering; 0 walks. Beauty of “zero walks” is that means:
59 ABs =59 PAs
Even less sample size!
Below 100 OPS+, negative WAR… Batting average stopped being though of as a stand alone stat in 1985, darling. And 59 PAs (with zero walks, mind you) is too small a sample size. (Do you even understand that concept?) Judging a player by a .305 BA by itself shows a complete lack of understanding of how the sport works. Try looking into other stats then get back to us.
Braves have to be all over him. Can’t hurt to try.
Why? On a minor league deal maybe but he’s replacement level at best.
hey cool
Blue jays???
He was a great player, time to hang them up
STRANGE move !!
I give it a D.
Kind of impressive he has zero walks in nearly 60 plate appearances. He’s never walked, but still. What is the longest non-pitcher walkless streak?
It’s a lot. Well over there me hundred at bats. Perhaps even over 300. (Mariano Duncan). Anyway that all I could find in the two seconds of unverified research I did.
I figured that ~60 would only be the tip of the iceberg. Still interesting nonetheless.
“Who’s that?”
“That’s Strange-Gordon.”
“My name’s not Gordon.”
“No, he’s Strange-Gordon.”
“Maybe he is strange, but my name’s still not Gordon.”
With such a stupid name, he doesn’t deserve to play.
Well, they can’t all be Rusty Kuntz.
Strange-Gordon is Dee’s legal name, which he went by until a minor-league announcer mispronounced it, at which point he started going by Gordon. In 2020, he resumed using his legal name to honor his mother, Devona Denise Strange, who was shot to death when Dee was seven years old.