The Nationals brought Trevor Williams back on a two-year, $14MM free agent deal this week. The veteran righty spoke with the Washington beat (including Spencer Nusbaum of the Washington Post and Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) this afternoon and indicated he’ll be part of Dave Martinez’s rotation.
While that’s not surprising in isolation, it potentially sets up a camp battle if Washington sticks with a five-man staff. They signed righty Michael Soroka to a $9MM deal to work as a starter. The Nats are also bringing back four pitchers who started at least 19 games last season: Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz.
All four of those returning arms had productive campaigns. Gore is a former top prospect who posted a 3.90 earned run average while striking out nearly a quarter of opponents across 32 starts. He’ll certainly be in the rotation. Irvin led the team with 187 2/3 innings and turned in a 4.41 ERA with decent underlying metrics. The 27-year-old righty did seem to wear down in the second half, as he allowed a near-6.00 ERA after taking a 3.49 mark into the All-Star Break. He still seems likely to be a starting pitcher himself.
If Washington wanted to begin the year with a five-man staff, that could leave Parker and Herz battling for a job if everyone comes through Spring Training healthy. Herz showed more swing-and-miss ability, fanning nearly 28% of opponents with a 12.9% swinging strike rate in 19 starts as a rookie. The southpaw’s 9.4% walk rate was the highest of any of Washington’s starters, though. Herz has had far more worrisome walk numbers in the minors, including a massive 19% clip over 10 Triple-A starts last year.
Parker, 25, profiles as a steadier back-end arm. He made 29 starts during his debut campaign and turned in a 4.29 ERA through 151 innings. He struck out 20.6% of opponents against a tidy 6.7% walk percentage. Parker doesn’t throw quite as hard as Herz does and doesn’t miss bats at the same rate, but he looks the part of a league average starter.
Washington used a six-man rotation when Williams returned from injury late last season. Patrick Corbin, who is now a free agent, was on hand in the role that Soroka would play this year. That’d be the simplest solution if all six starters are available on Opening Day. Each of Gore, Irvin, Parker and Herz have minor league options, though, so the Nats could send anyone from that group to Triple-A if they wanted to move to a five-man staff.
Prospect Cade Cavalli will be in the mix after missing nearly two full seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Nusbaum writes that Cavalli, who made his big league debut with one start in 2022, is likely to open the year in the minors. That’s designed to allow the team to monitor his workload since he has only thrown 8 1/3 minor league innings over the last two years. Cavalli is expected to factor into the MLB staff at some point in the season.
Will Patrick Corbin ever pitch in the majors again?
He’s a durable although not effective arm so yes he will.
He’s never hurt! His arm always stayed healthy! He never missed a start! Of course, he lost velocity and became a 5.00 ERA pitcher. OTOH, that seems to define “innings eater.” I say yes, he winds up somewhere. I even think the Nats could bring him back as a reliever, given that lefty relievers are hard to find.
He missed some starts due to a mysterious back injury. However, I doubt he was even hurt. The nationals probably just didn’t want him to lose 20 games.
If he does I’ll be changing the channel as always.
Nats giving him 10 mill this year anyways. Might as well sign him for league min as insurance to eat up innings
Last year, Corbin had a 4.41 FIP across 32 starts and 174.2 innings with 7.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. In 2022, Jordan Lyles had a 4.40 FIP across 32 starts and 179.0 innings with 7.2 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9. Lyles was rewarded with a two year, $17 million contract from the Royals.
If you need a durable arm to just eat innings and you don’t care about winning, Corbin’s your guy. Someone will sign him.
My guess is he ends up with the Angels if he gets a job. While ineffective he was at least able to post which has some value.
Giants have done well with former top starter reclamation projects. As have some other teams. He’ll find a job…
Think they should begin with 6 starters.
The baseball gods seem to dislike 6-man rotations, often causing injuries, loss of control or power, and possibly even the yips in one or more pitchers whenever it’s attempted.
One off the wall suggestion I would make to teams with 6 man rotations would be to have there starter on a pen day throw a lower leverage clean inning in lieu of a light pen. Teams would secure more value from these players than having them appear 28 times a season. 17% team appearances vs. 34% sounds a heck of lot more valuable to me (assuming 28 starts).
How could Gore have minor league options left? Seems like he’s been around awhile, and I’m sure the Padres had him up and down a couple times.
Added to the roster after 2021. First season in the majors was 2022. While he was optioned after camp, he was called up 9 days later, so the option wasn’t burned. After a somewhat helter skelter hot then cold start of the year, he developed blisters on his finger and was placed on the 15 day I:L. Nats never activated him after they made the big Josh Bell and an outfielder deal with SD, Pitched the entire 2023 and 2024 with the Nats (with just an IL stint at the end of 2023), so burned an option after his first call up.
I would hope the Nats wouldn’t sign a light throwing long reliever for 7 mil a year, but I guess anythings possible.
From watching both guys a lot last season I think Parker showed us what he is, a solid number 4 type starter. Herz has the potential to be a lot more, and a lot less, than that.
Complete nonissue. They could sign another couple starters and it’s still a nonissue. None of those guys should be above playing a swingman role (although Williams, Soroka, and maybe Gore should have the inside track on a rotation spot as vets).
How? All of them were solid MLB starters and young. No reason to retard their progress in order to accommodate dead end older starters.
THIS! The Nats 4 young starters are all in the ascent and, assuming all are healthy, should be given automatic starting slots. A LOT of potential in those guys. I see Williams as the fifth guy, with Soroka a total wild card but probably headed for the bullpen based on his 2024 results. If somehow Soroka recaptures his 2019 stature, then it’s gravy and the Nats have a desirable problem.
Sure seems by FA hires that Nats are happy to let young core get one more year closer to being FA without ever competing or locking them up long term. Looks like playing for 4th in NL East is their long term goal. Yippee.
Understand your feeling. But the young core you referred to has not been (or proved to be ) the kinda core like Bregman-Altuve-Correa-Valdez. And NLE is so competitive that signing a big name FA could not win them the 1st or 2nd in NLE. Can you imagine the current team winning in the playoffs, even if they have a Burnes and/or Snell? They are just not Soto-calibre core, who tortures the opposing pitchers in his first year of big league and playoff. So 2025 will be about the growth of the young core no matter what. And it is a pricy FA market to go for win-now mode.
The Nats are just a 1B,a 3B ,an ace SP and CL away from an all star team if the young core filling the other positions develops into the core you imagine. 3B can be filled by House and 1B is easy to be filled by internal/external helping hands.
About locking them up long term, again, the unproven young men has not shown long-term value. CJ has gambling issue. Wood might be a ROY but he might not sign a long term contract when his prospect is so bright. Crews just has not shown his hitting capability. Garcia might be the only one that I think NATS can possibly sign him long term at a bargain price.
Soroka and Williams could be valuable trading chips come next July. 2026 could be the year they trade for an ace and maybe sign another.
True…of course this is assuming everything else falls in place (Wood, Crews, Gore all taking another step, Garcia and Young maintaining performance, Ruiz bouncing back, Abrams not self destructing, etc)
Nats are an interesting team, despite holes that need plugging. If their young starting staff takes a serious step forward…