Nationals Release Lucas Sims

The Nationals announced that they’ve placed veteran reliever Lucas Sims on release waivers. They’ll make a corresponding bullpen move tomorrow. They now have a vacancy on the 40-man roster.

It’s an abrupt end to what proved to be a brief stint in Washington. Sims was on the mound for the Nats roughly an hour ago. He had a nightmare outing in a blowout loss to the Cardinals. Sims entered in the eighth inning with the Nationals trailing 6-0. He hit a batter (his MLB-leading seventh HBP of the season), walked four more, and gave up a hit in a three-run inning. He recorded two outs before being lifted for Andrew Chafin.

Sims joined the Nats a one-year, $3MM free agent deal early in Spring Training. He made 18 appearances but proved far too prone to blow-up outings. He allowed multiple runs in six appearances, including each of his last two. His Washington tenure concludes with 19 runs allowed across 12 1/3 innings. He issued 14 walks while recording 13 strikeouts.

It continues an incredibly challenging stretch for Sims, who was a high-leverage bullpen pickup for the Red Sox as recently as last summer. He carried a 3.57 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate over 35 1/3 innings with the Reds leading up to the trade deadline. Boston acquired him for A-ball pitcher Ovis Portes. Sims’ production tanked immediately with the Sox. He allowed 10 runs on as many walks while picking up nine strikeouts in 14 innings. A minor lat strain cost him a couple weeks in September.

Sims will remain on waivers for the next two days. Another team would need to assume his remaining salary to claim him. No one is going to do that. He’ll clear and become a free agent. The Nats will pay the remainder of his salary aside from the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time he spends in the majors with another club. The control issues will probably limit him to minor league offers.