The Nationals announced that they have claimed right-hander Ryan Loutos off waivers from the Dodgers and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester. The Dodgers designated the righty for assignment last week. The Nats had a roster vacancy after recently releasing righty Jorge López but their 40-man is now full.
Loutos, 26, joins his third club of the year. He started the season with the Cardinals but was designated for assignment at the end of April. The Dodgers then acquired him in a cash deal but gave him the DFA treatment again a few days ago, which led to this waiver claim.
His major league track record is still fairly limited. He logged 2 1/3 innings for the Cards last year and added another three innings for the Dodgers this year. He has allowed five earned runs while striking out two, walking two and hitting one batter.
The Nats are presumably more interested in his minor league track record, which provides a far larger sample of work to look at. He has logged 231 innings on the farm from 2021 to the present with a 4.68 ERA. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has a 3.14 ERA in 71 2/3 innings, with a 24.3% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. He has also generated grounders on close to half the balls in play he’s allowed.
Loutos can also be optioned to the minors for the rest of this year and one additional season. The Nats had an open roster spot, so Loutos is essentially a free flier on a young arm with some intriguing numbers. He’ll head to Rochester for now but should be up in the big leagues whenever Washington needs a fresh bullpen arm.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
They should have claimed Kimbrel
Kimbrel is Washed!!
Good for him, when’s the last time you bathed?
The *last* thing the Nats need is another middling/poor right hander who can’t throw strikes or miss bats. They already have several of those to shuffle between the bullpen and Rochester. Derek Law’s progressed in his rehab and will be back by late this month or early next month too.
Now, if Kimbrel was a lefty I’d agree with you even though he’s probably done as an effective MLB pitcher. The Nats only lefty in the pen is Ferrer, and he’s not very good either.
A guy with an ERA of 15.00 and an ERA+ of 29, albeit in three innings over two games…
Oh well.
Yes, but at least he had more experience