The Nationals have designated left-handed reliever Richard Lovelady for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot goes to righty Zack Littell, whose previously reported one-year deal with the Nats is now official.
Washington claimed Lovelady off waivers from the Mets back on Jan. 29. He’d signed a split major league deal with the Mets back in October, which the Mets hoped would help him to pass through waivers so he could be stashed in Syracuse as Triple-A depth. That didn’t work out, at least not on their initial attempt, as the Nats quickly scooped him up. Lovelady will now either be traded within the next five days or placed back on waivers, which are a 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.
Lovelady has had a solid showing with the Nats so far in camp. He’s allowed a run on four hits and three walks in four innings while fanning seven batters. He allowed 11 runs in 11 2/3 big league innings between the Blue Jays and Mets in 2025 but posted a a terrific 1.66 ERA with a 26.3% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 52.6% ground-ball rate in 38 Triple-A frames.
Lovelady is no stranger to posting strong numbers in the upper minors but running into some MLB struggles. He’s logged 111 MLB frames in his career and posted a 5.35 ERA but thrived with a 2.61 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in 175 2/3 Triple-A innings across parts of seven seasons. Although Lovelady hasn’t had consistent success in the majors, he did log a solid 4.25 ERA with quality strikeout, walk and grounder rates in 78 1/3 big league frames from 2022-24.
Since he’s out of minor league options, Lovelady couldn’t simply be sent back to Triple-A. The Nats will hope he clears waivers and can be stashed in the upper minors within their system, just as the Mets tried to do. He cleared waivers on several occasions last year but was also selected to a major league roster five different times between Toronto and New York, including that major league deal with the Mets in October. He’s ping-ponged on and off MLB rosters of the Royals, A’s, Cubs, Jays and Mets dating back to 2022, so it’s certainly possible another club with a need for some bullpen depth takes a low-cost flier via waivers or a cash swap.
This post has been up for about an hour and there’s not a single 12 year old who’s posted a dumb yuk-yuk about his name. Maybe they’re in school and we’ll have to wait until 4 o’clock? But they have their phones with them so they should still be able to post. What’s the matter with them?
Is there something peculiar about his name? None of us on the internet even considered such a possibility. Only you. You must have taken your phone out during study hall.
Until you, you mean. (Also the post has been up for 14 minutes now, posted at 9:42am *central* time.)
Lovelady has been designated so many times already, he’s like the village bicycle. Everybody’s had a turn.
Happy?
I’m 15 years old.
You mean like this —
If he has a special “lady,” she’s not going to “love” this news. She’d probably be happier with Brian “Cash man.”
What a bitter comment for a Tuesday morning.
But there is already a cranky old man already complaining about the cardinal sign of having a sense of humor . Again, this is not religion, politics or brain surgery. To care about this is a first world problem.
Fellow pitchers like Dick Pole and even Dick Mountain chose strength of person over others hiding behind their given forenames. Respect.
Finally lunch bell. Can post dumb yuk-yuk.
Pete LeCock and Rusty Kuntz ( both real names and MLB players) have entered the chat.
Don’t forget Dick Pole
I didn’t.
I know they DFA’d Lovelady to sign Littell but haven’t followed the Nats closely enough to know which other pitcher they kept instead of Lovelady.
Anyone out there have a quick, solid take on how the Washington bullpen has been shaping up so far?
Dick Lovelady is always getting the D fa.
is this the ST DFA lefty pen piece that the Orioles sign? they certainly need another lefty. give him a go in Sarasota and see if he does enough to make the trip north to Camden Yards while Kittridge is on the IL.
It’s “Dicky” Loveday. That’s what he wants to be named.
You see a guy like this that keeps getting bounced and then realize wherever he came from he was the super star in high school and college, baseball is very hard