The Nationals announced a trio of camp cuts this morning. Starter Josiah Gray, outfielder Robert Hassell III and reliever Julian Fernández will all begin the season in the minors.
Gray was an All-Star in 2023 after making 30 starts with a 3.91 ERA. He was hit hard over two starts the following season and underwent UCL surgery in July. Gray didn’t pitch in MLB last year as he rehabbed the injury. He made a trio of abbreviated starts in the minors to at least get some game action in before the offseason began.
The 28-year-old has taken the ball twice in camp. He pitched 4 2/3 frames of one-run ball with five strikeouts. The Nationals will continue his buildup as a depth starter at Triple-A Rochester. Mitchell Parker, Andrew Alvarez and Jake Eder are also on the 40-man roster but beginning the season in the minors.
Gray’s demotion seemingly positions Jake Irvin as Washington’s fifth starter. Cade Cavalli will take the ball on Opening Day against Matthew Boyd and the Cubs. Miles Mikolas, Foster Griffin and Zack Littell signed one-year free agent deals that should lock them into the rotation.
Irvin led the team with 180 innings last season, but he was tagged for an ugly 5.70 ERA while striking out fewer than 16% of opponents. That left him to compete for a rotation role this spring. To his credit, the 29-year-old righty has had an excellent camp. Irvin has allowed just two runs while striking out 15 across 13 1/3 innings. He has toyed with a deeper pitch mix, throwing more cutters and sliders after leaning mostly on his fastballs and curveball last year.
Hassell, a former top 10 pick who came over from San Diego in the Juan Soto trade, hit .223/.257/.315 over his first 70 MLB games last year. He struck out nine times while walking just once in 29 spring plate appearances. Hassell heads back to Triple-A, where he had a strong season (.310/.383/.456 in 76 games) a year ago.
The Nationals have James Wood, Jacob Young and Daylen Lile assured of spots in the MLB outfield. Dylan Crews will presumably be in there as well, though it’s at least conceivable that the Nats could determine he’d benefit from Triple-A reps. The former second overall pick limped to a .208/.280/.352 showing in his first full MLB season. He has only picked up three hits while striking out 10 times in 32 plate appearances this spring. Offseason waiver pickup Joey Wiemer has also had a rough camp and still has an option remaining.
I like the new look of the starting rotation. Can’t be much worse than last year.
Let’s just hope that everyone can stay healthy this year.
Hard for the rotation to be worse than the Rockies were last season, but the Nationals are certainly trying.
Off topic but I haven’t heard much on SD sale. What is the latest scoop / rumor?
The 3 groups that have reportedly made actual offers did tours that included meet and greets at spring training. Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were in one of those groups. I asked Joe, who I have known for years through charities in the Bay Area we are both involved in, if he would move the team. He said if he is lucky enough to be the one that buys the Padres, he would be crazy to move them.
Yeah I was down there when they toured ST. Really closed off the MLB side for most of a couple of the days we were there.
I think moving team in light of attendance is crazy.
Unless you had press or scout credentials you were not getting over there. Padres revenue has more than doubled since 2017 and only 30% of the increase is from increases in attendance. Thank you Chargers for opening the market up and thank you NFL for not putting another team here.
Its funny to me that Bobby Barrels is being sent down because he couldn’t draw a walk in spring training.
It doesn’t really say that. They have 3 guys in place with a 4th pretty locked.
A more reasonable interpretation might be that he didn’t best out one of those 4 and he will be better served to bat every day in AAA until an injury or poor performance by 1 of those 4 occurs.
How long before Hassell is considered a bust??
Too young and too good at AAA to start taking bust yet.
Until he gets a legitimate shot at 500 AB’s I’d hold off.
Wash OF pretty strong overall so no slight to a young guy.
Crews should be sent down. Rizzo rushed him and skipped a level. He has looked over-matched in MLB, didnt exactly dominate in the minors. Its more on Rizzo than Crews. I would like to see him get his head on straight without the savior burden that comes with his college accolades and draft slot.
Elijah Green is the epitome of bust.
Had a really good season last year in AAA and is just 24. Next call up he’s gotta flash something. The call up after that he’s gonna be in “prove it” territory. After that, “make or break”. So 2.5 years
OF strong? Young can’t hit, Wood’s last half of ’25 was not encouraging, Lile DOES look like a hitter (defense still a ?), Wiemer sucks (can’t hit and his good defense is redundant to Young; no one carries two good-field/bad-hit outfielders). Oddly enough, Christian Franklin at least has decent minor league numbers and some speed and might be able to help. I’d rather have Hassell in the lineup with Wood and Lile, than see Young in there every day. The Crews situation is just sad. Yes, he should be in Triple A, playing every day. Let’s hope he gets untracked. The moment I read that the Nats had picked up Wiemer, I knew the season was lost. Until there’s a new owner, this trainwreck will continue.
THIS article doesn’t say that, but it is the reason he is not making the team as the 4th OF. I didn’t make an interpretation; I listened to people that actually know what is going on in that camp. There are other sources of baseball news.
Dylan Crews has been horrifically bad this spring. .107 BA with a 31.5% SO rate playing mostly late innings against minor league pitchers. In parts of 2 seasons in the majors, he has a .634 OPS and is 20% below average as a hitter.
Hassell was better than Crews in AAA as well.
Fair enough – suggestion would be for you to share that you have info from other sources for the basis of your posts to allow us uninformed people they are only reading the article and the posts to have some context as to why you are saying whatever it is you are saying. Otherwise, it’s fair to think you read the same article I read and wonder why you posted something that it didn’t say.
Much of it is radio or friends. They won’t allow posts from me that include links on this site.
It doesn’t take much to realize that Crews has sucked and Hassell has at least hit for decent average this spring and in AAA.
Agreed – if a person checks on random players or a person is a Nats fan they probably know. I check in on former SD players but have no reason to check on a random player for the Nats to see how he is doing. The article said he was probably the 4th and didn’t lost his ST stats so I didn’t care to go look. The focus seemed to be on RH III not earning a spot which, being as he hasn’t had a full shot yet and didn’t prove himself, isn’t going to jump a guy they like.
If you say Crews hasn’t hit much – I trust you. Of course, RH III has also “sucked” in limited showing so, sucking doesn’t get you past sucked I guess.
It might 60 games into 2025 though if they both track their 2025 – RH III hitting at AAA and Crews not at mlb.
Time will tell. He will get his shot in Wash or somewhere else for sure:
I was really hoping Hassell coukd seize one of thw outfield spots. Young is a superstar in the field, but little contact, zero power, and terrible on the basepaths (despite having legitimate 80 speed).
Maybe next year or earlier if an injury.
Maybe traded later where he gets a chance to play everyday.
Young also had the Baseball Reference easter egg of which foot he kicks with like Paul O’Neill, which has to count for something.
I’d rather call him “Bob Hassell III.”
Josiah Gray with 3 option years remaining but already in his second year of arbitration. If he stays optioned he could end up with 4, 5 or even 6 arb years.
Can anybody hit on this team? Pretty sure the entire roster is below the Mendoza line this Spring
I was thinking they will be no-hit at least twice this season. But now I think at least three times and maybe four. Yes, every 40 games some MLB pitcher will no-hit the ’26 Nats. And we are not even factoring in injuries, reasonable slumps, days off, whatever. It’s going to get very painful very soon. Imagine what the Mets and Phillies and even the injury- and PED-riddled Braves will do to this team.