The Nationals announced that right-hander Drew Smith has been released. Smith signed a minor league deal last month, and the Nats had to make a decision by this weekend about including the righty on the 40-man roster, or else Smith could trigger the first of three built-in opt-out dates within his contract.
Smith hasn’t pitched in the majors or minors since June 2024, as a UCL surgery kept the veteran reliever in rehab and recovery mode for the entirety of the 2025 season. Back in November, the Mets declined their $2MM club option on Smith’s services for next year, sending him to free agency for the second straight winter. The minor league deal with Washington seemed to provide a good opportunity for Smith given the unsettled state of the Nats’ bullpen, and 5 1/3 scoreless innings this spring seemed to be boost for Smith’s bid for a roster spot.
Instead, the Nationals have decided to move on from the 32-year-old. It could be that the Nationals wanted to focus more on younger arms, or the timing of the opt-out clause forced the Nats into a decision they didn’t yet want to make about Smith’s status. As is sometimes the case with the Article XX(B) deadline, Smith could possibly re-sign with Washington on a fresh minors deal in a few days, with today’s release just a means to sidestep the first opt-out deadline and give the team a little more time to evaluate their options.
If Smith does test the market, he might well find some interest given his past track record with the Mets. Smith posted a 3.48 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, and 9.3% walk rate for New York over 196 1/3 innings from 2018-24. That walk rate spiked upward in 2023-24 but his 29.1K% in 2024 was also a career best, and Smith has pretty evenly solid numbers against both right-handed and left-handed batters over his career.
Nats trying really hard to go for the worst record in baseball. Why release a cheap veteran reliever who only gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in 5.1 IP and struck out 7 this spring?
This doesn’t make any sense to me. Crews going down makes perfect sense. This doesn’t come close. Do they know something we don’t?
they probably figure, even if he pitches well, teams wouldnt value him much at the deadline. better to get more innings to some younger guys
Mets folk hero of legends Drew Smith
The answer is probably something shocking– the Nats bullpen, against all sanity and reason, looks pretty good this Spring. Now, whether that’s because they actually are playing well or just an elaborate practical joke by the rest of MLB, I say it’s 50/50.
I agree. And it’s not just one or two guys. It’s more like 8 or 10. And a few are multi-inning options.
We shall see if it was a good decision as soon as a month from now.
Can’t say I’m shocked. I’ve been ranting on this site of how bad he was for years
Banned: how’s the Stearns employment situation shaking out?
sadly he still did better than your cant miss guys in brigham, fujinamo, and recently helsley.
Come back to Queens
Definitely Drew over Kimbrel
definitely would take him back
Twins Bullpen??
May just be a solid for the guy. Nats 40 man is tight. They need to add Cionel Perez. Smith is at least 2 years older than all of the relievers in the minors that are on the 40 man roster and the rest of them all are optionable this year. While he’s pitched well, he’s really not figuring into the Nats timeline. Release him now after a good spring and he has a shot at hooking on with an MLB contender bullpen (or another minors contract with an opt-out date). If he doesn’t hook on, there’s room in Rochester.
Was looking at old Tiger draft lists the other day and was surprised to see Smith was a 3rd rounder for Detroit in 2015. Traded to Rays??? for Mikey Mahtook. Ahh…..I remember that name too.