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Latest On Nationals’ Rotation

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The Nationals reinstated right-hander Michael Soroka from the 15-day injured list earlier today and he started their afternoon contest against the Guardians. Right-hander Eduardo Salazar was optioned as the corresponding move. TalkNats reported yesterday that Soroka would be reinstated to retake his spot in the rotation and relayed that manager Dave Martinez said righty Brad Lord would be moved to the bullpen.

Lord started the season in the bullpen but stepped up to take a rotation spot when Soroka hit the IL due to a right biceps strain. Lord took the ball six times and gave the Nats some fairly competent work, posting a 4.44 earned run average in 26 1/3 innings with an 18.9% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. In spite of those decent numbers, moving him to the bullpen makes sense, as the other rotation candidates have more experience than he does. Most of them are having pretty good seasons as well, to varying degrees.

MacKenzie Gore is having a huge season so far, with a 3.33 ERA in 46 innings, and that’s underselling it. His 36.4% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate are both strong numbers. If it weren’t for a .343 batting average on balls in play, he would have allowed even fewer runs, which is why his FIP is 2.74 and his SIERA is 2.37. It’s a somewhat similar situation with Trevor Williams. His 18.8% strikeout rate is only about half of Gore’s but his 6.9% walk rate is good and he has allowed a .360 BABIP. Though his 5.86 ERA isn’t pretty, his 4.16 FIP and 4.25 SIERA suggest he deserves better.

Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker are a bit to the other side. Irvin has a 3.94 ERA despite a tepid 16.8% strikeout rate, with a tiny .230 BABIP and an 80.6% strand rate helping him out. His 5.08 FIP and 4.55 SIERA suggest there’s a bit of luck in that ERA. Parker has a 3.48 ERA even though his 12% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate are both rough numbers, though his 45.7% ground ball rate is good. His .223 BABIP makes ERA estimators less optimistic, particularly his 5.63 SIERA.

As for Soroka, today was just his second start of the season, as he landed on the IL after his first. Today’s outing started well but finished poorly. He had eight strikeouts through five scoreless innings but then the sixth innings went single, single, hit-by-pitch, bases-clearing double by Carlos Santana. Soroka was then pulled but the bullpen allowed Santana to score, adding that to Soroka’s ledger. He therefore finished with four earned runs allowed in five-plus innings pitched.

Soroka debuted way back in 2018 and then finished second to Pete Alonso in 2019 National League Rookie of the Year voting. However, it’s not currently clear if he can stick in the rotation. After that excellent 2019 season, he spent much of the next few years injured, mostly due to due tearing his right Achilles twice. He had some mixed results with the White Sox last year, posting a 6.39 ERA though nine starts and getting moved to the bullpen. Over his final 24 1/3 innings, pitching in a multi-inning role, he posted a 1.48 ERA with a massive 42.7% strikeout rate.

The Nats signed him to a one-year deal with a chance to retake a rotation job. Since he’s mostly been injured this year, it’s still to be determined whether that will work out or not. The Nats gave him $9MM this year, so they’re motivated to let him try. The benefits of him succeeding as a starter are simply higher than if he’s a good reliever, whether that’s helping their club in 2025 or getting traded at the deadline.

Lord will be in relief for now but another rotation shot in the future is plausible. Pitcher injuries are fairly inevitable. Soroka is also on a one-year deal and figures to be a trade candidate in the coming months. Williams is on a two-year deal and could be moved this summer as well if his results even out. Gore is surely less likely to be moved but he only has two remaining seasons of club control after this one, so rumors may pop up. On the other hand, Cade Cavalli and Josiah Gray could be healthy and back in the mix later in this year as well while Shinnosuke Ogasawara is currently on the 40-man and pitching in Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images

Nationals Place Four Players On Injured List

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves to set up their Opening Day roster, including four injured-list placements retroactive to March 24.  Right-handers Derek Law (forearm inflammation) and Zach Brzykcy (right quad strain) are both headed to the 15-day IL, infielder Andres Chaparro (oblique strain) is going to the 10-day IL, and right-hander Cade Cavalli was placed on the 15-day IL as he enters the final stages of his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

DJ Herz was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day IL as he could be facing a Tommy John procedure of his own in the wake of a UCL tear.  Herz’s transfer opens up a 40-man roster spot the Nats to select the contract of right-hander Brad Lord, in a move that was reported earlier today.  Finally, D.C. also optioned first/baseman outfielder Juan Yepez and righty Jackson Rutledge to Triple-A, and catcher Andrew Knizner was reassigned to Triple-A.

As Spencer Nusbaum of the Washington Post wrote last weekend, Law’s injury dates back to last season, when the reliever missed just under three weeks in late August and early September due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Though Law was able to return in relatively short order, the discomfort lingered through the winter and into Spring Training, and Law pitched in only one game during the Nationals’ Grapefruit League schedule.  The team had already planned to limit Law’s spring workload in the wake of his 90-inning campaign last season, but the forearm issue kept him off the mound almost entirely.

Manager Davey Martinez said Law’s MRI came back clean and the injury isn’t thought to be too serious, with Law saying he believes he’ll be back when first eligible for activation on April 8.  Law was one of the game’s most valuable workhorses last season, tossing 90 innings of 2.60 ball over 75 appearances for the Nationals.

Brzykcy also pitched just once this spring, as his quad strain has kept him out of game action for over a month.  The righty has started throwing bullpens again, so he is at least partway through the ramp-up process even if it seems like Brzykcy could miss more than the 15-day minimum given how little he pitched in the spring.

Brzykcy was an undrafted free agent from the 2020 class (the year the draft was shortened to five rounds due to the pandemic) who signed with the Nats that summer.  He made his MLB debut last season, and was hit hard to the tune of a 14.29 ERA over the small sample size of 5 2/3 innings and six appearances.  Brzykcy didn’t pitch in 2023 due to a Tommy John surgery, but his overall impressive minor league numbers made him a candidate to win a job in the Nationals’ bullpen this winter before his quad strain ended his bid.

Chaparro is another player who made his big-league debut in 2024, and he hit .215/.280/.413 with four home runs in his first 132 plate appearances in the Show.  While the presence of the newly-acquired Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell may have hurt Chaparro’s chances of winning a bench job as a backup first baseman and outfielder, he was posting big numbers in camp before hurting his oblique during a batting practice session.  The uncertain nature of oblique injuries leaves Chaparro’s recovery timeline somewhat up in the air, but a best-case scenario would probably see him activated by mid-April.

Without Chaparro, Yepez, or Knizner, Washington’s bench now consists of Riley Adams in the backup catcher role, veteran Amed Rosario, Jose Tena as the primary backup infielder, and Alex Call as the fourth outfielder.  Between Law’s injury and the Nationals’ decision to option Rutledge, the Nationals went with Lord and rookie Orlando Ribalta for the last two bullpen spots.

Note: The initial version of this post erroneously stated that Cavalli was placed on the 60-day injured list. MLBTR apologizes for the error.

Nationals To Select Brad Lord

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The Nationals are going to promote right-hander Brad Lord to their Opening Day roster, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty is not yet on the 40-man, so a corresponding move will be required. That could be an easy call since DJ Herz has been recommended for Tommy John surgery. It’s not fully confirmed that Herz will go under the knife but he will likely miss a decent chunk of time even if he avoids the surgeon’s table.

Lord, 25, isn’t a typical prospect. As Passan mentions in his report and as detailed by Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post last month, Lord has had to grind. While some top draft picks get multi-million-dollar signing bonuses, Lord was an 18th-round selection in 2022 and signed for $125K. He spent this past winter working at a Home Depot in Bradenton, lifting bags of mulch and Christmas trees, around his offseason training.

That makes it all the more impressive that he’s been able to improve his stock in recent years. In 2023, he tossed 104 2/3 innings at the Single-A and High-A levels, working both as a starter and reliever. He posted a 4.04 earned run average, 18.5% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and huge 61.6% ground ball rate.

Last year, he climbed from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, logging 129 2/3 innings across a combined 29 starts at those three levels with a 2.43 ERA. His grounder rate dropped to 42% but he upped his punchouts to a 25.3% clip. Baseball America ranked him the #29 prospect in the system going into 2025.

Here in camp, his 6.08 ERA doesn’t look so nice, but that’s in a tiny sample of 13 1/3 innings. He was very unfortunate in that time, with an unlucky .348 batting average on balls in play and 50% strand rate. He only struck out 13.8% of batters but got the grounders back up to 55.6%.

He seems likely to start the season working a long relief role for the Nats. They project to have a rotation of MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and Michael Soroka. By having Lord serve the longman role, it will allow the club to keep other potential starters like Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Jackson Rutledge stretched out in Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

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