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Joan Adon

Nationals Outright Joan Adon

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that right-hander Joan Adon passed through waivers unclaimed after he was designated for assignment last week. He’ll remain with the organization and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Washington designated Adon to clear roster space for free agent signee Amed Rosario.

The 26-year-old Adon has logged big league time with the Nats in each of the past four seasons. He’s totaled 132 1/3 innings but sports a 6.66 earned run average in that time. He’s fanned 19% of his opponents, issued walks at an 11.3% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 45.3% rate. Both those strikeout and walk rates are worse than league-average, but Adon’s grounder rate is a few percentage points above par and he averages about 95 mph on his heater.

Adon has been durable in the upper minors, typically working as a starter, but he’s also gotten some bullpen work in recent seasons as his big league results have been lackluster. Given that he sits nearly 95 mph as a starter when he’s facing lineups multiple times, it’s fair to wonder how high that velocity might trend upward if he were to move to short relief stints.

Adon was out of minor league options, so the Nationals would’ve had to either break camp with him on the Opening Day roster or jettison him from the 40-man by way of trade or DFA at some point during spring training. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he’ll head to big league camp this spring as a non-roster invitee. If he doesn’t pitch his way back into the big league plans, he’ll start the year in Rochester and bide his time while waiting for another opportunity.

Washington’s rotation mix is deeper after signing Michael Soroka and re-signing Trevor Williams. That pair will join MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz — all four of whom delivered some encouraging performances in 2024 (albeit with some late fades as that group surpassed previous career-high workloads). With that group of six starters in the fold and top prospect Cade Cavalli hoping for a healthy 2025 campaign, Adon has been pushed a ways down the depth chart. A full-time look in the ’pen could be interesting, but it’s not yet clear how the Nats will utilize him moving forward.

Nationals Sign Amed Rosario

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Amed Rosario to a one-year contract. Right-hander Joan Adon was designated for assignment to make space on the roster. Rosario will earn $2MM on the deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’s represented by Octagon.

Rosario, 29, was a solid regular in Cleveland from 2021-22, serving as the Guardians’ everyday shortstop and posting a combined .282/.316/.406 batting line (106 wRC+) with terrific baserunning but subpar defense at his position.

In 2023, however, Rosario fell into a prolonged slump and was eventually designated for assignment and traded to the Dodgers, for whom he filled a utility role down the stretch. He signed on with the Rays on a $1.5MM deal to hold down a similar multi-position role in 2024 before again being traded to the Dodgers at the deadline. His second stint in L.A. lasted only days, however, as he was designated for assignment and landed with the Reds thereafter.

Over the past two seasons, Rosario has still managed to hit .270 thanks to his speed and bat-to-ball skills, but it’s been a hollow batting average accompanied by paltry marks in on-base percentage (.305) and slugging percentage (.379). He’s essentially been a singles hitter who does most of his damage against lefties while contributing shaky defense at multiple positions. Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have both panned his work at shortstop for some time, and he’s since dabbled at second base, third base and in all three outfield positions. Second base is the only position at which he’s drawn passable grades by measure of those two public metrics.

Though it’s been a lackluster couple years for Rosario all around, he still possesses plus speed (91st percentile of MLB players, per Statcast) and showed improved life on his throws last year (72nd percentile arm strength). He draws poor grades for his range despite that footspeed. Rosario has fanned in 19.3% of his plate appearances since 2023 — right in line with his career 19.6% mark. He’s all but allergic to drawing a walk, evidenced by a career 4.3% rate and a career-low 2.6% mark in 2024. However, he makes enough contact and runs so well that he’s capable of sustaining quality batting averages at the very least.

With the Nats, Rosario again figures to slide into a utility role. Washington has Luis Garcia Jr. at second base and CJ Abrams at shortstop. Rosario could factor into the competition at third base, where Jose Tena and Trey Lipscomb are also in the mix for the Opening Day job. However, prospects Brady House and Cayden Wallace are both in the upper minors. House, a former first-round pick and consensus top-100 prospect, hit well in Double-A last year but struggled in his first exposure to Triple-A pitching. Wallace, acquired at the deadline in the trade sending Hunter Harvey to the Royals, topped out in Double-A and is a bit further behind House in his minor league progression. With a strong start to the season, either could plausibly find his way to the majors and earn a look at the hot corner.

It’s also plausible that Rosario could be deployed in a straightforward platoon with Garcia. He’s a career .298/.337/.460 hitter against southpaws compared to Garcia’s lifetime .250/.269/.356 slash against lefties. Garcia has been far better against righties, hitting .277/.313/.428 in his career — including a personal-best .288/.326/.469 during last year’s breakout season.

Washington’s signing of Rosario will come at the expense of the 26-year-old Adon, who’s pitched for the Nats in each of the past four seasons. A 2016 international signee out of the Dominican Republic, Adon has logged 132 1/3 innings in the majors but never found consistency; he carries a career 6.66 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 45.3% ground-ball rate. He ranked as highly as No. 7 among Nationals’ prospects back in 2022, per Baseball America.

Adon averages nearly 95 mph on his heater and has been a durable rotation member in the upper minors, but he’s never replicated the strong 2019 season that put him on the prospect map in the first place. He’s had some work as a reliever in the minors recently, and he has enough velocity as a starter to create some intrigue about how he’d work as a power-armed bullpen piece. Command has been a consistent issue for the big righty, however, and he’s out of minor league options — meaning the Nats would’ve had to carry him on the Opening Day roster or else designate him for assignment a few months from now anyway.

Washington will have five days to trade Adon. At that point, he’d need to be placed on waivers (a 48-hour process). If he clears, he could be retained as non-roster depth. Within a week’s time, he’ll know the outcome of today’s DFA.

Nationals Activate Trevor Williams

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September 20: The Nationals announced today that Williams has officially been reinstated, as expected. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Zach Brzykcy and transferred Adon to the 60-day IL.

September 18: The Nationals are planning to reinstate Trevor Williams from the 60-day injured list on Friday, tweets Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. The right-hander will get the start at Wrigley Field in his first MLB outing since the end of May. They’ll need to create a 40-man roster spot but could move Alex Call or Joan Adon to the 60-day IL if they don’t anticipate either player returning this season.

That would position Williams to make a pair of starts before the end of the season. It’s a bigger development for the pitcher than it is for the team. Washington is only trying to play spoiler at this point, but Williams is an impending free agent. The 32-year-old has been out for more than three months after being diagnosed with a flexor strain in his throwing arm. There’s only so much he can do in two starts to answer teams’ questions about his durability. That said, getting back on the mound and showing the caliber of stuff he had early in the season is certainly preferable to ending the year on the shelf.

The injury cut short one of the best stretches of Williams’ career. He worked to a 2.22 ERA in 56 2/3 innings covering 11 starts. He punched out an average 21% of batters faced while getting ground-balls at a 46% clip. Williams isn’t overpowering but he throws a lot of strikes and had dramatically changed his home run fortunes. He led the National League with 34 home runs allowed en route to a 5.55 earned run average over 30 starts last season. He’d surrendered just two longballs (0.32 per nine innings) through the first couple months this year.

There was some level of luck with Williams’ early-season results. He probably wouldn’t have maintained an ace-caliber ERA over a full season. Williams had clearly taken a step forward relative to last year, though, an improvement that coincided with an increased reliance on his breaking stuff at the expense of his four-seam fastball. The injury also robbed the rebuilding Nationals of a chance to flip Williams at the deadline. He won’t be a candidate for a qualifying offer, so they wouldn’t get any kind of compensation if he walks in free agency.

Washington has a rotation consisting of Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, DJ Herz and Patrick Corbin. Zuckerman notes that they’ll go to a six-man staff once Williams returns through season’s end. Corbin is playing out the final couple weeks of his $140MM free agent deal. The other four pitchers are under club control for an extended time.

Each of Irvin, Gore, Parker and Herz has turned in an ERA between 4.07 and 4.44 on the season. That group has tailed off in the second half, though, and none of them look like budding top-of-the-rotation arms. Gore probably has the highest ceiling, but he has yet to truly put everything together over an extended stretch. With Josiah Gray likely to miss next season and Cade Cavalli’s injury history, the Nats need to add at least one high-end starter if they hope to compete for a playoff spot in 2025.

Nationals Select Joe La Sorsa, Place Derek Law On 15-Day IL

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TODAY: The Nationals officially announced that La Sorsa’s contract has been selected.  In other moves, righty Joan Adon was also called up from Triple-A, while the Nationals placed left-hander Robert Garcia on the bereavement list and placed right-hander Derek Law on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow flexor strain.

Despite the serious-sounding nature of Law’s injury, he told reporters (including Spencer Nusbaum of the Washington Post) that he thinks he’ll be back to normal in 5-6 days time.  Law’s elbow has been bothering him for over a week, ever since pitching during rainy conditions in the Nationals’ 9-5 loss to the Giants on August 8.

AUGUST 16: Left-handed reliever Joe La Sorsa is on his way from Triple-A Rochester to join the Nationals, per Andrew Golden of the Washington Post (X link). Golden notes that La Sorsa might not be activated for today’s game, however. MLBTR has confirmed that La Sorsa is indeed headed to Philadelphia to join the Nats, and a source says he’ll have his contract selected following tonight’s game. He’ll formally join the roster tomorrow. The Nats have a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move to accommodate the southpaw.

La Sorsa, 26, appeared in 25 big league games during last season’s MLB debut and pitched to a 4.41 ERA with a 19.3% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate in 32 1/3 innings between the Rays and Nats. Washington outrighted him off the 40-man roster back in December but has kept him in Triple-A as a non-roster player all season.

Things have gone well for La Sorsa with the Red Wings. He’s appeared in 42 games and logged 56 innings of relief with a pristine 2.25 earned run average. His 18.2% strikeout rate there is several percentage points shy of average, but he’s helped to offset the lack of whiffs with pinpoint command (4.9% walk rate) and a hefty slate of grounders (50.9%). La Sorsa now sports sub-3.00 ERA marks at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels in his career.

The Nats already have a pair of lefties in the bullpen in Robert Garcia and Jose A. Ferrer, although the latter has struggled considerably since returning from a long stay on the 60-day injured list due to a lat strain. However the Nats decide to make room for him, La Sorsa should be getting a legitimate audition down the stretch. If he performs well over the final five-plus weeks of the 2024 campaign, it’s easy to see the Nats keeping him on the 40-man roster this time around. La Sorsa still has two minor league option years remaining, so he could be an up-and-down depth arm for manager Davey Martinez next year even if he doesn’t carve out a permanent spot in the bullpen just yet.

Nationals Place Josiah Gray On Injured List With Flexor Strain

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6:30pm: Gray told the Washington beat that the strain is muscular (relayed by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). Imaging revealed that his UCL is fully intact. Needless to say, it’s a significant plus that there doesn’t appear to be any kind of structural damage that would raise the possibility of surgery.

3:2opm: The Nationals announced that right-hander Josiah Gray has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow/forearm flexor strain. The move is retroactive to April 6 and righty Joan Adon has been recalled in a corresponding move.

The Nats have not yet provided any kind of information relating to the severity of Gray’s injury or how long they expect him to be out of action, but it’s the latest in a string of elbow injuries to notable pitchers around the league. The season is less than two weeks old but has already seen pitchers like Shane Bieber and Eury Pérez be sent to the operating table for Tommy John surgery. Spencer Strider could follow them since he has sustained damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, though it’s not yet been determined whether he will have surgery or not. Framber Valdez was scratched from yesterday’s start and sent to meet with doctors after experiencing elbow soreness. Nick Pivetta was placed on the IL earlier today due to a flexor strain, though Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow characterized it as mild.

All of those injuries are on top of pitchers who were injured last year and are still recovering, a list that includes guys like Shohei Ohtani, Jacob deGrom, Sandy Alcántara, Robbie Ray, Shane McClanahan and many more. The ever-growing list has led to a dispute between MLB and the MLBPA, with the league blaming pitchers chasing high velocity and spin while the players point to the pitch clock.

Gray will now add another notable injury to that pile. He may not have as much big league success as some of those aforementioned pitchers, but he is nonetheless a notable name due to his former status as a top prospect and trade chip. Now 26, Gray was a top 100 prospect during his time with the Dodgers before coming to the Nationals as a key piece of the 2021 deadline deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles.

Gray has not yet truly lived up to that hype, with a 4.84 earned run average in 386 2/3 innings in his major league career. He had a 3.91 ERA last year but may have been lucky to have allowed so few runs to score. His 20.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate were each below league average, but his 80.4% strand rate was on the high side. His 4.93 FIP and 5.08 SIERA were each more than a run higher than his ERA, perhaps suggesting regression was coming. His first two outings in 2024 resulted in 13 earned runs scoring in 8 1/3 innings, though the injury may have also played a role in that.

Nonetheless, Gray has been an important building block for the Nats amid their ongoing rebuild. If he ends up needing to miss significant time, that could be a blow to Gray and the club in what was likely seen as a key development year. He came into 2024 with two years and 75 days of service time, meaning that he will qualify for arbitration for the first time going into 2025 and is slated for free agency after 2027. The Nats have a number of their best prospects nearing the majors and would ideally like to see Gray take a step forward to be a part of their next competitive window but an extended absence would obviously get in the way of that plan.

For now, he’ll be removed from the rotation for at least a couple of turns. For now, Adon will take Gray’s spot next to MacKenzie Gore, Patrick Corbin, Trevor Williams and Jake Irvin. Adon has 121 2/3 innings of major league experience with a 6.66 ERA.

Nationals To Promote Joan Adon

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October 3: The Nationals have announced the recall of Adon, with Luis Garcia going on the IL with a strained oblique muscle as the corresponding move.

October 2: The Nationals will promote right-hander Joan Adon prior to tomorrow’s game, manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post) tonight.  Adon will make his MLB debut starting Washington’s final game of the season.  The 23-year-old Adon is already on the Nats’ 40-man roster, added last November in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

While it might not be a long outing for Adon, he’ll at least get a cup of coffee in The Show to cap off his fourth professional season.  An amateur signing out of the Dominican Republic back in 2016, Adon hadn’t even pitched at high-A ball prior to 2021, but advanced up the ladder with over 105 combined innings at the high-A (87 IP), Double-A (14 IP), and Triple-A (four IP).  Adon has a 26.9% strikeout rate and 8.81% walk rate during his 2021 season, and those decent numbers have translated only to a cumulative 4.97 ERA.

MLB Pipeline rates Adon as the 22nd-best prospect in Washington’s farm system, citing his 60-grade fastball with mid-90s velocity.  Though Adon has worked only as a starting pitcher in 2021, Pipeline’s scouting report feels his future as a starter or as a reliever will depend on whether or not Adon can get consistent success with at least one other secondary pitch.

Nationals Select Yasel Antuna, Joan Adon

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The Nationals announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of infielder Yasel Antuna and right-hander Joan Adon. Both are now on the 40-man roster and shielded from selection in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.

Antuna and Adon rank 12th and 16th among Nats farmhands at MLB.com at the moment, though Baseball America placed Antuna as high as fourth in the system. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked the 21-year-old Antuna 13th among Nats farmhands, noting that Tommy John surgery derailed his 2019 season. It’d have been aggressive for any club to select Antuna in next month’s draft, given that he’s only played 87 games above Rookie ball, but the Nats clearly feel that the switch-hitter has the potential to grow into power and emerge as a coveted prospect. Antuna spent the season in the Nats’ player pool, so they got a look at him over the course of the summer.

Adon, 22, spent the 2019 season in the Nationals’ Class-A rotation and worked to a 3.86 ERA with 7.7 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate. He runs his heater up to 96 mph and repeats his delivery well, per MLB.com’s report on him, but he still has some work to do on his secondary offerings. Like Antuna, he was in the Nats’ player pool this summer, and the organization clearly liked what it saw from him there.

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