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Will Harris

Latest On Will Harris

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8:58pm: Harris has numbness in his fingers, but there is no blood clot, and he will not require thoracic outlet surgery, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com was among those to report.

2:05pm: Nationals right-hander Will Harris underwent a procedure to remove a small blood clot from his right arm, manager Dave Martinez announced this afternoon (Twitter link via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). There’s no timetable for a return to the mound just yet, though Martinez thankfully noted that Harris is “moving in the right direction” and that the procedure went well.

Suffice it to say, it looks quite unlikely that the Nats will have Harris available to them to begin the season. If the 36-year-old righty does indeed begin the season on the injured list, the Nats will turn to Tanner Rainey and Daniel Hudson as the primary right-handed setup options for likely closer Brad Hand.

Harris is entering the second season of a three-year, $24MM contract he inked with the Nats in the 2019-20 offseason. The veteran righty turned in a sharp 3.06 ERA in 17 2/3 frames last year, though he also had some red flags in his stat line. While his 10.7 K/9 mark was the second-highest of his career, that’s a misleading stat, as Harris’ overall strikeout percentage (25 percent) was his lowest mark since 2015. The discrepancy is due to a considerable increase in both his walk rate (6.1 percent in 2019; 10.7 percent in 2020) and his opponents’ batting average (.195 in ’19; .280 in ’20). The velocity on Harris’ cutter also fell to a career-low 91.0 mph.

That said, last year was obviously anything but a typical season, and Harris was a rock-solid setup man for the Astros in the five prior seasons. From 2015-19, Harris gave the ’Stros 297 innings of 2.36 ERA ball, striking out 27 percent of his opponents against a tidy 6.2 percent walk rate. His 52.5 percent ground-ball rate in that time was also well above the league average. The Nats owe Harris $8MM both this year and next year — his age-36 and age-37 seasons.

Will Harris Has Blood Clot In Right Arm

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Nationals reliever Will Harris has a blood clot in his right arm, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports. The 36-year-old will visit a specialist in St. Louis to determine the severity of the issue.

Harris hasn’t pitched since March 9, and it now appears unlikely he’ll be ready to take the mound when the Nationals’ season starts April 1. That would be a blow to Washington’s bullpen, which received 17 2/3 innings of 3.06 ERA pitching from Harris in 2020 – the first season of the three-year, $24MM contract he signed after an excellent run with the Astros from 2015-19.

A healthy Harris would have joined Tanner Rainey and closer Brad Hand as the Nationals’ primary late-game options at the beginning of the season. With Harris on the shelf, though, manager Dave Martinez said the Nats are considering righties Wander Suero and Kyle Finnegan to fill more significant roles. Both pitchers turned in quality results across a combined 48 1/3 innings a year ago.

On This Date A Year Ago, Rivals Joined Forces

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When Howie Kendrick faced off against Will Harris in game seven of the 2019 World Series, the two players presented as natural rivals.

Harris had been one of the best setup arms in all of baseball that season with a ridiculous 1.50 ERA over 68 appearances. Though his peripherals (3.15 FIP, 21% K-BB%) cast some doubt on the peerless nature of his performance, he’d been spotless in the playoffs. Just the night before, Harris surrendered a run for the first time that postseason after ten consecutive scoreless outings and an 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. And while public sentiment wasn’t yet presenting full-throated animosity towards the AL Champs, the Astros were a towering presence in the league on the verge of dynastic achievement – and success always breeds contempt.

Conversely, Kendrick was a 35-year-old veteran recently returned from an Achilles injury. He was so close to retiring, that he picked up photography in preparation for his life after baseball. He played for the Nationals, a team who before that season had never won a postseason series. Kendrick ended that drought with an extra-inning grand slam in the division series, and in the sequel, he earned MVP honors in Washington’s second-ever postseason series win. The Nationals weren’t the ultimate underdog, but they proved themselves the ’it’ team of 2019, and they were having a moment.

In the vacuum of those few weeks of postseason baseball, Kendrick and Harris were titans.

The rest is history. Kendrick clanked a home run off the right field foul pole, immortalizing himself in Washington DC. The Kendrick/Harris showdown proved the fourth most impactful playoff at-bat of the Wild Card Era by championship win probability added. It will be replayed in highlight reels ad infinitum.

But on this date last year, January 3rd, 2020, the Nationals announced a three-year, $24MM pact with Harris. Kendrick had already agreed to a victory tour season in Washington, giving these two rivals – like many nemeses over time – an opportunity to join forces.

It was a year to forget in Washington, however, as 2020 brought a stark contrast to the soaring highs of 2019. Harris hit the injured list with a groin injury after just two appearances, and by the time he’d make his next appearance, the champs had already fallen to 7-10, well on their way to a last place finish in the NL East. Kendrick fared no better, twice spending time on the injured list and finishing the year with a .275/.320/.375 line, a year-over-year drop from 146 wRC+ to 82 wRC+. Kendrick chose to retire this winter, and hard as this would be to imagine when the Nationals stormed the field at Minute Maid Park to celebrate the 2019 World Series, it’s Harris – not Kendrick – who will don the Curly W in 2021.

Ultimately, Harris hasn’t yet had the opportunity to prove himself the vital bullpen cog the Nationals expected when they signed him a year ago. Like many Nats, his numbers were down in 2020: 5.22 xERA, 4.55 FIP, a ballooned 10.7 BB%, 46.3 HardHit%, and 91.7 mph exit velocity, all three of which were easily career-worst marks. Much of 2020, however, can be chalked up to the bizarre circumstances of the coronavirus-affected, truncated season. He’ll have a clean slate in 2021 and the opportunity to once again flip the script in his eventful history with the Nationals.

Nationals Activate Will Harris, Place Sam Freeman On Injured List

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The Nationals have announced a pair of corresponding bullpen moves. Righty Will Harris, who had been sidelined with a groin injury, was activated from the injured list.

To create an active roster opening, the Nats placed southpaw Sam Freeman on the IL. He suffered a flexor mass strain in last night’s contest. Manager Dave Martinez explained that understanding the full scope of the injury will have to await further examination.

While it’s disappointing to lose Freeman after he made seven scoreless appearances, the Nationals are surely glad to have Harris back in the fold. Soon to turn 36, Harris inked a sizable deal in the offseason. He has to this point taken the ball only twice in D.C.

Nationals Activate Juan Soto

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The Nationals have activated outfielder Juan Soto and right-hander Wander Suero from the injured list, the team announced. Outfielder Andrew Stevenson was optioned to the alternate training site to open one roster spot, while the team’s recent placement of Will Harris on the IL left them with an existing vacancy.

Soto isn’t in tonight’s lineup, manager Dave Martinez told reporters (Twitter thread via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com), but he’s available to pinch-hit. Soto himself told the club that he felt he needed at least another day to get up to speed for a full nine-inning game. The 21-year-old has yet to play this season since testing positive for Covid-19 on Opening Day and also missed much of the team’s Summer Camp, so he’s a bit behind. Recently signed utilityman Josh Harrison is getting the nod in left field in Soto’s place tonight.

The Nats have gone 3-4 in Soto’s absence. Their schedule has been partly interrupted by the Marlins’ Covid-19 outbreak, as the Nats were scheduled to face the Fish over the weekend but saw that series postponed due to ongoing health concerns with the Miami organization. In a way, the Nationals will benefit from that postponement, as they’ll now likely have Soto back in the fold for three games he’d have otherwise missed. For the time being, they’ll host the Mets for the first of a two-game set. Washington’s next dozen games will come against the Mets and the Orioles. Soto won’t be back in the everyday lineup right out of the gate, but he’ll be back in the heart of the order before long.

Injury Notes: Alfaro, Harris, Verlander

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The latest on some player health situations from Spring Training…

  • Jorge Alfaro was a scratch from the Marlins’ lineup today due to left oblique tightness (Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald was among those to report the news).  Alfaro is day-to-day, though obviously any type of oblique issue is a concern, given how such injuries have been known to keep players out for weeks at a time depending on the severity.  On the plus side, Alfaro isn’t being sent for an MRI, according to reporter Craig Mish (via Twitter).  After a 2019 that saw Alfaro hit .262/.312/.425 with 18 homers over 465 PA while posting some subpar blocking and framing numbers, Alfaro is still considered to be Miami’s first-choice catcher heading into 2020, though the club did add Francisco Cervelli as a veteran complement this winter.
  • Newly-acquired Nationals reliever Will Harris “tweaked his abdomen” in the wake of a bullpen session yesterday, manager Davey Martinez told MASNsports.com’s Pete Kerzel and other media.  MRI results were negative, and Martinez said the team was opting “to be on the conservative side,” so it doesn’t sound as if the problem is overly serious.  Harris signed a three-year, $24MM free agent deal with the Nationals this winter, going from the Astros to the team that defeated them in last fall’s World Series.
  • Speaking of the Astros, Justin Verlander threw 30 pitches of a live batting practice rather than a scheduled Spring Training start against Washington today.  It would have been Verlander’s first official outing of the spring, but the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner told reporters (including MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola) that he “wanted to be in a little more controlled environment” after suffering minor discomfort in his right groin earlier this week.  Verlander left the simulated two-inning session feeling good, and he is still scheduled to start Houston’s game against the Cardinals on Tuesday.  It is still unclear at to how this setback could impact Verlander’s usual preseason routine and his potential readiness for Opening Day, as “it all depends on where I’m at when I start in games,” the right-hander said.  “If there’s a lot of stuff I need to work on, then I don’t have a lot of time to do it.  But if I feel pretty good and my stuff’s working, it’s just about building my pitch count.  It’s kind of a TBD.”

MLBTR Polls: Washington Nationals’ Recent Additions

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The defending champion Washington Nationals began their offseason in a holding pattern, awaiting the fates of two of their brightest stars: Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg. What shook out couldn’t have been more on-brand for the pitching-focused Nats. Strasburg re-upped with the only professional organization he’s known, while Rendon joined Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Joe Maddon on an Angels’ team frontrunning for Best Smiles in the AL West, if not the division crown.

Following those twining, superstar sagas, the Nats embarked on a period of relative calm throughout much of December. While waiting in the hallway with the Twins and Braves for Josh Donaldson to make his final contract demands, Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo contented himself with bringing back as much of the championship gang as he could manage. Living legend Howie Kendrick will be back for three-to-five starts per week somewhere in the infield, Yan Gomes returns to block Patrick Corbin sliders and share in the catching duties with Kurt Suzuki, and even mid-season bullpen stabilizer Javy Guerra will get another crack to stick in the bullpen on a minor league deal. Ryan Zimmerman continues to wait in the shadows, certain to re-sign at some point, though how regularly Mr. National will see the field in 2020 is entirely unclear.

This week, however, the Nats grew tired of waiting for Donaldson and moved to add a trio of free agents. Asdrubal Cabrera is the most familiar new/old face. The man most-often charged with protecting Juan Soto in the lineup during 2019’s second half returns to Washington on a one-year, $2.5MM guarantee. Cabrera put up insane numbers in August and September for the Nats (.323/.404/.565). While he bonded nicely with the club in his second stint in the District, the Nats’ can hardly expect Cabrera to put up anything close to the Rendonian line he boasted over the season’s final two months. Somewhere between Kendrick, (presumably) Zimmerman, and top prospect Carter Kieboom, Cabrera represents a capable option to gather loose change at-bats between first, second, and third base.

But the Nationals added a rival to that infield mix as well, inking Starlin Castro to a somewhat surprising two-year, $12MM deal. Ten years into his big league career, Castro turns just 30-years-old in March while carrying an uninspiring .280/.319/.414 career line. The Nats plan to let Castro have second base until Kieboom or somebody else takes it from him, and while he fits an organization ethos that trusts veteran contributors more than the average big league team, it’s hard to get too excited about a guy whose only real elite skill has been volume. He doesn’t strike out a ton, but he won’t take walks, and neither his speed nor power elicit much awe.

Castro did absolutely rip left-handed pitching in 2019, and in the right light, Castro’s home/road, left/right and 1sthalf/2ndhalf splits can all point to a player who deserves more credit than I’m giving him. For instance, he hit .302/.334/.558 in the second half and .286/.332/.447 away from Marlins Park. Together, Cabrera and Castro give the Nats two relatively similar players whose contributions will have to be monitored, like your favorite sublet, on a month-to-month basis.

Perhaps the most unassailable move made in this past week, funny enough, is the addition of spin-rate-savant Will Harris. Nats’ fans no doubt already hold a fondness for Harris after he surrendered the World Series winning home run to Kendrick late in game seven. Years of playoff disappointment prior to 2019 should have those in the District well-prepared to look beyond the volatility of playoff results and appreciate Harris for what he is: one of the best relievers in the league. After all, Astros’ manager AJ Hinch is hardly a doofus, and quibble if you will about his decision to let $324MM man Gerrit Cole languish away in the bullpen while Harris and Kendrick put the foul pole to work – but his decision to pitch Harris in that moment was entirely defensible. That he wanted Harris on the hill should further brighten the hearts of Nats’ fans, even if the three-year, $24MM deal given him at age-35 might cause some seat-squirming. Still, this is a guy with a 2.36 ERA/2.99 FIP over the last five seasons, and he insures the Nats’ bullpen against further wear-and-tear on Sean Doolittle or stagnation from hard-throwing righty Tanner Rainey.

Donaldson could still find himself suiting up next to Trea Turner on the left side of the Nats’ infield, but Rizzo has historically stuck to his number with position players, and if Donaldson’s demands have stretched beyond his comfortability, don’t expect the disciplined Rizzo to panic. Cabrera, Castro and Harris may not be the cavalry Nats’ fans expected to ride in to defend their first ever championship, but they’re here to help all the same. The question is, do they?

(Poll link for app users)

(Poll link for app users)

(Poll link for app users)

Nationals Sign Will Harris

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JAN. 3: The Nationals have announced the deal.

JAN. 2: The Nationals have agreed to a deal with free agent right-hander Will Harris, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  The contract is a three-year pact worth $24MM, as per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (via Twitter).  Harris is represented by agent Gavin Kahn.

Reports from earlier today suggested that Harris could be nearing a signing, as he had multi-year offers on the table from more than one team.  Though Harris has a long track record of success, a three-year commitment is significant considering that the righty turned 35 last August, and only two other relievers (Drew Pomeranz and Will Smith) received three or more guaranteed years in free agency this offseason.  MLBTR projected a two-year, $18MM deal for Harris, as we ranked him 22nd on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents.

The three-year pact was a major factor for Harris, as he told Mark Berman of KRIV Fox 26 (Twitter links).  “The Nationals knew the importance of [the three-year deal] and they kept that on the table & made the decision that much easier,” Harris said.  “We agreed to terms last weekend.  From the beginning of the process the Nationals were pretty high on me.  The interest was mutual.”

While Harris’ age is a natural question mark, he has a pretty clean injury history, with only two IL stints (totaling around six weeks in 2017 due to shoulder inflammation) over his nine MLB seasons.  In that time, he has quietly posted some outstanding numbers, particularly as a member of Houston’s bullpen from 2015-19.  Harris has a 2.36 ERA, 4.38 K/BB rate, and 9.5 K/9 over 297 innings, averaging 59 frames per season.

As you might expect from an Astros pitcher, Harris had an outstanding spin rate (96th percentile) on his fastball in 2019.  His Statcast metrics also place him among the league’s best in curveball spin, hard-hit ball percentage, and xwOBA (.235, with only a .269 wOBA).  Harris has also been consistently good at keeping the ball on the ground during his career, with a 49.6% grounder rate.

Unfortunately for Harris, the most famous pitch of his career is one that he couldn’t keep out of the air — the low fastball that Howie Kendrick just got enough of, as Kendrick launched Harris’ offering off the right field foul pole for the homer that put the Nationals ahead in Game Seven of last year’s World Series.  In some unique baseball irony, Harris will now be joining the team that caused that bad memory, and he’ll even be sharing a clubhouse with Kendrick (who re-signed with the Nats on a one-year deal).

Clearly there aren’t any hard feelings on Harris’ part, and the Nationals are undoubtedly happy to add such a highly-touted reliever to their bullpen.  Washington’s relief corps was a well-publicized mess for much of last season, before Daniel Hudson’s late-season emergence helped stabilize the pen enough to take the Nats through the postseason.  Harris will lineup behind closer Sean Doolittle in 2020, and Harris’ presence now means that he’ll essentially replace Hudson in the District’s pen, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets.  The Nats were willing to give Hudson more than a one-year guarantee but not more than $6.5MM in average annual value, so they instead spent some extra money to land a more consistent reliever in Harris.

After re-signing Kendrick, Stephen Strasburg, and Yan Gomes, Harris represents the first major new face to join the Nationals this offseason.  The bullpen was unquestionably a major need for the Nats, who also have to figure out vacancies at third base in the wake of Anthony Rendon’s departure, second base, and first base, though Kendrick will be deployed around the infield in some manner and star prospect Carter Kieboom is expected to play a bigger role in 2020.

The $8MM average annual value of Harris’ deal brings Washington’s estimated luxury tax number to just under $184MM, as per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.  The Nats are still reportedly in the hunt for Josh Donaldson, whose market is now rumored to be in the four-year, $100MM range.  Landing Donaldson, therefore, would put the Nats either right up against or slightly over the $208MM tax threshold, though since the club got under the threshold last season, they would be taxed at only a first-timer rate if they surpassed $208MM this season.  The Nationals slightly exceeded the Competitive Balance Tax line in both 2017 and 2018, though they stayed in the lowest penalty zone (less than $20MM in overage).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

AL Notes: Yanks, Happ, Astros, Harris, White Sox, Robert

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Here’s an early morning look around the American League…

  • Even after losing right-hander Domingo German to an 81-game suspension for a violation of the league’s domestic violence policy, the Yankees “remain open to trading” lefty J.A. Happ, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes. The Yankees were of the belief German would serve a significant suspension all along, so the league’s decision hasn’t affected their plans regarding Happ. The big question continues to be whether they’ll be able to find a taker for Happ, who’s 37 years old, coming off a poor season and due $17MM in 2020. Happ also has a $17MM option for 2021 that will vest if he amasses 165 innings or totals 27 starts this year.  He posted back-to-back 30-start seasons from 2018-19.
  • The Nationals reeled in the top reliever left in free agency on Thursday, agreeing to a three-year, $24MM contract with righty Will Harris. The 35-year-old entered free agency off a long and fruitful run in Houston, but Harris explained to Mark Berman of Fox 26 that the Astros “were eliminated pretty early on in the process” because they weren’t prepared to approach his asking price. “They weren’t in that ballpark, no. They had kind of admitted to me they would’ve liked to have done more, but they weren’t able to.” Harris is now the latest key Astro to leave last season’s AL pennant-winning club, joining Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley. Robinson Chirinos could be the next to go.
  • In another of Thursday’s major news items, the White Sox locked up center field prospect Luis Robert to a six-year, $50MM guarantee. The two sides began negotiations back in September, and those talks gained steam at last month’s Winter Meetings, according to general manager Rick Hahn (via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). Now that Robert’s long-term future is settled, there’s no reason for the White Sox to worry about his service time, so it appears likely he’ll crack their roster out of camp. Robert’s fully confident that will happen. “I’m 100 percent convinced I’m going to be on the Opening Day roster,” the 22-year-old said.

Will Harris Weighing Offers

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Righty Will Harris has drawn somewhat less pressing interest than might have been supposed entering the offseason. But the veteran is mulling offers from multiple teams and could soon sign, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).

Harris is said to have drawn “multi-year offers worth $6-7M annually,” so he’s obviously in demand from organizations interested in quality veteran relief work. But unless one of those offers extends to the three-year range — unlikely since Harris is already 35 years of age — then the numbers being discussed are actually a bit south of what MLBTR anticipated entering the winter.

MLBTR’s Connor Byrne recently examined Harris’s situation in detail, classing Harris as the top available reliever. As he explained, the quiet right-hander has long delivered reliably excellent innings. That was the case again in 2019, as he turned in sixty innings of 1.50 ERA ball. The peripherals didn’t quite support that level of productivity, but did make clear that Harris remains quite effective with a high-spin-rate pitch mix.

It seems there’s some momentum now towards a deal, though it’s still anyone’s guess where Harris will land. The Twins have been connected as a suitor for Harris and other veteran relievers, but his market is otherwise unclear. Quite a few clear-cut and aspirational contenders could obviously benefit from his services, so it’s tough to rule out many landing spots given what has been reported to this point.

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