Tyler Danish has opted out of his minor league deal with the Nationals, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link). Danish signed with Washington at the start of May, after being released from a previous minors contract with the Yankees at the end of Spring Training.
Over 29 relief innings with Triple-A Rochester, Danish posted a 3.72 ERA, with a 15.3% strikeout rate and a 11.5% walk rate. The low strikeout rate isn’t necessarily a surprise since Danish is a grounder specialist (his groundball rate is a whopping 58.7% this year), but his high walk rate continues the control problems that have emerged over his last two seasons at the minor league level. The Nationals apparently hadn’t seen enough to add Danish to their active roster, or to make room for him on the 40-man.
The 28-year-old right-hander will now head back to the open market once more, looking for another path back to the big leagues. Danish appeared in parts of the 2016-18 seasons with the White Sox (for 13 total innings) before resurfacing back in the majors with the Red Sox in 2022, posting a 5.13 ERA over 40 1/3 frames.