Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Nationals Rumors

Mike Rizzo: Luxury Tax Somewhat “Limited” Nationals At Deadline

By | at

Washington acquired three relief pitchers – Daniel Hudson, Roenis Elias and Hunter Strickland – prior to Wednesday’s trade deadline, but the club also attempted to bolster its starting staff before then. While the Nationals “were engaged on a starting pitcher Tuesday night,” the other team bowed out of talks, Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports. The Nats were in the mix for a No. 5-caliber starter, and had they landed him, they wouldn’t have come away with as many relievers as they did, according to Svrluga.

As expected, the competitive balance tax was a concern for the Nationals as they tried to improve in advance of the deadline, Svrluga writes. The Nationals entered the season reluctant to exceed the $206MM tax, which would’ve meant shelling out a 50 percent surtax for every dollar spent over that figure. Even after the acquisitions of Hudson, Elias and Strickland, they’re at just under $204MM, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource and FanGraphs estimates. Consequently, after exceeding the tax for two straight years, the Nationals are in position to stay below it this season. They paid $2,386,097 for going over the barrier in 2018.

It’s highly debatable whether the Nationals should have been so bent on steering clear of the tax this year. After all, as Svrluga notes, what’s a couple million more for a team spending upward of $200MM on players? But it was nonetheless important for the Nationals, who are slated to reset the tax by avoiding it this season. General manager Mike Rizzo did admit, though, that “it limited us to an extent.”

While Rizzo was seemingly able to improve a bullpen that has been problematic all season, he wasn’t able to address a rotation with concerns of its own. All-world ace Max Scherzer just landed on the injured list Monday for the second time in the past few weeks because of back/shoulder troubles, leaving Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez as the only established pieces in the Nationals’ rotation right now. Erick Fedde and Joe Ross, both unproven at the major league level, are filling out the group at the moment. The Nationals (57-51) are tied for the NL’s second wild-card spot, but we’ll see whether their insistence on dodging the tax comes back to haunt them before the season ends.

Nationals Designate Javy Guerra, Michael Blazek

By | at

  • The Nationals announced that they’ve designated righties Javy Guerra and Michael Blazek for assignment. The 33-year-old Guerra has divided the season between Washington and Toronto, combining for a 4.50 ERA/3.86 FIP with 7.36 K/9 and 3.07 BB/9 across 44 innings. Blazek, 30, threw just five innings for the Nationals before his designation. Prior to his addition to the Nats’ roster, Blazek recorded a 5.54 ERA/4.91 FIP with 9.69 K/9 and 3.46 BB/9 in 26 Triple-A innings.

Nationals To Acquire Roenis Elias

By | at

After first picking up reliever Daniel Hudson from the Blue Jays, the Nationals have reached an agreement to acquire lefty Roenis Elias from the Mariners. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first to report a deal was close, with Joel Sherman of the New York Post indicating that Elias had indeed been traded to the Nats.  Minor leaguers Elvis Alvarado and Taylor Guilbeau will head to Seattle in the deal, according to Rosenthal.

Elias, 31 tomorrow, broke in as a starter with the Mariners in 2014 and was re-acquired by the club in April 2018 after a two-year stint with Boston.  Working exclusively out of Seattle’s pen this year, he has a 4.40 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.53 HR/9, and 34.1% groundball rate in 47 innings.  He’s faced 60 left-handed hitters in 2019, and they’ve teed off to the tune of a .353/.441/.549 batting line.  He’s been much more effective against lefties in the past.  With Hunter Strickland going down with a lat injury in April, Elias was able to slide into the Mariners’ closer role and rack up 14 saves in 16 opportunities.  Elias is earning $910K this year and is under team control through 2021.

The Nationals notoriously own the worst bullpen ERA in baseball, with their crew tallying a 5.97 ERA in 321 1/3 innings. Aside from closer Sean Doolittle, they’ve currently got Matt Grace and Tony Sipp coming out of the bullpen from the left side.  Neither has been particularly effective.  The Nationals signed veteran lefty Jonny Venters in late May and selected his contract a month later, but he’s on the IL with a shoulder strain.

Guilbeau, a lefty reliever who was promoted to Triple-A earlier this month, ranked as the Nationals’ 15th-best prospect according to MLB.com.  The site rated him as a 40 grade prospect, suggesting he can ride a mid-90s heater and above-average slider to a career as a left-handed specialist.  Alvarado was signed as an international free agent for $700K out of the Dominican Republic in 2015.  He played right field regularly in 2017 in the Dominican Summer League, moving to the mound in 2018-19 in the Gulf Coast League.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nationals To Acquire Hunter Strickland

By | at

The Nationals will acquire reliever Hunter Strickland from the Mariners, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Lefty Aaron Fletcher’s going to Seattle in return.

Strickland’s the third reliever of the day heading to the bullpen-needy Nationals. He’s the second on his way from the Mariners, who previously traded lefty Roenis Elias to the Nationals. The Nats also landed righty Daniel Hudson from the Blue Jays.

Strickland, a former Giant whom the Mariners signed to a $1.3MM guarantee in the offseason, has barely pitched this year. A lat strain kept him out of action from the end of March until earlier this week. Strickland made his first appearance in almost four months last Sunday, throwing a clean inning against the Tigers.

Considering the 30-year-old Strickland has totaled just 3 1/3 frames this year, there’s not much to glean from his performance. But he was largely an effective option with the Giants from 2014-18, a 226-inning span in which the hard thrower notched a 2.91 ERA/3.40 FIP with 8.4 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9. Strickland also had a memorable dustup with then-Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper during that period, though that’s obviously not a concern now with Harper a member of the Phillies.

Strickland could be a multiyear piece for the Nationals, who will have a chance to control him via arbitration for two seasons after this one. Meanwhile, the hope for the Mariners is that Fletcher will be around for much longer. The 23-year-old, whom the Nationals chose in the 14th round of the 2018 draft, has divided this season among the Single-A, High-A and Double-A levels, pitching to a sterling 1.79 ERA with 10.3 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 60 1/3 innings. Fletcher ranked as the Nationals’ 21st-best prospect prior to the trade, according to MLB.com, which sees him as a potential major league reliever.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nationals Acquire Daniel Hudson

By | at

2:32pm: This deal is now official. Southpaw Jonny Venters goes on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.

12:55pm: The Nationals have struck a deal to acquire righty Daniel Hudson, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN (Twitter link). Minor-league righty Kyle Johnston is going to Toronto in return, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).

Hudson, 32, emerged as a trade candidate after throwing 48 innings of 3.00 ERA ball for the Blue Jays this year. That’s a nice showing considering that Toronto added him late in camp on a minor-league deal with a $1.5MM base salary and $1.5MM in incentives.

Unfortunately, it’s questionable whether Hudson can sustain that effort down the stretch. He’s averaging a strikeout per inning, but has also handed out 4.3 walks per nine and has benefited from a .258 batting average on balls in play and 80.7% strand rate. While he’s still pumping 96, Hudson is also sitting at a 9.9% swinging-strike rate after topping twelve percent in each of the three prior seasons.

No doubt the Nats don’t expect Hudson to dominate so much as to provide serviceable innings. The club has not had enough of those to this point of the season, creating a need for multiple deadline additions. In all likelihood, Hudson is the first of one or more new relief arms who’ll come to DC in the next two hours.

The 23-year-old Johnston is a former sixth-round pick who’s said to hold some promise as a future reliever. He’s currently working at the High-A level, where he owns a 4.03 ERA in 105 innings with 8.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves, Nats Pursuing Shane Greene

By | at

12:36pm: The Tigers are still insisting the Nats part with top prospect Carter Kieboom to move Greene, according to Morosi (Twitter link). It’s frankly difficult to imagine that asking price being met with the highly regarded Kieboom dominating Triple-A pitching at 21 years of age. That’s all the more true given that Kieboom could fit on the Nats’ 2020 roster (if not the late-2019 roster) in a variety of ways.

12:07pm: The Braves and Nationals are not just engaged in a key series at the moment. It seems they’re also each pushing for the same relief arms — in particular, Tigers righty Shane Greene.

The Atlanta and Washington organizations are “leaders in the clubhouse” to secure the services of Greene, according to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News (Twitter link). Talks between the Braves and Tigers have “intensified” recently, with Greene “the focus,” per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter).

Greene, 30, is earning a reasonable $4MM this year for the Tigers. That’s nothing for his 38 innings of 1.18 ERA ball and 22 saves, though rival organizations still need to assess whether that’s what they can expect moving forward from Greene, who’ll be eligible for arbitration a final time next year.

Clearly, nobody thinks he’ll be able to sustain that sort of pitching output. But there’s good reason to think that Greene is and will remain a quality late-inning piece. He’s carrying 10.2 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 with a 53.8% groundball rate, with an 11.1% swinging-strike rate that’s substantially better than his prior two seasons.

Nationals Interested In Drew Pomeranz

By | at

Nationals Designate Justin Miller

By | at

The Nationals announced today that they have designated righty Justin Miller for assignment. He had been on the 60-day injured list.

Miller, 32, was working back from shoulder issues. Though he was ready to be activated, the club obviously decided that he wasn’t going to be a significant part of the relief mix going forward. The unit has struggled badly as a whole, but is likely going to receive reinforcements in the next two days.

It’s still possible that Miller will end up clearing waivers and landing at Triple-A with the Nats, though he’d have the right to elect free agency instead. He had a strong comeback showing last year in D.C., but never got things going this season.

To open the current campaign, Miller threw 15 2/3 innings of 4.02 ERA ball with 11 strikeouts and four walks. He did rack up 18 strikeouts without a single free pass in his 12 2/3 total rehab frames, but evidently the Nats did not expect that to carry over into the majors.

Nationals Place Max Scherzer On 10-Day IL

By | at

The Nationals have placed ace righty Max Scherzer on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. Erick Fedde was called up to take his active-roster spot.

Scherzer is dealing with a mild rhomboid strain, the second seemingly minor upper back/shoulder malady he has come down with this year. The hope remains that the superb starter will not miss too much time, but it was evidently determined he’d be sidelined long enough to warrant a move to bring in another arm.

It’s a balancing act for Scherzer and the Nats. Both would obviously prefer that he be on the mound right now, but the issues he’s experiencing are in a worrying area of the body. The club must also ensure it has Scherzer at full health down the stretch.

Fedde, 26, has delivered 50 1/3 innings of 3.40 ERA ball this year in eight starts and five relief appearances. Unfortunately, he’s also carrying an uninspiring blend of 26 strikeouts and 21 walks. He’ll help hold down the fort for the time being, but the Nats have an obvious need to add hurlers over the next two days.

Nationals Interested In Jose Leclerc

By | at

  • Also from Morosi, the Nationals have interest in Rangers righty Jose Leclerc.  Washington has been connected to a wide range of relievers, and Leclerc boasts a 3.99 ERA, 3.27 K/BB rate, and a huge 13.7 K/9 over 47 1/3 IP for Texas this season, not to mention a long-term contract that could keep him until team control through the 2024 campaign.  Needless to say, all these attributes would require a big return to pry him loose from Texas, which could be tricky for a Nats organization that isn’t overly deep on minor league talent.
Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top