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Nationals Claim Eduardo Salazar From Mariners

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The Nationals announced that they have claimed right-hander Eduardo Salazar off waivers from the Mariners and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester. The Mariners had designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Nats had two vacancies on their 40-man roster, which is now at 39.

Salazar, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason. That club added him to their 40-man roster in the middle of April but designated him for assignment just over a month later. The Mariners stepped up with a claim at that time but he lasted just over two weeks before being designated for assignment again, now landing with his third club of the year.

Around those transactions, he only has one appearances in the majors this year, tossing two scoreless innings for the Dodgers back on May 15. He made seven starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City while in the Dodgers’ system with a 5.61 earned run average. The Mariners kept him in a relief role for their Triple-A club, having Salazar throw 3 1/3 innings over four outings, allowing two earned runs.

There’s not much to go on in that sample, but the Nats had a couple of roster spots to use. Last month, they designated both Víctor Robles and Matt Barnes for assignment, opening up a couple of spots on their 40-man.

The Nats are likely intriguied by Salazar’s ability to generate ground balls. He did so at a 58.6% clip with OKC and it’s possible his 5.61 ERA there wasn’t entirely his fault as he had a .389 batting average on balls in play at that time. For reference, major league average BABIP is .288 this season. He also got grounders over 54% of the time with Reds last year, both in Double-A and Triple-A. He tossed 12 1/3 innings in the majors with the Reds last year, with a 51.1% grounder rate in that time. During his brief stint in the majors here in 2024, his sinker averaged 93.9 miles per hour.

Whether the Nationals envision Salazar as a starter or a reliever remains to be seen, but he has a couple of options. That means he can be kept in the minors for the rest of this year and one more season as they try to figure out the best path forward for him. If things click, he has less than a year of service time and can therefore be a long-term piece for the Nats.

Nationals Place Trevor Williams On Injured List, Recall DJ Herz For MLB Debut

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2:20pm: Williams spoke to the Nationals beat and said while there’s no firm timetable for his return, he’ll be shut down from throwing entirely for at least the next two weeks (X link via MASNsport.com’s Mark Zuckerman). That effectively rules out any hope of a minimum 15-day stint on the injured list for the righty.

11:10am: The Nationals announced Tuesday that they’ve placed right-hander Trevor Williams on the 15-day injured list due to a strained flexor muscle in his right forearm. Left-hander DJ Herz has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester and will make his MLB debut when he starts tonight’s game.

Williams is in the midst of a career year at age 32, having pitched 56 1/3 innings of 2.22 ERA ball out of the Washington rotation. He’s achieved those results in spite of a below-average 21% strikeout rate and benefited from both a .270 average on balls in play and minuscule 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate — all of which signal the potential for regression. Nonetheless, Williams’ performance thus far has been a major driving factor behind the Nationals exceeding preseason expectations and hanging around an NL Wild Card race that is largely populated by sub-.500 clubs at the moment.

The Nats didn’t provide a timetable for Williams’ return. That he’s dealing with a muscle strain as opposed to a damaged flexor tendon is perhaps a silver lining, but that doesn’t preclude a notable absence in and of itself. Teammate Josiah Gray is dealing with the same injury and has been on the shelf for nearly two months at this point. All injuries cases are different, and we don’t know how the placement and severity of Williams’ strain compares to that of Gray, but Gray’s injury is evidence that Williams is hardly assured a swift return to the mound.

The timing of the injury is particularly poor for both the team and Williams himself. If Washington were to hang around and make a Wild Card push, one would presume a healthy Williams would play a notable role. Even if he saw his pristine ERA regress toward the vicinity of his 3.97 SIERA, he’d still be a useful veteran presence on the staff. And if the Nats were to fall well out of the postseason picture, it’s easy to envision Williams becoming a sought-after trade chip. His injury throws a wrench into both scenarios.

On a personal level, it’s also poorly timed for the pitcher himself. Wiilliams is playing out the second season of a two-year, $13MM contract and is slated to reach free agency at season’s end. He landed that $13MM guarantee in the 2022-23 offseason on the heels of a year spent primarily in a swingman role with the Mets. Had Williams reached the market a second time on the heels of a two-year run as a starter — the second season being a career-best performance — he’d have been in line for a more substantial payday, even heading into his age-33 season. It’s still possible he could return in a relatively timely manner, pitch well and reach that endgame, but the injury muddies his chances of doing so.

Turning to the 23-year-old Herz, he’ll get his first big league start less than a year after being acquired in the trade that sent Jeimer Candelario from the Nats to the Cubs. The 2019 eighth-rounder has had mixed results in the minors this year. On the one hand, his 3.75 ERA and 27.5% strikeout rate in Rochester are both strong marks. On the other, Herz has averaged just four innings per start and walked an astounding 19% of his opponents. Command has always been a weakness for the 6’2″ lefty; he’s never walked fewer than 13% of his opponents in a full season.

The Nats have already had one lefty make his MLB debut and greatly exceed expectations this season. They’ll hope that Herz can follow in the footsteps of teammate Mitchell Parker in that regard. Given the state of the rebuilding Nationals and the lack of other upper-minors pitching depth, Herz could have a fairly long runway to prove himself in the event that Williams and/or Gray remain sidelined for a significant period. Top prospect Cade Cavalli stands as one potential alternative, but he’s being monitored carefully in his return from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Prospect Jackson Rutledge and last season’s Rule 5 pick, Thaddeus Ward, are both on the 40-man roster in Rochester but both have ERAs north of 6.00 in Triple-A this season.

Tony Scott Passes Away

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Former major league player and coach Tony Scott recently passed away, per various sources, including Brent Maguire of MLB.com. Scott was 72 years old. A cause of death was not provided.

Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1951. He attended Withrow High School in Cincinnati and the Montreal Expos selected him out of that school in the 71st round of the 1969 draft. He eventually made it to the big leagues with the Expos in 1973, the first of 11 major league seasons he would play in as a speed-and-defense outfielder.

That first season saw him get into 11 games but mostly as a pinch runner or defensive replacement, as he only stepped to the plate once. It was fairly similar in 1974, as he got into 19 contests but only receive eight plate appearances.

He finally got somewhat regular playing time in 1975, getting 159 trips to the plate over 92 games for Montreal that year. He stole five bases but was caught six times and hit just .182/.258/.238. He was kept in the minors in 1976 but performed well for Triple-A Denver, slashing .311/.361/.503 while stealing 18 bases in 24 tries.

In November of that year, he was traded to the Cardinals alongside Steve Dunning and Pat Scanlon, with Bill Greif, Sam Mejías and Ángel Torres going the other way. Scott got fairly regular playing time in St. Louis, getting into 487 games during the 1977-80 seasons. He hit .258/.313/.343 in his 1,663 plate appearances and also swiped 77 bags.

Midway through the 1981 campaign, the Cards traded him to the Astros for Joaquín Andújar. Scott played a fairly similar role with the Astros for a few years before being released in 1984. He returned to his original organization by signing with the Expos in June of that year, spending a couple of months with them in what eventually turned out to be his final stint as a major league player. He finished his playing career with 991 games played and 699 hits, including 17 home runs. He batted .249 and stole 125 bases.

After his playing career ended, Scott pivoted to coaching. He worked as a minor league coach in the Phillies’ system from 1989 to 2000 and was a part of the major league coaching staff in 2000 and 2001.

We at MLBTR send our condolences to Scott’s family, friends, former teammates and coaches and all those mourning him at this time.

Nationals Request Unconditional Release Waivers On Victor Robles

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JUNE 1: The Nationals announced that they have requested unconditional release waivers on Robles.  The Talk Nats blog reported earlier today that the team was looking for a trade partner for Robles, but Washington will now instead move on from Robles entirely since it appears no deal was found.

MAY 27: The Nationals announced today that outfielder Lane Thomas has been reinstated from the injured list with fellow outfielder Víctor Robles designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Robles, now 27, was once the club’s top prospect and one of the top prospects in the entire league. Per the rankings from Baseball America, he was the Nationals’ #1 prospect in three straight years from 2017 to 2019. He was also on BA’s top 100 league-wide list from 2016 to 2019, getting as high as #5 overall going into 2018.  The expectation at that time was that Robles had the capability of being an all-around contributor and a long-term part of the outfield in Washington.

Things seemed to be in a good place in 2019, the year the Nats won the World Series. Robles hit 17 home runs and slashed .255/.326/.419. Despite the long balls, his 5.7% walk rate kept the on-base low and the wRC+ of 92 indicates he was actually a bit below average offensively overall. But thanks to above-average defense and stealing 28 bases, FanGraphs credited him as being worth 3.7 wins above replacement in his age-22 season.

Given his youth, the Nats undoubtedly expected him to continue evolving as a hitter as he aged. Unfortunately, things moved in the opposite direction in the years to come. From 2020 to 2022, Robles got into 291 games with the Nats but hit just .216/.291/.306 in that time for a wRC+ of 66. The club’s fortunes also faded in that time and they entered a rebuilding phase.

That theoretically left Robles with plenty of playing time to get back on track, but his health hasn’t really allowed him to do so. He only got into 36 games last year due to back spasms in the lumbar spine. He did perform well when on the field, hitting a solid .299/.385/.364, but hasn’t carried that over in 2024. He spent about a month on the injured list due to left hamstring strain and has produced a brutal line of .120/.281/.120 in the 14 games he has played.

Robles was slated to reach free agency after the 2024 campaign and the Nationals were likely hoping for a nice run of play this season, at least allowing them to flip Robles for something at the deadline before he slipped away from them for nothing. Unfortunately, his performance hasn’t inspired much confidence and they are cutting him off the roster today.

They will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers, though any interest is likely to be fairly modest after years of poor performance and injury absences. He’s making a salary of $2.65MM this year, with still about two thirds of that left to be paid out. Perhaps the Nats will try to eat some of that money to facilitate a deal but it’s also possible that Robles just ends up released. He has enough service time that he can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency while keeping all that money intact.

It’s undeniably been a disappointing few years and hardly what the club had in mind, given the prospect pedigree and the promising start to his career. But for Robles personally, it’s not too late for him to find a second act somewhere. He just turned 27 last week and could perhaps get back on track with a run of good health and the right opportunity.

Nationals Notes: Wood, Thomas

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One of the chief questions surrounding the Nationals this season is when star prospect James Wood could be making his Major League debut, though that debate might be put on hold while Wood overcomes a minor injury.  Wood left Thursday’s Triple-A game with tightness in his right hamstring, and Nats manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Andrew Golden of the Washington Post) that the removal was precautionary in nature.

One of the chief questions surrounding the Nationals this season is when star prospect James Wood could be making his Major League debut, though that debate might be put on hold while Wood overcomes a minor injury.  Wood left Thursday’s Triple-A game with tightness in his right hamstring, and Nats manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Andrew Golden of the Washington Post) that the removal was precautionary in nature.

More from the Nationals and the Orioles…

  • It has now been a month since a Grade 2 MCL sprain sent Lane Thomas to Washington’s 10-day injured list, and Martinez told Golden and company that Thomas will be re-evaluated this weekend.  This could potentially mean an activation from the IL, or perhaps just a move up to Triple-A games in the next stage of Thomas’ rehab assignment.  Thomas has already played in four games with Double-A Harrisburg, and Martinez said that Thomas has been a little sore but otherwise feeling okay in his return to action.  Thomas was off to a slow start (.184/.250/.253) over his first 96 PA of the season, but the outfielder was the Nationals’ most consistent hitter in 2023, with 28 homers and a .268/.315/.468 slash line over 682 PA.

Nationals Release Stephen Nogosek

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The Nationals have released Stephen Nogosek, according to the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page.  Nogosek signed a minor league deal with Washington during the offseason but will now return to the open market after a rough stint at Triple-A Rochester.

Over 11 appearances and 15 2/3 innings with the Red Wings, Nogosek posted a 9.77 ERA with 18 walks against only 15 strikeouts.  While Nogosek’s control has been spotty over his eight pro seasons, the situation has greatly worsened in the last two seasons, as the righty also had an 18.18% walk rate over 36 combined innings at the Triple-A and Double-A levels in 2023.  This issue surely contributed to the Mets’ decision to designate Nogosek for assignment last June, and why the Diamondbacks didn’t give him a look on the big league roster after signing him to a minors deal in the wake of his departure from New York.

Nogosek’s control problems haven’t really manifested themselves at the big league level, over a sample size of 57 1/3 innings in parts of four MLB seasons.  Debuting with the Mets in 2019, Nogosek has a 5.02 ERA over his 33 career appearances in the Show, with an 8.9% walk rate and 22% strikeout rate.  Home runs have been Nogosek’s biggest sticking point against Major League hitters, who have taken him yard 14 times over those 57 1/3 frames of work.  Nogosek had generally done a pretty good job of keeping the ball in the park in the minors, yet his home run issues cropped up at Triple-A this season with five homers allowed during his brief time in Rochester.

The 29-year-old now returns to the open market in search of another minor league deal, and hopefully a fresh start in another organization.  Nogosek is out of minor league options, which adds another layer of complication to his efforts to find a new contract and stick in a big league bullpen.

Cade Cavalli To Begin Rehab Assignment

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  • The Nationals have been without former top pitching prospect Cade Cavalli since he underwent Tommy John surgery back in March of 2023, but it appears that the 25-year-old hurler is now nearing a huge step in his rehab process. According to Mark Zuckerman of MASN, Cavalli is “ready” to begin a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League. It will be his first appearance in an official game since his big league debut on August 26, 2022. MLB.com’s Injury Tracker indicates that Cavalli will be built up slowly over the course of his rehab, with two or three innings being the goal for his first appearance. The Nationals have been surprisingly competitive so far this season with a 20-23 record that places them in third place in the NL East, and a healthy and effective return to action from Cavalli later this season could be a huge boost for a rotation that already features exciting youngsters such as MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker.

Ted Leonsis Expresses Continued Interest In Purchasing Nationals

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The long-term future of the Nationals has been in question for the past few years. The Lerner family announced in April 2022 they would look into selling the franchise. Within a few months, it became clear that Ted Leonsis — CEO of Monumental Sports and owner of the NHL’s Capitals and NBA’s Wizards — was the frontrunner.

Talks between the Lerners and Leonsis fizzled out, largely because of uncertainty regarding the Nats’ television rights deal. The Lerners were reportedly seeking around $2.5 billion back in 2022. The family announced this February they were no longer interested in selling the team. That seemingly put the matter to rest, but Leonsis told Scott Allen, Barry Svrluga and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post on Tuesday that he’s planning to put another proposal on the table at some point.

“I’ve told employees; I’ve told the Lerner family: ‘We are very interested. And we will figure out the right time and place to come with a thoughtful, dignified, real offer,” Leonsis said. “And they can say yes, they can say no. They can say, ‘We want to keep the team.’”

Leonsis can’t force the Lerners to sell, of course. However, the Post reports that the Lerner family may be willing to again entertain offers for the franchise after the 2024 season. While previous discussions haven’t been fruitful, it’s possible the ownership change on the other side of the Beltway Series will make a sale of the Nats more viable.

The primary complication to the Nationals changing hands has long been the team’s contentious TV contract with the Orioles. The franchises jointly own the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, with the O’s holding a larger share. If Leonsis had agreed to a deal with the Lerners, he’d likely have tried to work out an arrangement with the Orioles to buy out of the MASN deal. Longstanding acrimony between the franchises made that difficult to envision so long as the Angelos family was in control of the Orioles. New Baltimore owner David Rubenstein has publicly expressed a desire to reach an agreement with the Nats to resolve the MASN dispute.

Whether that happens remains to be seen. There’s no indication anything is imminent on that front, and it appears Leonsis is willing to be patient in putting together a new offer for the Nats. “The Nationals and the Lerner family have said the team is not for sale, right? It’s not a formal process. And that is true,” he told the Post. “So there’s obviously no rush by them. They’re enjoying the season, right?” It’s nevertheless a situation worth keeping an eye on over the coming months.

Richard Bleier Opts Out Of Minors Deal With Nationals

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Left-hander Richard Bleier has opted out of his minor league deal with the Nationals, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He’ll head to the open market and will be free to pursue opportunities with all 30 clubs.

Bleier, 37, signed a minor league deal with the Nationals in February. He joined them in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee and posted 1.69 earned run average over 10 2/3 innings. He didn’t get a roster spot out of camp and reported to Triple-A Rochester.

He threw 16 2/3 innings for that club with a 4.32 ERA. He only struck out 14.7% of batters faced but Bleier has always been a low-strikeout guy who succeeds by keeping the ball on the ground and avoiding free passes. He walked just 2.9% of batters faced for the Red Wings and got grounders on 51.8% of balls in play.

Those numbers are all roughly in line with his career work in the majors as a journeyman grounder specialist. He has 330 1/3 innings of big league experience with the Yankees, Orioles, Marlins and Red Sox. Over that time, he has a 3.27 ERA, 13.6% strikeout rate, 3.9% walk rate and 60.9% ground ball rate.

The Nationals have selected the contracts of other veterans to their bullpen this year, such as Derek Law, Jacob Barnes and Matt Barnes. It seems that Bleier didn’t expect to be next in line, so he will look for opportunities elsewhere. Left-handed relief tends to always be in demand and many clubs around the league are dealing with mounting injuries, which could open opportunities for Bleier elsewhere.

East Notes: Riley, Rodriguez, Poche, Winker

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Austin Riley left tonight’s game in the fourth inning with what the Braves described as left side tightness.  The removal was specifically cited to be “a precaution,” so there isn’t yet any indication that Riley may have suffered an oblique-related injury.  Speaking with reporters (including Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) afterwards, Riley said he felt the side soreness during batting practice but didn’t inform the team because he didn’t think the issue was too much of a concern.

Though Atlanta has an impressive 24-13 record, Riley is one of a few Braves stars who have yet to really get rolling at the plate.  A top-seven finisher in NL MVP voting in each of the last three seasons, Riley has hit only .245/.319/.388 over his first 163 plate appearances, with just three home runs.  The power dropoff is unusual since Riley’s advanced metrics are largely similar to previous seasons, though since Riley has also shown some streakiness in past years, a breakout might be just around the corner if he is healthy.  Losing Riley for any stretch of time would hurt Atlanta’s lineup, though the newly-acquired Short might have a sudden path to regular lineup if Riley does need to hit the injured list.

More from the NL and AL East divisions….

  • Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez came out of a 30-pitch bullpen session today feeling “great,” he told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters.  Rodriguez’s 15-day IL stint due to shoulder inflammation retroactively started on April 30, so Wednesday would be his first day eligible for activation, though it seems as though he’ll be out for at least a little beyond that date.  Rodriguez figures he’ll throw another bullpen session and then it isn’t yet certain if he’ll need a rehab start or not before returning to Baltimore’s rotation.  With a 3.71 ERA in his first 34 innings, Rodriguez is one of several Orioles pitchers performing well this season, giving the O’s a nice problem to sort out once everyone is healthy.
  • Mid-back tightness sent Colin Poche to the Rays’ 15-day IL on April 24, and he had to halt his throwing program to receive “a second cortisone-type shot, a more impactful kind for which he had to undergo anesthesia,” Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  The plan is for Poche to start throwing again on Wednesday, and this setback might push his IL activation into June.  Poche was a quality workhorse out of the Rays’ bullpen in 2022-23, but he has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 9 1/3 innings so far this season.
  • Jesse Winker had to make an early exit today, as Winker’s back spasms forced the Nationals to pinch-hit for the outfielder in the sixth inning of today’s 3-2 loss to the Red Sox.  Winker told the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden (X link) and other reporters that his back was sore even prior to the game, but the issue got worse after he dove for a Rob Refsnyder line drive single in the bottom of the fifth.  Though he has greatly cooled off since a very strong start to the season, Winker’s .235/.350/.386 slash line and four homers over 157 PA still translates to a 114 wRC+, representing a nice bounce-back from a very disappointing 2023 campaign.  It seems like Winker will miss a game or two at least, and a 10-day IL stint might be necessary if the spasms persist.
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