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Nationals Promote Jose A. Ferrer For Major League Debut

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June 30: The Nationals have made this official, announcing the recall of Ferrer. Lefty Patrick Corbin was placed on the bereavement list in a corresponding move.

June 29: The Nationals are going to promote left-handed pitcher Jose A. Ferrer, reports Héctor Gómez of Z101 Digital. Ferrer, who will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, is already on the 40-man roster but will require a corresponding move to get on the active roster. That move may not come until tomorrow because the Nats are off today.

Ferrer, 23, was signed by the Nats out of the Dominican Republic for $100K back in 2017. The reliever got some professional experience in Rookie ball in the next couple of years, though the minor leagues were then canceled by the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, he tossed 35 2/3 innings in the Complex League with a 2.78 ERA.

2022 proved to be a big breakout year for him, as he finally made it to full-season ball. He began the year in Single-A and eventually moved up to High-A and Double-A. He threw 65 1/3 innings between those three levels with a combined 2.48 ERA. He struck out 30.5% of opponents while walking just 4.3%. He was selected to appear in the Futures Game along the way.

The Nationals added him to their 40-man roster in November to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s spent all of this year in Triple-A thus far, logging 40 innings over 34 appearances. He has a 3.83 ERA but his peripherals have dipped since last year. He’s struck out just 18.4% of opponents while walking 11.2%, though he’s continued to get grounders on roughly half of the balls in play he’s allowed. Ferrer was recently ranked the club’s #18 prospect at Baseball America, #28 at FanGraphs and got the #20 spot from Keith Law of The Athletic coming into the year.

The Nats haven’t had much left-handed relief to speak of this season. The only southpaws to pitch out of the club’s bullpen this year have been Anthony Banda and Joe La Sorsa. Banda posted a 6.43 ERA over seven innings before getting outrighted off the roster. La Sorsa was just claimed off waivers from the Rays three weeks back and was in the minors on optional assignment until a week ago. That should give Ferrer an opening to establish himself in the club’s bullpen mix going forward.

Nationals’ Buy-Low Addition Should Pay Off At Trade Deadline

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Every offseason, rebuilding clubs take one-year fliers on formerly productive veterans coming off bad seasons. They’re generally minimal financial commitments that afford the player a fresh start with a path to regular playing time. In most instances, the team is hoping the player puts together a strong first half that turns them into a reasonably valuable trade candidate come deadline season.

The hit rate on deals of this nature isn’t particularly high. Most players don’t rebound as hoped. Wil Myers was designated for assignment by the Reds. Pierce Johnson hasn’t panned out for the Rockies. Ditto for Trevor May in Oakland and Corey Dickerson and Dominic Smith in Washington. The Nationals will happily live with a couple misses in exchange for one notable hit, and they found it in third baseman Jeimer Candelario.

Candelario looked like a potential building block for the Tigers a few seasons ago. He led MLB in doubles two seasons back and combined to hit .278/.356/.458 in over 800 plate appearances between 2020-21. Even with generally middling defensive marks, he was a productive regular based on his well-rounded profile at the plate.

Things cratered for him last season. Candelario managed only a .217/.273/.361 slash over 467 trips to the dish. His walks fell to a career-worst level as he chased more pitches outside the strike zone. The contact quality similarly regressed sharply. It was essentially a replacement-level season overall. The entire Tigers lineup was a disaster, leading to a front office change in August. New baseball operations leader Scott Harris and his staff moved on from Candelario, declining to tender him an arbitration contract projected in the $7MM range.

That sent him to free agency for the first time. Washington stepped in with a one-year, $5MM guarantee that contained $1MM in additional incentives ($200K for reaching 200 plate appearances and $100K thereafter for each 100 trips to the plate, maxing out at 600). Carter Kieboom opening the season on the injured list ensured Candelario would get regular run at the hot corner in the early going.

He has seized the opportunity with a performance essentially in line with his 2020-21 production. Candelario has a .263/.338/.471 line with 10 home runs over 325 plate appearances. He’s tied for second in MLB with 26 doubles. Candelario has dialed the approach back in, cut down slightly on the swing-and-miss, and pushed his exit velocities back up a couple ticks.

Candelario has paired that with better than expected defensive grades. Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast have pegged him between three and five runs better than average over 662 1/3 innings of third base work. It’s the first time since 2020 in which he has rated as an above-average defender. Single-season defensive metrics can be variable, but Candelario looks to be a capable gloveman at the hot corner, even if he’s unlikely to win a Gold Glove.

Nothing in his offensive production is dramatically out of line with his best years in Detroit. In a broad sense, he just seems to have put last year’s awful season behind him. There is one notable change from Candelario’s early-career production, though: the platoon splits.

For his career, he’d generally been better from the right side of the dish. Candelario entered this season with an overall .270/.329/.438 batting line against southpaws compared to a .230/.320/.388 showing versus right-handed pitching. The script has flipped this year. Candelario has a .279/.350/.537 line against righties and is hitting only .227/.313/.318 off left-handers.

That probably won’t change front offices’ opinions on him too much. This year’s platoon splits are very small samples; he has only 99 plate appearances against southpaws. He’s probably not going to keep teeing off on right-handers at quite this level and he’ll presumably see his production against lefties pick back up. He’s not the cleanest fit for a team seeking a strict platoon bat, but he’s shown enough from both sides of the plate throughout his career he’d be a fine plug-and-play regular at the hot corner.

It seems very likely he’ll be donning a new uniform five weeks from now. He surpasses the six-year service threshold this season and is headed back to the open market next winter. Candelario has played well enough the Nats could at least consider a qualifying offer if they held onto him. There’d be a strong chance he accepts, though, which would keep him in Washington for another season at a salary around four times greater than this year’s figure.

It’s hard to envision Candelario having more trade value for Washington than he does right now. Not only is he affordable and productive, this year’s market for offense could be very thin. The upcoming free agent class is extremely light on position players, reducing the number of productive rental bats available. That’s especially true on the infield. The Blue Jays almost certainly won’t trade Matt Chapman, positioning Candelario as the top impending free agent infielder who’s likely to be on the trade market.

Teams like the Marlins, Phillies, Cubs (where Candelario began his career) and Diamondbacks haven’t gotten much production out of third base. The Astros have Alex Bregman at the hot corner but are looking for another bat, preferably one who can hit from the left side. Candelario could factor in at first base or designated hitter in that scenario. The Brewers have some uncertainty at both corner infield spots.

If Candelario finishes the season strong, he should be able to leverage that infield scarcity into a solid multi-year free agent deal. A trade would kill any possibility of him being saddled with draft pick compensation — players moved midseason cannot receive a qualifying offer — and he’ll hit the market at age 30. A three or maybe even four-year deal with annual salaries north of $10MM doesn’t seem out of the question.

Candelario’s stint in Washington will probably be brief, but it’s shaping up exactly as intended for both parties. The Nats look positioned to add a couple mid-level prospects to their farm system, while Candelario is parlaying his opportunity into a much more lucrative free agency trip.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Nationals Select Amos Willingham

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5:05pm: The Nationals have now made this official, selecting Willingham and optioning right-hander Paolo Espino to Triple-A as the corresponding move.

1:20pm: The Nationals are planning to call up right-hander Amos Willingham, reports Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. The club has an open spot on their 40-man roster but will need a corresponding move to get Willingham onto the active roster.

Willingham, 24, has spent his entire professional career with the Nationals, who selected him in the 17th round of the 2019 draft. He made a brief professional debut in Low-A that year before the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. Since then, he has been climbing up the minor league ladder, working exclusively as a reliever and seemingly getting better at almost every stop.

He split 2021 between Single-A and High-A, tossing 60 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA, 21% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. He spent all of last year in High-A with a 3.41 ERA over 34 1/3 innings, striking out 27.6% of opponents while walking just 4.8%. He began this year at Double-A and carved up hitters at that level, throwing 10 2/3 scoreless innings with a 35% strikeout rate and 2.5% walk rate. That excellent showing got him bumped to Triple-A, where he finally slowed down a bit, posting a 3.46 ERA through 13 innings with a 20% strikeout rate and 14.5% walk rate.

Despite the relatively tepid Triple-A performance, Willingham has clearly impressed the Washington brass with his ascent in recent years. He’s started getting noticed outside the organization as well, with Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranking him the club’s #25 prospect earlier this month. Longenhagen writes that Willingham’s fastball is “now sitting 94-95 mph with big ride at the top of the zone” and that he can take a step forward if he improves his slider command.

The Nats will give Willingham a shot to see how his stuff plays against big league hitters while giving manager Dave Martinez a fresh arm for the bullpen. When the club starts tonight’s game in Seattle, it will be their 14th day in a row taking the field with two more scheduled against the Mariners before an off-day on Thursday.

Nationals Place Chad Kuhl On Release Waivers

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The Nationals announced that they have requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Chad Kuhl. The righty was designated for assignment over the weekend and will now become a free agent upon clearing.

It’s a fairly expected outcome for Kuhl to find himself on release waivers, given his performance and contract. He settled for a minor league deal with the Nats this winter and cracked the club’s Opening Day rotation when Cade Cavalli required Tommy John surgery. Kuhl posted a 9.41 ERA through five starts before landing on the injured list due to a sprained big toe on his right foot. He returned a few weeks later and was bumped to the bullpen but then had a 7.16 ERA in his next 11 appearances before getting knocked off the roster this weekend.

As a veteran with over five years of major league service time, Kuhl would have had the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining all of his remaining salary. It was reported yesterday by the Associated Press that Kuhl is making a $2MM salary this year. No team was going to take that on money via waiver claim or trade, so the Nats have skipped the formalities of the outright process and just opted to release Kuhl.

Once he’s officially on the open market, he’ll be free to sign with any of the 29 other clubs, with the Nats remaining on hook for what’s left of his contract. The signing club would only be responsible for paying him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, which would be subtracted from what the Nats pay.

His struggles this season will obviously temper the interest, but he has been an effective big league pitcher in the past. With the Pirates from 2016 to 2021, he had a 4.44 ERA over 439 2/3 innings, striking out 20.8% of opponents while walking 10.3% and getting grounders on 41.7% of balls in play. A stint with the Rockies last year saw his ERA bump up to 5.72 prior to joining the Nats this year. Given the number of pitching injuries around the league, some club could be tempted to add Kuhl for no financial risk and see if he can bounce back.

Nationals Designate Chad Kuhl For Assignment

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The Nationals announced this evening that the club has designated right-hander Chad Kuhl for assignment. In a corresponding move, Washington has recalled right-hander Paolo Espino.

The move likely brings Kuhl’s tenure with Washington to an end. The 30-year-old veteran joined the Nationals on a minor league deal back in February, and Kuhl managed to crack the club’s Opening Day rotation after youngster Cade Cavalli was sidelined for the 2023 campaign by Tommy John surgery. Unfortunately, Kuhl struggled massively across five starts with the Nationals, posting an 9.41 ERA in 22 innings of work with a FIP of 6.91.

Kuhl was placed on the 15-day IL at the beginning of May after a difficult April with a sprained big toe in his right foot, and returned to the Nationals at the end of May in a multi-inning relief role. The results improved from there, but only slightly, as Kuhl allowed 15 runs (13 earned) in 16 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen across 11 appearances. While those numbers are slightly inflated by two implosions against the Diamondbacks and Padres during which Kuhl allowed a combined eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings, it’s still easy to see why the Nationals pulled the plug on the veteran hurler.

Prior to his time in DC, Kuhl pitched for the Pirates in five seasons, swinging in and out of the rotation. He was a perfectly serviceable back-of-the-rotation arm during that time, with a 4.44 ERA (95 ERA+) in 439 2/3 innings of work during his time in Pittsburgh. Following his departure from the Pirates, Kuhl signed on with the Rockies on a one-year, $3MM deal that offered him a permanent spot in the Colorado rotation. Kuhl failed to impress with the opportunity, however, delivering a 5.72 ERA and 5.26 FIP across 27 starts with the Rockies.

Going forward, Kuhl seems likely to clear waivers and have the opportunity to choose between accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A with the Nationals or looking to catch on with another club on a minor league deal, though it’s at least theoretically possible that the Nationals could work out a trade with another club interested in Kuhl’s services.

As for Espino, the 36-year-old right-hander has been with the Nationals since 2020, pitching to a 4.56 ERA (88 ERA+) in 229 innings of work with the club split between the rotation and the bullpen. He’s posted similar numbers in Triple-A for the club this season, with an identical 4.56 ERA in 11 starts at the level this season. Espino figures to move back to the bullpen now that he’s with the big league club, as the Nationals stick with a starting five of Josiah Gray, Patrick Corbin, Trevor Williams, MacKenzie Gore, and Jake Irvin.

Nationals Select Derek Hill, Place Victor Robles On Injured List

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The Nationals have selected the contract of outfielder Derek Hill from Triple-A Rochester, per a team announcement. In a corresponding 26-man roster move, center fielder Victor Robles was placed on the 10-day IL due to lower back spasms. Washington already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move was not necessary in that regard. MASNsports.com’s Bobby Blanco noted prior to the announcement that Hill was in the Nationals’ clubhouse.

Hill 27, was the No. 23 overall pick by the Tigers back in the 2014 draft but has yet to deliver on that draft status and several years ranking among Detroit’s top farmhands. He spent parts of three big league seasons with the Tigers, appearing in 95 games and taking 254 plate appearances from 2020-22. The resulting .240/.291/.339 slash line was underwhelming and ultimately led to a DFA for Hill just prior to last summer’s trade deadline. The Mariners claimed him a few days later but outrighted him off the 40-man roster in October. Hill elected minor league free agency and caught on with the Nats.

It’s been a brilliant start to the season for Hill up in Rochester, where he’s turned in a .324/.381/.533 batting line with eight homers, 10 doubles, a pair of triples and 10 steals (in 11 tries). His 7.8% walk rate is a bit below average, but his 21.6% strikeout rate is also slightly lower than that of an average big league hitter. It’s Hill’s third season with time spent at the Triple-A level, and he now carries a .283/.344/.470 batting line at that level in an even 600 plate appearances. Hill is out of minor league options, so the Nats can’t send him back down unless they first designate him for assignment and pass him through outright waivers.

Robles, 26, will head to the injured list in the midst of his best showing since a 21-game cup of coffee with the Nats back in 2018. The longtime top prospect is hitting .299/.385/.364 in 126 plate appearances this season, with the uptick in production largely attributable to a career-low 14.3% strikeout rate. Robles’ 8.7% walk rate is also the second-highest mark he’s posted since his 2017 MLB debut and a far sight better than the career 5.9% mark he carried into the current season.

The Nationals haven’t yet provided a timetable for Robles’ return, but Hill figures to see plenty of time in center field while Robles is out. Hill is in the lineup hitting eighth and playing center this afternoon. Lane Thomas and Alex Call are the only other outfielders to log any innings in center this season, but Call is currently in Triple-A Rochester and Thomas has just 11 innings there.

Nationals, Orioles Reach Settlement On 2012-16 MASN Rights Fees

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The Nationals and Orioles have settled their dispute regarding MASN rights fees between 2012-16, as first reported by Chelsea Janes and Ben Strauss of the Washington Post. The agreement comes two months after a New York appellate court ruled in favor of the Nationals and MLB as part of a longstanding legal battle with the O’s.

According to the Washington Post, the network is paying out a little less than $100MM to each franchise. (Andy Kostka and Dylan Segelbaum of the Baltimore Banner specify the payment around $99.2MM.) As Janes and Strauss note, the deal requires the network to pay equal rights fees to each organization. The payment still represents a win for Washington since the O’s have a much greater ownership stake in MASN.

The Nationals and Orioles jointly own the network, which carries local broadcasting rights for both clubs. The Baltimore organization has a majority share (presently around 76%, dropping to 67% by 2032). That came as part of the agreement between the Orioles and MLB to facilitate the relocation of the Expos from Montreal to Washington — into the Orioles’ territorial range — nearly two decades ago.

As part of that deal, the sides agreed to share telecasting money owed by MASN to the clubs for broadcasting rights. An arbitration panel was created to resolve possible disputes between the franchises in calculating those fees. After the sides failed to come to an agreement for the period covering 2012-16, the issue went to arbitration. The panel — a committee made up of representatives from three other MLB teams — ruled closer to the Nationals’ desired number than the Orioles had found appropriate (albeit nearer to the O’s proposed figure than Washington’s). Baltimore and MASN appealed, questioning the league’s impartiality.

A court found in the Nationals’ and league’s favor on that issue back in 2019. The court ruled the network owed the Nationals roughly $105MM in unpaid rights fees. The Orioles appealed that decision, but the appellate court agreed there were no grounds for contesting the arbitration panel’s findings.

However, the appellate court found the lower court had overstepped its authority in awarding the $105MM in past damages. That put the onus back on the franchises to calculate damages. They have apparently found the approximate $99.2MM figure mutually agreeable.

To be clear, this does not permanently resolve the dispute between the organizations. They’re still divided on fees for the 2017-21 period. Janes and Strauss report that MLB is preparing to put that issue before its revenue sharing committee. The sides negotiate rights fees every half-decade, so they’ll also have to figure out the 2022-26 numbers in due time.

Finding a long-term solution could be especially welcome for the Washington franchise. The Lerner family announced in April 2022 they were looking into selling the team. Negotiations with a group led by Ted Leonsis were put on pause over the winter, in large part on account of the TV rights uncertainty.

Sean Doolittle Completes Rehab Assignment, Heads To Triple-A Rochester

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  • Veteran lefty Sean Doolittle was transferred from the Nationals’ Double-A affiliate to their Triple-A club Thursday, signaling that he’s completed his rehab work and is now considered fully healthy. The 36-year-old Doolittle, who signed a minor league deal with the Nats over the winter, is being formally reinstated from the injured list and will try to pitch his way back into the Majors with a strong showing in Rochester. Doolittle allowed three runs and posted a 10-to-2 K/BB ratio in seven rehab frames between Class-A and Double-A. The lefty pitched just 5 1/3 frames for the Nats in 2022 before requiring an internal brace procedure in his elbow over the summer.

Nationals Release Erasmo Ramírez

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The Nationals have released right-hander Erasmo Ramírez, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week.

Ramírez, 33, has had a very rough go of it so far this year. Through 27 innings over 23 appearances, his ERA is 6.33. His 4.8% walk rate is excellent and his 43.1% ground ball rate is close to average, but his 10.3% strikeout rate is less than half of the 23.9% league average for relievers across the majors this year.

That’s a significant drop-off from last year, when he posted a 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 innings with a 17.6% strikeout rate. On the heels of that solid campaign, the Nats retained him by signing him to a one-year deal with a salary of $1MM for 2023. But that investment hasn’t paid off and Ramírez has lost his roster spot.

It’s not a shock to see him end up released as he would have been able to reject an outright assignment anyway. All players with more than five years of major league service time have the right to elect free agency instead of accepting such an assignment, while retaining all of their salary. The Nats have simply skipped that formality and sent Ramírez to the open market.

They will remain on the hook for that money while Ramírez will be free to sign with any other club. Should he get a roster spot somewhere else, that club would only be responsible for the prorated league minimum salary for any time spent on the active roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Nats pay.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History, #8: Nationals Get Everyday Outfielder For Jon Lester

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With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player in recent years. We’ve already published some honorable mentions, the #10 entry and the #9 deal. If you disagree with our rankings, let us know! It’s all part of the subjective fun! Onto #8…

The Nationals were consistently competitive in the second decade of the millennium, finishing with a winning record in each season from 2012 to 2019. They qualified for the postseason five times in that stretch and won the World Series in that final year.

The next decade got off to a rough start, as they went 26-34 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Nonetheless, they went into 2021 with some excellent players still on the roster, including Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. They fortified that group by trading for Josh Bell and giving one-year deals to Brad Hand, Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t get things back on track that season and had a record of 48-55 on July 30. They were in fourth place in the National League East, seven games behind the Mets with Philadelphia and Atlanta between them. They were even further back in the Wild Card race, 11 games, as the West featured three excellent clubs in the Giants, Dodgers and Padres.

That put them into sell mode at the deadline and they did plenty of it. Each of Turner, Scherzer, Hand and Schwarber were traded, as were Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Daniel Hudson. The deal that sent Scherzer and Turner to the Dodgers technically wasn’t a rental trade, as Turner had another year of control, so we didn’t consider it for this series. Those other deals mostly yielded players that are still in the minors as of this writing. But in addition to all those, the Nats also made a trade that sent Lester to the Cardinals in exchange for MLB-ready outfielder Lane Thomas, who we will get to in a moment.

Jon Lester | John Hefti-USA TODAY SportsLester had already had a very impressive career that began back in 2006. He had many great seasons with the Red Sox and Cubs and already had three World Series rings. In 2021, he was 37 years old and had naturally fallen off a bit from his peak. His ERA went from 3.32 in 2018 to 4.46 the year after and 5.16 in the shortened 2020 season.

The Nats felt he still had something left in the tank and signed him to a one-year, $5MM deal. Lester made 16 starts for the Nationals with a 5.02 ERA. His 14.9% strikeout rate was a noticeable drop from his peak years but his 8.5% walk rate and 42% ground ball rate were around league average. In short, he was a back-of-the-rotation starter, which is just what the Cardinals needed.

Their rotation had been sliced up by injuries to Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Carlos Martínez, Dakota Hudson and others. Despite that, they were hovering above .500 and in the playoff race. They didn’t go after aces that summer, just guys who could take the ball and give them a chance, figuring that a modest stabilization of the rotation could be enough for them to improve their fortunes. They grabbed 36-year-old Wade LeBlanc, 38-year-old J.A. Happ and the 37-year-old Lester to fortify things alongside 39-year-old Adam Wainwright.

The gambit would pay off for St. Louis as they finished strong. Lester did his job by making 12 starts with a 4.36 ERA. The Cards ended the season at 90-72, securing a playoff spot, though they lost the Wild Card game to the Dodgers.

For the Nats, they weren’t able to make much use of Lester’s services, so it was a logical move to swap him out for a promising outfielder in Thomas. He had made his major league debut with the Cardinals in 2019 and hit an excellent .316/.409/.684 in 44 plate appearances but was nonetheless frequently optioned to the minors. Despite his strong results, he was squeezed out of the St. Louis outfield that also featured the likes of Dexter Fowler, Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, José Martínez, Tyler O’Neill and others.

Thomas would continue to get sporadic playing time in the next couple of seasons. He only got into 18 games in the 2020 season and then 32 more in 2021 prior to the trade. He struggled badly in those two cups of coffee, hitting just .107/.235/.179, but continued showing his promise in the minors. He was slashing .265/.339/.451 in Triple-A at the time of the deal.

The Nationals likely hoped that Thomas would thrive with a better path to playing time, and that has largely proven to be true. He was briefly kept in Triple-A after the deal but was called up after just three games. He hit .270/.364/.489 at the major league level in the final few weeks of 2021, launching seven home runs and stealing four bases in just 45 games.

2022 saw him finally get the everyday gig he didn’t get in St. Louis, as he tallied 548 plate appearances in 146 games. It wasn’t a spectacular showing, but he was serviceable. He hit 17 home runs and stole eight bases, though his 7.5% walk rate and 24.1% strikeout rate were both slightly worse than average. His .241/.301/.404 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 96 and he was worth 1.1 wins above replacement on the year according to FanGraphs, 1.6 at Baseball Reference.

Things are going better here in 2023, as he already has nine home runs and five steals. His plate discipline numbers are fairly similar, but he’s hitting .281/.336/.455 for a wRC+ of 114. His .350 batting average on balls in play is much higher than last year’s .291, but that can’t be entirely dismissed as just good luck since his hard hit rate, barrel rate and average exit velocity have also increased compared to a year ago.

Defensively, Thomas isn’t considered an excellent fielder, which is surprising considering his 95th percentile sprint speed. Nonetheless, he’s capable of holding his own at any of the three outfield slots, which is useful for a rebuilding club that is rotating through various players on a regular basis. He qualified for arbitration for the first time in the most recent offseason and is making $2.2MM this year. He’ll be eligible for two more passes before he’s slated for free agency after 2025.

Whether the Nats can come out of their rebuild in that time frame remains to be seen. But even in the event that they linger outside of contention for a while, they could always market Thomas and his remaining control to other clubs around the league.

In the end, both teams got what they wanted out of the deal. The Cards firmed up their rotation as hoped and were able to make a late charge and earn a playoff spot, while the Nats turned a couple months of a veteran pitcher into four and a half years of a solid outfielder who has stepped into an everyday role.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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