Nationals Hope To Add Pitching This Offseason
Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo spoke this week about the upcoming offseason, with Andrew Golden of The Washington Post relaying some the details. Rizzo stated that the club is looking to bolster both its starting and relief pitching, as well as mentioning a middle-of-the-order bat.
That the club is open to additions all over the roster is hardly surprising since they have been aggressively rebuilding for a while now. The past few years have seen Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, Juan Soto and many others flipped for prospects, leading to the Nats finishing last in the National League East three years running. The 2023 club won 71 games, a jump of 16 from the dismal results of 2022, but there were also some less-encouraging signs. The club had a run differential of -145, second-worst in the National League, ahead of just the Rockies. They outpaced their expected win-loss record of 66-96 thanks to some help from a record of 28-21 in one-run games and a 6-2 mark in extra innings.
On the pitching side, the club had a collective earned run average of 5.02, a mark that topped just the Royals, Athletics and Rockies. The starting staff and the relief corps were equally ineffective, as both groups had matching ERAs at that 5.02 figure.
Stephen Strasburg is still on the roster, although he won’t be a factor going forward. It’s been known for some time that his battle with thoracic outlet syndrome isn’t going to allow him to compete at the major league level anymore. He and the Nats were discussing a retirement deal last year, even though his contract runs through 2026, but the club walked away and he was activated from the IL earlier week. Both Rizzo and Scott Boras, Strasburg’s agent, admit that the righty’s pitching days are done. “Medically, it’s going to be difficult to see him pitching again at the big league level,” Rizzo said, per Golden. “We understand where he’s at physically. We have understood it since last year, so that hasn’t changed.” While coming to some sort of agreement about his retirement would allow the club to free up a roster spot, that doesn’t seem imminent. “The roster spot is important,” Rizzo says. “But there’s certain rules and protocols that have to be met within the CBA to conclude these types of things when [players] are under contract.” He didn’t clarify which parts of the CBA are currently standing in the way of Strasburg’s retirement.
Without Strasburg, the rotation currently consists of Patrick Corbin, Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Trevor Williams. Corbin hasn’t been terribly effective lately, with his strikeout rate having dropped in each of the past four years. But he will likely continue to hold a place based on his contract. He’s set to make $35MM next year, the final year of his deal. Since he’s a fairly reliable innings eater, the Nats will likely give him the ball every fifth day as they manage the workloads of their younger pitchers.
Gray had a 3.91 ERA last year but may have been lucky to do so. His 20.5% strikeout rate, 11.5% walk rate and 37.8% ground ball rate were all worse than league average. An 80.4% strand rate likely helped to keep some runs off the board, which is why he had a 4.93 FIP and 5.08 SIERA. Gore had better peripherals but allowed more home runs, leading to a 4.42 ERA. Both of them are still fairly young, Gray going into his age-26 campaign and Gore his age-25, and neither has reached arbitration yet. They will be in the rotation again next year as the Nats hope they take a step forward in 2024.
Williams signed a two-year deal with the Nats last offseason but the first season of that contract didn’t go especially well as he posted a 5.55 ERA over 30 starts. Similar to Corbin, he could serve an innings-eating role but the club is likely less committed to Williams. He’s only making $7MM in 2024 so his deal would be easier to walk away from. Irvin had a 4.61 ERA in 2023 with fairly uninspiring peripherals.
The Nats also have Joan Adon, Thaddeus Ward, Jackson Rutledge and Roddery Muñoz on the roster, though each of those guys is likely stuck in a depth role until they have better results. Given the current options, it’s fair to see how Rizzo could find room for an external addition or two.
It’s unclear who the Nats would target but they kept things fairly modest last year. Apart from the two-year contract for Williams, they stuck to one-year deals for bounceback candidates like Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith. If they set similar targets this winter, they could perhaps look to pitchers like Wade Miley, Martín Pérez, Kyle Gibson, Frankie Montas, Luis Severino and others.
On the bullpen side of things, there are plenty of arms available they could look to add, but it also sounds like subtraction is possible. Rizzo says other clubs have been asking about righties Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. It’s not a surprise to hear that the two are drawing interest, both because of their strong results and because they also were in trade rumors at the deadline a few months back.
Both players stayed and Finnegan finished the year with a 3.76 ERA, racking up 28 saves in the process. Harvey’s ERA was almost a full run better at 2.82, striking out 28.5% of batters while notching 10 saves and 19 holds. The Nats don’t need to move either, since they are both controllable via arbitration through 2025. However, performance from relievers can be volatile and an injury can happen at any time. The Nats could open their next competitive window in the next two years but there would be some sense to flipping these guys for players that could be more meaningful pieces of that window.
As for the middle-of-the-order bat Rizzo referenced, there are plenty of options available, depending on how aggressive they are willing to be. First baseman Dominic Smith and third baseman Carter Kieboom are both non-tender candidates. If Smith were out of the picture, Joey Meneses could take on some extra first base time, or the club could look outside. In the outfield, Lane Thomas is coming off a solid season but did most of his damage against lefties. Stone Garrett also had a good year but finished it on the injured list due to a fractured leg. Victor Robles is coming off another frustrating season.
If the Nats wanted to make a splash, they could target players like Teoscar Hernández, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. or Rhys Hoskins, but other options include Tommy Pham, Jason Heyward, Adam Duvall and Joc Pederson.
Nationals To Hire Miguel Cairo As Bench Coach
The Nationals are set to hire Miguel Cairo as their new bench coach, as first reported by Mike Mayer of Metsmerized Online. Cairo spent the 2023 season as a minor league infield coordinator in the Mets organization.
A versatile utility man, Cairo played 17 seasons in the major leagues, fielding six different positions for nine different teams. Immediately following his retirement after the 2012 season, Cairo took a job as a special assistant in the Reds’ front office and briefly served as the team’s interim bench coach. He then moved on to the Yankees organization, working in the player development department and as a minor league infield coordinator.
Ahead of the 2021 campaign, Cairo earned his first genuine big league coaching job, joining the White Sox as Tony La Russa’s bench coach. He was promoted to acting manager for the final month of the regular season (Larussa was on medical leave), and although he interviewed for the managerial opening that winter, he was not asked to return to new skipper Pedro Grifol’s staff in 2023. Instead, he took a job as a minor league infield coordinator with the Mets, a role he had previously held during his tenure with the Yankees.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez played alongside Cairo for parts of three seasons with the Devil Rays between 1998 and 2000. According to Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports, the skipper has “always spoken highly” of his former teammate.
Cairo is the latest addition to Washington’s dugout this offseason. Last week, the team hired Gerardo Parra and Ricky Gutierrez to coach first and third base, respectively. The Nationals had several holes to fill after parting with bench coach Tim Bogar, first base coach Eric Young Jr., third base coach Gary DiSarcina, and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler at the end of the season.
Nationals Designate Matt Cronin For Assignment
The Nationals announced today that they have activated right-handers Stephen Strasburg and Cade Cavalli, catcher Riley Adams, and outfielders Stone Garrett and Victor Robles from the 60-day injured list. In a corresponding move, left-hander Matt Cronin was designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster stands at 40. The IL activations were required by today, as players cannot be on the 60-day IL during the offseason.
Cronin, 26, was the club’s fourth-round selection in the 2019 draft. From 2019-22, the left-hander put up solid numbers while advancing from Single-A all the way to Triple-A, capped off by a strong 2022 season where Cronin posted a 2.42 ERA with a 26.9% strikeout rate in 52 innings of work. That sort of dominance out of the bullpen figured to make Cronin an attractive potential bullpen piece for the rebuilding Nationals headed into 2023, particularly after the Nationals added him to the 40-man roster this past offseason in order to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out this year. Cronin dealt with pain in his shoulder throughout the year that limited him to just 14 1/3 innings of work during which he struggled to a 5.02 ERA. Back in August, it was revealed that the issue causing the pain was a herniated disc in his back. Cronin underwent surgery to repair the issue and missed the remainder of the 2023 campaign. It’s not clear when Cronin is expected to be healthy enough to return to the mound at this point. Given Cronin’s youth (he only turned 26 back in September) combined with his previous success and status as one of the Nationals’ top 20 prospects (per Baseball America) entering this year, it would hardly be a surprise if a rival club with space on their 40-man roster decided to claim Cronin in the coming days, particularly if he figures to be able to return to the mound in 2024.
Front Office Notes: Astros, White Sox, Janish, Nationals
The Astros announced a series of internal promotions earlier this week, most notably the promotion of Gavin Dickey to an assistant general manager position. Dickey is a longtime member of the Astros’ staff, working in numerous jobs since his initial hiring as a scout in 2011. Most recently, he worked as a special assistant to GM Dana Brown during the 2023 season. The 40-year-old Dickey moved right into scouting on the heels of his playing career, which consisted of six seasons in independent ball and in the Mariners’ and Braves’ farm systems from 2006-11.
Dickey joins Andrew Ball and Charles Cook as Houston’s assistant GMs, after the team parted ways with former assistant GM Bill Firkus last month. This isn’t to say that Dickey will necessarily be taking Firkus’ exact role, as the specific duties of an assistant GM vary greatly from club to club and executive to executive, usually based on each individual’s areas of expertise.
More on some other front office moves from around baseball….
- The White Sox announced that Paul Janish has been hired as their new director of player development. Janish is a veteran of nine Major League seasons with the Reds, Braves, and Orioles from 2008-17, and since retirement has worked as a coach with Rice University. This will be the first non-playing role in pro ball for the 41-year-old Janish, who will be taking over the position previously held by Chris Getz before Getz was named Chicago’s new general manager in August.
- The Nationals promoted Eddie Longosz to the role of VP/assistant general manager of player development and administration. The Washington Post’s Andrew Golden reported earlier this week that Longosz would be taking over the Nats’ player development department, which is the next step up the ladder for a longtime employee who has been with the Nationals since 2010. As Golden notes, much of the Nationals’ focus over the last couple of months has been a revamp of their front office, with several employees on the way out (like De Jon Watson, Longosz’s predecessor as farm director) and a couple of longer-term staffers like Longosz moving into larger roles.
Nelson Cruz To Retire
Nelson Cruz revealed on the Adam Jones Podcast that he is planning to retire from playing after an upcoming stint in the Dominican Winter League.
Cruz, now 43, was something of a late bloomer but still went on to have an incredibly long and productive career in the big leagues. He didn’t fully establish himself as an everyday big league player until 2009. That was technically his “age-28 season”, but he turned 29 on July 1, just after the standard June 30 cutoff for such distinctions. He had some limited looks in the big leagues with the Brewers and Rangers from 2005 to 2008 but that 2009 season saw him bust out with 33 home runs and 20 stolen bases for Texas.
He would follow that with 22 and 29 home runs in the next two years, helping the Rangers reach the World Series in each campaign, though they ultimate lost on both occasions. He continued serving as a potent slugger for a time but that was put on pause when he was connected to the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drugs scandal, receiving a 50-game suspension in August of 2013.
He reached free agency after that campaign and the Rangers gave him a qualifying offer of over $14MM, which he turned down. The draft pick forfeiture tied to that QO and his PED situation led to him lingering on the open market until late February, eventually signing with the Orioles for one year and $8MM, well below the QO he turned down.
He had a monster year for the O’s in 2014, launching 40 home runs and helping that club reach the American League Championship Series. The O’s then gave him a $15.3MM qualifying offer, as players were still allowed to receive multiple QOs at that time. The limit of one per career did not come into place until the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement. Cruz turned the QO down again but fared far better in this trip to free agency, landing a four-year, $57MM deal with the Mariners.
Though he had been an outfielder earlier in his career, he slid more into a full-time designated hitter role over the course of that deal with Seattle. The club likely didn’t mind as he continued mashing, with 163 home runs in that four-year span. He then continued to produce in a similar fashion after joining the Twins, launching 41 more homers in 2019 then 16 in the shortened 2020 season.
He was still crushing baseballs through the first half of 2021, but his production slid after a midseason trade from the Twins to the Rays. He signed one-year deals with the Nationals and Padres for the past two seasons but his offensive production slid to below par. Since he was into his 40s and limited to DH duties only, it became tougher to roster him and the Padres released him in July.
Cruz retires having played in 2,055 regular season games, hitting 464 home runs in that time. His finishes with a batting line of .274/.343/.513, which translates into a wRC+ of 128, indicating he was 28% better than the league average hitter. He made seven All-Star teams, won four Silver Sluggers, a Roberto Clemente Award and various other honors. He represented the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic on four separate occasions, winning the 2013 tournament. His Baseball Reference page indicates he earned over $140MM in his career. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Cruz for his many accomplishments and wish him the best of luck for whatever awaits him in his post-playing days.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Nationals Decline Club Option For Victor Robles
The Nationals announced that they have declined their 2024 club option on Victor Robles. The outfielder is not a free agent as he has less than six years of service time and the club could decide to tender him an arbitration contract for next year.
Robles, now 26, avoided arbitration with the Nats last offseason. He agreed to a salary of $2.325MM while granting the club a 2024 option valued at $3.3MM. He spent most of 2023 on the injured list due to back spasms, only getting into 36 games.
After a mostly lost season, it’s understandable that the Nats didn’t want to pick up that option and give him a raise of almost $1MM. But he remains on the roster and could be retained for 2024 via arbitration. The projections from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz pegged Robles at $2.7MM for next year, making it possible the Nats could keep Robles but at a lesser price point than the option they declined today. The non-tender deadline is November 17, so the Nats have a couple of weeks to decide if they want to keep Robles for another year, work out a trade or non-tender him.
Though he was once considered one of the top prospects in the league, he hasn’t yet established himself at the major league level. His speed and defense give him a solid floor but he has hit just .238/.312/.360 in 1,801 plate appearances at the major league level dating back to 2017.
Nationals Hire Gerardo Parra, Ricky Gutierrez As Coaches
With a number of vacancies to fill on their coaching staff, the Nationals will fill two of those spots with Gerardo Parra as the new first base coach and Ricky Gutierrez as the new third base coach, Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reports (via X). Parra and Gutierrez will respectively take over from Eric Young Jr. and Gary DiSarcina, as the Nats parted ways with both base coaches following the season.
This is the first coaching job for the 36-year-old Parra, who has spent the better part of the last two seasons as a special assistant to Nationals GM Mike Rizzo. 2021 was the final season of Parra’s 12-year Major League career, and he sandwiched two seasons with the Nats around a stint in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants in 2020.
Parra enjoyed a number of highlights during his lengthy career, including two Gold Gloves when playing for the Diamondbacks from 2009-14. However, Parra’s most famous broadly famous moments came with Washington in 2019, as his use of “Baby Shark” as his walkup song made him a viral sensation. Parra’s arrival with the Nationals after a May 2019 trade with the Giants was also considered a chief turning point in the Nats’ season, as Parra’s clubhouse leadership and contributions as an outfield regular helped get a then-struggling Washington team on track. The result was the Nationals’ first World Series championship, cementing Parra’s position as a fan favorite in the District for life.
The 53-year-old Gutierrez also has 12 seasons of Major League playing time on his resume, suiting up for six different teams from 1993-2004. Post-playing career, Gutierrez worked with the Reds’ player development department for five years and was the manager of their Double-A affiliate in 2021.
Gutierrez moved on from that job to join the Nationals prior to the 2022 season, first working as a Latin American scout and in a special assistant’s role, and he was part of the MLB team’s coaching staff in 2023 as a run prevention coordinator. That somewhat unique title meant that Gutierrez was focusing on improving the Nats’ defense, and Gutierrez (himself a former shortstop) in particular worked with CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia in the middle infield.
East Notes: Judge, Mets, Finnegan
Yankees captain and star outfielder Aaron Judge was presented with the 2023 Roberto Clemente award in Arizona yesterday, and spoke with the media (including David Lennon of Newsday) afterwards regarding the coming offseason in New York. Judge told reporters during the scrum that he spoke with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner yesterday about changes to the organization and that they’ll have another conversation in-person when Judge returns to New York. While Judge indicated a preference to keep the specifics of his discussions with Steinbrenner private, he noted that there’s plenty of ways the organization could look to change this offseason.
“You know, changes could mean a lot of different things,” Judge said, “From philosophies, players, coaches, everything. [The Yankees] haven’t made it to the big dance in quite a few years, so we got some work to do, even on the player side.”
Judge has previously spoken about a desire to see the club’s communication of analytics information to players improved, hinting at one area the club could look to improve in 2024. Beyond that, the Yankees have at least one spot on the coaching staff to fill, as in-season hitting coach hire Sean Casey won’t return to the club in 2024. The club has frequently been a topic of discussion on the trade rumor mill the past month, as well, with a rumored connection to Padres star Juan Soto. The potential for the club to move on from some arbitration-level players, including a member of their catching corps and perhaps even second baseman Gleyber Torres, has also been discussed.
More from MLB’s East divisions…
- The Mets have not yet scheduled an interview with Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who formally interviewed with the Guardians yesterday. That being said, Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicates that while the meeting between the sides hasn’t been “firmed up yet”, the expectation is that a meeting will happen soon. What’s more, Heyman adds that the Mets figure to be the highest bidder for Counsell’s services in terms of salary. While Heyman suggests that the Mets are unlikely to offer a salary at the level of Joe Torre’s record $8MM figure as manager of the Yankees, he notes that still leaves plenty of room for the Mets to offer Counsell a contract richer than the $4.5MM salary recently-retired Guardians manager Terry Francona received in 2023, which was the highest in the majors this year.
- Nationals right-hander Kyle Finnegan figures to reprise his role as the club’s closer in 2024, as noted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. Zuckerman suggests that the club hopes Finnegan will continue performing with the club as a late-inning option out of the bullpen into 2025, when they hope to return to contention. That being said, Zuckerman also suggests that, in the event the Nationals are out of the race next summer and Finnegan is pitching well, the club will once again consider moving Finnegan, as they did prior to the trade deadline earlier this year. Of course, no deal came together then, and Finnegan struggled down the stretch this season with a 5.18 ERA and 5.52 FIP in 24 1/3 innings in August and September. That being said, Finnegan entered the month of August with an ERA of 3.00, leaving him with solid overall season numbers including a 3.76 ERA (115 ERA+) and a 21.9% strikeout rate in 67 appearances.
Nationals Outright Blake Rutherford, Michael Chavis
The Nationals have taken a trio of players off the 40-man roster. Infielder Michael Chavis, outfielder Blake Rutherford and reliever Hobie Harris all cleared outright waivers, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (X link). Rutherford and Chavis have elected minor league free agency, as is their right as players who have been outrighted multiple times in their careers.
Chavis signed a minor league pact with the Nats last offseason. He made the Opening Day roster and ultimately in 48 games as a depth infielder. Over 96 plate appearances, the former highly-regarded Red Sox prospect hit .242/.281/.341 with a pair of home runs. He struck out at a 34.4% clip.
The 28-year-old has appeared in parts of five seasons at the highest level. He logged 129 games with the Pirates a year ago, his heaviest workload to date. Chavis is a career .238/.283/.401 hitter in a little under 1200 trips to the dish. He can play any of first, second or third base. He would have been eligible for arbitration had the Nats kept him on the roster. Now that he’s back on the open market, he could find minor league interest this winter.
Rutherford is a former Yankees first-round draftee who reached the big leagues this past season. The lefty-swinging outfielder had hit .336/.393/.571 in 74 games between Washington’s top two affiliates after singing an offseason minor league deal. The 26-year-old was selected to the majors for the first time in early August. He got into 16 games, hitting .171/.194/.171 across 36 plate appearances.
Harris is also a one-time Yankee draft choice who debuted with Washington in 2023. The 30-year-old righty pitched in 16 games, allowing 12 runs (11 earned) through 19 1/3 innings. He walked 13 while striking out nine. Harris had a 5.57 ERA while striking out 15.2% of batters faced across 32 1/3 frames at Triple-A Rochester. This is his first career outright, but he has sufficient minor league service time to become a free agent at the start of the offseason.
Washington needed to clear three 40-man spots within five days of the end of the World Series to clear space for players returning from the 60-day injured list. They’ll go into the winter with the roster at capacity.
21 Players Elect Free Agency
With the offseason quickly approaching, a number of players elect minor league free agency on a regular basis. Separate from MLB free agents, who reach free agency five days after the World Series by accumulating six years of service time in the big leagues, eligible minor league players can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season comes to a close. Each of these players were outrighted off of their organization’s 40-man roster at some point during the season and either have been outrighted previously in their career or have the service time necessary to reach free agency since they were not added back to their former club’s rosters. For these players, reaching free agency is the expected outcome, and there will surely be more in the coming weeks. Here at MLBTR, we’ll provide occasional updates as players continue to elect minor league free agency.
Here is the next batch, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Pitchers