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Injury Notes: Gil, DeJong, Gray

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Luis Gil has not thrown since being diagnosed with a lat strain during the first week of March. The Yankees righty was shut down for at least six weeks at the time of the injury. While Gil has hit the six-week mark, he’s still not ready to begin throwing. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com) that Gil will remain shut down for at least another 10 days. Recent imaging hasn’t revealed sufficient healing for last year’s Rookie of the Year winner to resume throwing.

Gil will remain more than a month away from returning to MLB action even after he begins throwing. He’ll need a full ramp-up period after missing all of Spring Training, progressing through multiple sessions before he’s ready for a minor league rehab assignment. The Yankees welcomed Clarke Schmidt back from his own season-opening injured list stint on Wednesday, but they’re still down three starting pitchers. Gerrit Cole will miss the entire season, while Marcus Stroman went on the IL with knee inflammation over the weekend.

A couple other injury updates around the game:

  • The Nationals placed Paul DeJong on the 10-day injured list before Wednesday’s loss in Pittsburgh. The veteran infielder suffered a broken nose during Tuesday’s contest. Mitch Keller lost control of a 93 MPH fastball that ran up and hit DeJong in the face. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com relays that DeJong spent the night in a Pittsburgh-area hospital for observation and was released on Wednesday. Signed to a $1MM free agent deal, DeJong opened the year as Washington’s third baseman. He’d spent time at shortstop with CJ Abrams shelved by a hip flexor strain. Amed Rosario and Nasim Nuñez are handling the left side of the infield with both players out. DeJong has opened the season with a .204/.246/.278 showing in 57 plate appearances.
  • Rangers righty Jon Gray broke his right wrist when he was hit by a comebacker late in Spring Training. The veteran starter tells Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports that his injury has healed as hoped over the past month. Gray is hoping to begin throwing a couple weeks from now. He’s not expected to be ready for MLB game action until at least July. Gray owns a 4.16 earned run average in just under 400 innings over three seasons with Texas. He’s in the final season of his four-year free agent deal.

DJ Herz To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Left-hander DJ Herz has decided to undergo Tommy John surgery, according to a report from TalkNats. Herz was recommended for Tommy John surgery in late March but the report suggests he sought second and third opinions before ultimately deciding to go under the knife. The procedure is likely to keep Herz out of commission through at least the first half of the 2026 campaign, though no specific timetable for his return is likely to be announced until after his surgery.

Herz, 24, was an eighth-round pick by the Cubs back in 2019. While in Chicago’s organization, Herz flashed huge strikeout stuff and fantastic results in the lower minors, including a 40.4% strikeout rate between Single-A and High-A back in 2021. It was always held back by lackluster control and paired with poor results at higher levels of the minors, however, such as when he posted a 20.9% walk rate and an 8.24 ERA in nine starts in his first taste of the Double-A level back in 2022. The lefty’s second stint with Double-A Tennessee went better, though his results still didn’t jump off the page: A 3.97 ERA in 14 starts, with a 14.1% walk rate.

Despite those potential red flags, the Nationals saw enough in Herz to trade for him as part of the package for Jeimer Candelario at the 2023 trade deadline. The southpaw made his big league debut last year and looked quite good in doing so. Across 19 starts in the majors, Herz pitched to a roughly average 4.16 ERA (97 ERA+), but struck out an excellent 27.7% of batters faced while walking a much more palatable 9.4% of opponents. His 8.0% barrel rate allowed was somewhat elevated, leading to an elevated home run rate, but even with that flaw Herz’s peripherals looked excellent. His 3.71 FIP was fourth among rookies with at least 80 innings of work last year, his 3.77 SIERA was sixth, and his 3.26 xERA was second to only Paul Skenes.

It was quite the impressive debut for the young southpaw, though one flaw was Herz’s inability to pitch deep into games. Just four of his 19 starts saw him throw 90 pitches or more, and he failed to complete five innings in eight of his starts. Herz’s overall results in his rookie season were more than enough to put him in the conversation for a regular rotation job with the big league club this year, but any plans for him to join the rotation were scuttled when he struggled during Spring Training with a 6.52 ERA, an 8.2% walk rate, and an 18.4% strikeout rate. Those numbers came in a sample of just 9 2/3 innings, but the results were ugly enough that the Nationals made what seemed like an easy decision to option Herz to the minors.

That option was quickly rescinded in favor of placing him on the injured list, however, suggesting that he had sustained an injury during big league camp. That injury proved to be a tear in his UCL, and Herz will now go under the knife and miss all of 2025, plus at least some of the 2026 season. Fortunately for the Nationals, the club has plenty of other young arms to rely on while Herz is out, including fellow lefties MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker. One other name to watch this year is righty Cade Cavalli, who has been out of commission in recent years due to his own Tommy John surgery rehab but figures to be ready to pitch in the majors at some point this year for the first time since 2022.

Poll: Should The Nationals Have Been More Aggressive This Winter?

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The Nationals lost 91 games in 2024 but entered this winter with an arrow that was seemingly pointed upwards. Key young players like CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore took steps forward, while others like James Wood and Dylan Crews made their big league debuts. Between those positive signs for the future and the onerous Patrick Corbin contract finally coming off the club’s books, it was widely speculated around baseball that the Nationals could be a player in the upper echelons of free agency for the first time since their rebuild began in 2021. They instead opted for a much more reserved approach in free agency.

Fan speculation that the club could attempt to enter the Juan Soto bidding to pair their former superstar with the package of youngsters they acquired for him back in 2022 was always farfetched, but the club’s passive winter went beyond not taking a swing at free agency’s top dog. Rather than pursue a big bat at first base like Pete Alonso, GM Mike Rizzo and his front office swung a trade for Nathaniel Lowe and signed Josh Bell. Alex Bregman would’ve made plenty of sense as an addition at third base, but the club opted to take low-cost fliers on Paul DeJong and Amed Rosario instead.

That measured approach to upgrading the lineup carried over to the pitching staff as well. The Nats didn’t appear interested in a mid-rotation veteran like Nick Pivetta or a potential ace like Jack Flaherty who could lead the pitching staff, even when both lingered on the market into February. They settled on depth options like Michael Soroka and Shinnosuke Ogasawara behind their stable of young arms. Even pricey one-year relief arms like Kenley Jansen and Jose Leclerc signed by other clubs looking to take a step forward toward contention were eschewed in favor of non-tendering and then re-signing Kyle Finnegan.

None of those depth moves were necessarily bad on paper, and some of them have worked out so far. Finnegan has looked good in his return to the club’s closer role to this point. It’s hard to argue with Lowe’s .250/.339/.500 slash line as a massive upgrade over what Joey Meneses and Joey Gallo offered D.C. last year. Rosario has looked solid in the utility role he found some success in with the Rays last year. Despite those early successes, the club’s mostly passive offseason frustrated some fans in the nation’s capital. The Nats are just 6-9 to this point in the year and stand little hope of overcoming titanic teams like the Mets and Phillies as presently constructed.

Of course, that well may have been true even if the team had splurged on higher-profile free agents. The Phillies have been one of the NL’s biggest juggernauts for years now and show little sign of slowing down. The Mets added Soto to a team that already made the NLCS. Even with a shocking 4-11 start in Atlanta opening the door to contention a bit more for the Nationals, they’d have a steep hill to climb to get back to the postseason this year. Club owner Mark Lerner suggested to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post back in February that the gap between where the Nationals stood entering the winter and the league’s playoff-caliber clubs was too big to justify a significant outlay.

“When Mike calls me in and says, ‘We really need to think about it,’ for next winter, we’ll talk about it,” Lerner told Svrluga. “Right now, he doesn’t think — and I agree with him: There’s no point in getting a superstar and paying him hundreds of millions of dollars to win two or three more games.”

Lerner went on to highlight the club’s decision to sign Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126MM deal prior to the 2011 season, suggesting that they signed Werth when the club was “right on the cusp” of finding success. That comparison is a somewhat questionable one, however. The 2010 Nationals actually posted a worse record than the 2024 club, losing 93 games, and the Nats finished with a lackluster 80-81 record in Werth’s first year in D.C. before taking off in 2012 thanks in part to the arrival of Bryce Harper.

By contrast, players like Wood, Gore and Abrams are already in place with the club and finding success in the majors. Slow starts this year for Crews and Luis Garcia Jr. highlight the inconsistencies that come with a team built around young talent, but proven veterans would help to paper over those struggles and create a more well-balanced roster. Perhaps that wouldn’t be enough to get the Nationals back to the postseason this year, but a record better than the one the team produced back in 2011 would’ve been within reach. A win total in the low-to-mid 80s can even be enough to squeak into the playoffs in the era of 12 playoff teams, as demonstrated by clubs like the Marlins, Royals, and Tigers in recent years.

What do MLBTR readers think about the Nationals’ decision to hold off on ramping spending back up? Should they have moved more aggressively to exit their rebuilding phase this winter, or were they wise to wait for their young players to develop more before committing to a win-now approach? Have your say in the poll below:

Nationals Place Orlando Ribalta On 15-Day IL, Promote Cole Henry

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The Nationals are calling up right-handed pitching prospect Cole Henry, according to Joe Will of 247Sports.  Henry will take the roster spot of fellow righty Orlando Ribalta, as the Nats announced that Ribalta has been placed (retroactive to April 10) on the 15-day injured list due to a right biceps strain.

After posting a 13.50 ERA over his first 3 1/3 MLB innings in 2024, Ribalta has a 5.87 ERA in 7 2/3 frames out of Washington’s bullpen this year.  Most of the damage came in his first outing of 2025, when the Phillies tagged Ribalta for four runs over two innings of work.  He last pitched on Tuesday, when Ribalta allowed a run over three innings and 58 pitches in a relief outing against the Dodgers.

More will be revealed about the severity of Ribalta’s biceps strain once manager Davey Martinez meets with reporters later today, but even in the best-case scenario, it would seem like the righty will be out for more than the 15-day minimum.  With Ribalta now sidelined, the Nationals have turned to the 25-year-old Henry as a fresh arm for the bullpen, and given Henry his first look at the MLB level.

A second-round pick for the Nats in the 2020 draft, Henry has logged only 130 1/3 innings over five pro seasons due to a variety of injuries.  Most recently, a lat strain limited him to 16 1/3 total innings with high-A Wilmington and Double-A Harrisburg in 2024.  While Henry has started 34 of his 44 games in the minors, he transitioned into relief work this past spring, with an eye towards joining the Nationals bullpen as a long man.

Henry only threw two innings over two Triple-A appearances before his call-up, allowing a hit and three walks over those two scoreless frames.  While not the biggest sample size in the world, the Nats will now see if Henry can eat some innings and translate his strong strikeout numbers (30.34% strikeout rate in the minors) to success in the Show.

Nationals Place CJ Abrams On 10-Day Injured List

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The Nationals announced that shortstop CJ Abrams has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right hip flexor strain.  Infielder Nasim Nunez was called up from Triple-A to take Abrams’ spot on the active roster.

Abrams’ injury has been bothering him for the better part of a week, as he didn’t play on Monday or Tuesday before returning to action on Wednesday.  The Nationals didn’t play on Thursday, but that extra day of rest didn’t help Abrams, as he made an early exit during the fourth inning of Friday’s game with the Marlins.  Manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including MLB.com’s Santos Perez) that Abrams had hip discomfort while trying to steal a base in the top of the third, and then again when fielding a grounder in the bottom half of the inning.

Given the lingering nature of the injury, it isn’t surprising that the Nats decided to shut Abrams down entirely for at least 10 days to let him fully shake the hip issue.  Paul DeJong will likely shift over from third base to take over most of the starting duties at shortstop, with Amed Rosario and Jose Tena probably handling things at third.  Nunez also has a lot of shortstop experience in the minor leagues, and the former Rule 5 Draft pick figures to get some playing time in his second MLB season.

Not that there’s ever a great time to visit the IL, but the placement cuts short Abrams’ heavy-hitting start to the 2025 campaign.  Abrams has already hit four homers and delivered a .585 slugging percentage in his first 46 trips to the plate, even if his batting average (.244) and OBP (.289) are far more modest.

Abrams also had a big first half in 2024, earning the shortstop a spot on the NL All-Star team.  Just when it looked like Abrams was having a proper breakout year, however, his production tailed off in the second half, and he was optioned to Triple-A for the last week of the season as a disciplinary response to an off-the-field issue.  Washington president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo made a point of confirming his team’s commitment and belief in Abrams during the Nats’ end-of-season press conference, and the matter might end up being a footnote if Abrams continues as a cornerstone piece for a Nationals team that is emerging from the end of a rebuild.

Nationals Place Michael Soroka On Injured List Due To Biceps Strain

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The Nationals announced that right-hander Michael Soroka has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 1st, due to a right arm biceps strain. Fellow righty Jackson Rutledge has been recalled in a corresponding active roster move.

At this point, it’s unclear how serious Soroka’s injury is. He tossed five innings against the Blue Jays on Monday but departed with an apparent injury. After the game, manager Dave Martinez told reporters that Soroka had bicep cramps and framed the move as precautionary. Andrew Golden of The Washington Post was among those to relay the update.

Golden relays today that Soroka threw on the field before Wednesday’s game and the club wanted to see how he felt after that session before making a decision. It seems they have decided to put him on the shelf for at least another 12 days, since they backdated the IL move by three, the maximum allowed.

Whether this proves to be a notable injury or not, health issues have been a big part of the Soroka narrative. Back in 2019, he posted a 2.68 earned run average over 29 starts for Atlanta, finishing second to Pete Alonso in National League Rookie of the Year voting. But staying healthy has been a big challenge since then. Most significantly, he tore his right Achilles on two separate occasions. He wasn’t able to pitch much over the 2020 to 2023 seasons, missing 2021 and 2022 entirely.

He was flipped to the White Sox ahead of 2024 and had mixed results in Chicago. He started in the rotation but had a 6.39 ERA through nine starts and got moved to the bullpen. His first few relief appearances weren’t great but he finished strong. He logged 24 1/3 innings over his last 11 appearances with a 1.48 ERA, 42.7% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. However, he was on the IL for about two months, with a shoulder strain putting him out of action from mid-July to mid-September.

He hit free agency with a bit of positive momentum, generating interest both as a starter and a reliever. He landed with the Nats on a one-year, $9MM deal with the plan being to give him another shot at a starting gig.

That plan is now on pause at least for a little while. Presumably, the Nats will put him back in the rotation if he only missed a short amount of time. They aren’t expecting to be competitive this year and likely have an eye on trading Soroka in July. He would have more value as a successful starter than as a reliever. Though given his injury history, there may come a point where they decide it’s better to keep him in short stints if they think he will have a better shot at staying healthy that way.

In the meantime, a rotation opportunity will be open for someone else, alongside MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker. They were off yesterday and start a six-game homestand tonight before another off-day on Thursday. After that, they have a ten-game road trip. Rutledge has starting experience but began this season working out of the bullpen in Triple-A. DJ Herz, Cade Cavalli and Josiah Gray are all on the injured list. Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Andry Lara are on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment. Each has already made a Triple-A start and could be recalled in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images

Poll: Who Will Win The NL East?

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Opening Day has finally arrived, and teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. That series already covered the NL West, where the Dodgers were viewed as an overwhelming favorite, and the NL Central, where the Cubs narrowly beat out the reigning division champs in Milwaukee. Now, the series continues with a look at the NL East. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Philadelphia Phillies (95-67)

After the Phillies fell to their division-rival Mets during the NLDS, it appeared the club may consider making some considerable changes as they put Alec Bohm on the market and searched for outfield help rather than rely on internal options like Brandon Marsh and Josh Rojas. Ultimately, however, the club’s additions this winter were fairly modest. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski swung a trade for a big-name pitcher in need of a bounce-back in Jesus Luzardo. The signings of Jordan Romano and Max Kepler should help out as well but both are coming off down seasons due to injuries. With Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez departing, the bullpen is arguably weaker than last season.

The Phillies will mostly rely on the same core players they trotted out last year. Fortunately, that’s the same core that allowed them to sail into the postseason with a bye through the Wild Card series last year. Zack Wheeler remains one of the very best pitchers in the entire sport, and a rotation featuring Luzardo as the likely fifth starter behind Cristopher Sanchez, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez when fully healthy is in the conversation for the sport’s best. In the lineup, meanwhile, Bryce Harper returns as one of the sport’s most talented hitters, and his supporting cast of battle-tested veterans like Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and J.T. Realmuto all figure to contribute with the same consistency they’ve offered in previous years. It was more than enough to win the division last year, but will the same be true in 2025?

Atlanta Braves (89-73)

This past offseason was a relatively quiet one in Atlanta, as the club’s winter was defined more by the departures of franchise stalwarts like Max Fried, Charlie Morton, and Travis d’Arnaud than any major additions, even as Jurickson Profar profiles as a substantial upgrade over last year’s platoon of Jarred Kelenic and Adam Duvall in left field. Other relatively marginal additions like Alex Verdugo, Nick Allen, and Hector Neris should help out somewhat as well, but the main thing Atlanta has going for it in 2025 is hope for better health. The Braves’ core was ravaged by injuries last year, with Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider both missing virtually the entire season while Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy and Michael Harris II all also missed significant time.

While health is never guaranteed, the club is all but certain to get more out of its two superstars in Acuna and Strider this year, and is overall unlikely to run into the same rash of injuries on the positional side even as Murphy is already out for the start of the season due to a cracked rib. The team that led baseball in runs scored in 2023 has brought in even more talent on offense since then while also building an impressive bullpen anchored by Raisel Iglesias and Aaron Bummer. All of that is before even considering that the club will once again enjoy the services of reigning NL Cy Young award winner Chris Sale, as well as Reynaldo Lopez as he tries to follow up on a 1.99 ERA campaign in 2025. In some ways, 2024 looked like a floor for the Braves’ talented floor. Will a bounce back be enough to win a tough division in 2025?

New York Mets (89-73)

For as talented as the Phillies and Braves are, it was the Mets who made the deepest run into the 2024 postseason of the NL East, getting all the way to Game 6 of the NLCS before falling to the eventual World Series champion Dodgers. Steve Cohen and David Stearns weren’t content to rest on their laurels this winter and made the biggest splash of any team when they signed Juan Soto to a record-shattering $765MM deal that will land him in Queens for the next 15 years. None of the club’s other moves matched that level of flash, but the returns of Sean Manaea, Jesse Winker, and Pete Alonso as well as more modest additions like Clay Holmes and A.J. Minter leave the Mets looking like a stronger club overall than they were this time last year.

Impactful as pairing Soto with Francisco Lindor at the top of the lineup figures to be, however, that won’t necessarily make the club a clear division favorite with many of the issues that made the Mets such underdogs last season still lingering. A rotation that featured little certainty on paper entering Spring Training is already getting tested by a number of injuries, and the club will rely on Mark Vientos avoiding a sophomore slump in order to lengthen a lineup that looks softer at the bottom than its counterparts in Atlanta and Philadelphia. Still, a lineup featuring two MVP finalists, two other 30-homer sluggers, and Brandon Nimmo looks impressive on paper, and a late-inning mix of Edwin Diaz, Minter, and Jose Butto should be able to preserve late leads. Will that be enough to overtake their rivals?

Washington Nationals (71-91)

The Nationals showed some signs of development last year, but ultimately sold at the trade deadline and fell well short of playoff contention when all was said and done. Still, an emerging core of James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, Dylan Crews, and CJ Abrams inspired enough confidence for the Nationals to make some modest buy-side additions this winter. Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell should provide a notable upgrade over Joey Meneses and Joey Gallo at first base, while Paul DeJong and Amed Rosario offer the sort of depth on the infield that was sorely lacking last year.

With three juggernauts at the top of the division, the path to a division title in D.C. is a murky one. With that being said, every member of that aforementioned core is young, talented, and capable of breaking out before even considering the potential impact other young pieces like Brady House, Cade Cavalli, and Robert Hassell III could offer at some point in the year. The addition of Michael Soroka to a rotation that already featured solid youngsters like Gore and Jake Irvin should also offer plenty of upside. Steep as the climb to the summit of the NL East would be, it’s certainly not impossible to imagine the Nationals being the surprise of the NL this year.

Miami Marlins (62-100)

Things were bleak in Miami last year as they lost 100 games for the first time since 2019. And unfortunately for fans, there’s little reason for optimism about the potential for better days in 2025. The club made virtually no additions this winter, and moves to ship out solid pieces like Luzardo and Jake Burger figure to be far more notable than the additions of minor pieces like Matt Mervis and Cal Quantrill. The return of stalwart ace Sandy Alcantara from Tommy John surgery provides a nice story early in the year, and young phenom Eury Perez could return later this season as well. Even the club’s vaunted collection of arms seems unlikely to be enough to get them back to the playoffs given a lineup that will rely on players like Jesus Sanchez and Connor Norby to carry its run production this year, and it would likely take a miracle for them to actually come out on top in such a tough division.

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The Phillies, Braves, and Mets all have strong cases to be the NL East’s best team after making the postseason last year. Philadelphia stands as the reigning champion, while Atlanta featured the best team in all of baseball just two years ago. New York, meanwhile, made a deep run in the postseason just last year and added arguably the most talented pure hitter in baseball over the winter. Meanwhile, D.C. is continuing to quietly assemble a young core that could break out and compete in its own right. Even with Miami deep in the trenches of a rebuild, it figures to be a deeply competitive division in 2025. Who do you think will come out on top? Have your say in the poll below:

Nationals Place Four Players On Injured List

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves to set up their Opening Day roster, including four injured-list placements retroactive to March 24.  Right-handers Derek Law (forearm inflammation) and Zach Brzykcy (right quad strain) are both headed to the 15-day IL, infielder Andres Chaparro (oblique strain) is going to the 10-day IL, and right-hander Cade Cavalli was placed on the 15-day IL as he enters the final stages of his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

DJ Herz was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day IL as he could be facing a Tommy John procedure of his own in the wake of a UCL tear.  Herz’s transfer opens up a 40-man roster spot the Nats to select the contract of right-hander Brad Lord, in a move that was reported earlier today.  Finally, D.C. also optioned first/baseman outfielder Juan Yepez and righty Jackson Rutledge to Triple-A, and catcher Andrew Knizner was reassigned to Triple-A.

As Spencer Nusbaum of the Washington Post wrote last weekend, Law’s injury dates back to last season, when the reliever missed just under three weeks in late August and early September due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Though Law was able to return in relatively short order, the discomfort lingered through the winter and into Spring Training, and Law pitched in only one game during the Nationals’ Grapefruit League schedule.  The team had already planned to limit Law’s spring workload in the wake of his 90-inning campaign last season, but the forearm issue kept him off the mound almost entirely.

Manager Davey Martinez said Law’s MRI came back clean and the injury isn’t thought to be too serious, with Law saying he believes he’ll be back when first eligible for activation on April 8.  Law was one of the game’s most valuable workhorses last season, tossing 90 innings of 2.60 ball over 75 appearances for the Nationals.

Brzykcy also pitched just once this spring, as his quad strain has kept him out of game action for over a month.  The righty has started throwing bullpens again, so he is at least partway through the ramp-up process even if it seems like Brzykcy could miss more than the 15-day minimum given how little he pitched in the spring.

Brzykcy was an undrafted free agent from the 2020 class (the year the draft was shortened to five rounds due to the pandemic) who signed with the Nats that summer.  He made his MLB debut last season, and was hit hard to the tune of a 14.29 ERA over the small sample size of 5 2/3 innings and six appearances.  Brzykcy didn’t pitch in 2023 due to a Tommy John surgery, but his overall impressive minor league numbers made him a candidate to win a job in the Nationals’ bullpen this winter before his quad strain ended his bid.

Chaparro is another player who made his big-league debut in 2024, and he hit .215/.280/.413 with four home runs in his first 132 plate appearances in the Show.  While the presence of the newly-acquired Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell may have hurt Chaparro’s chances of winning a bench job as a backup first baseman and outfielder, he was posting big numbers in camp before hurting his oblique during a batting practice session.  The uncertain nature of oblique injuries leaves Chaparro’s recovery timeline somewhat up in the air, but a best-case scenario would probably see him activated by mid-April.

Without Chaparro, Yepez, or Knizner, Washington’s bench now consists of Riley Adams in the backup catcher role, veteran Amed Rosario, Jose Tena as the primary backup infielder, and Alex Call as the fourth outfielder.  Between Law’s injury and the Nationals’ decision to option Rutledge, the Nationals went with Lord and rookie Orlando Ribalta for the last two bullpen spots.

Note: The initial version of this post erroneously stated that Cavalli was placed on the 60-day injured list. MLBTR apologizes for the error.

Nationals To Select Brad Lord

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The Nationals are going to promote right-hander Brad Lord to their Opening Day roster, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty is not yet on the 40-man, so a corresponding move will be required. That could be an easy call since DJ Herz has been recommended for Tommy John surgery. It’s not fully confirmed that Herz will go under the knife but he will likely miss a decent chunk of time even if he avoids the surgeon’s table.

Lord, 25, isn’t a typical prospect. As Passan mentions in his report and as detailed by Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post last month, Lord has had to grind. While some top draft picks get multi-million-dollar signing bonuses, Lord was an 18th-round selection in 2022 and signed for $125K. He spent this past winter working at a Home Depot in Bradenton, lifting bags of mulch and Christmas trees, around his offseason training.

That makes it all the more impressive that he’s been able to improve his stock in recent years. In 2023, he tossed 104 2/3 innings at the Single-A and High-A levels, working both as a starter and reliever. He posted a 4.04 earned run average, 18.5% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and huge 61.6% ground ball rate.

Last year, he climbed from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, logging 129 2/3 innings across a combined 29 starts at those three levels with a 2.43 ERA. His grounder rate dropped to 42% but he upped his punchouts to a 25.3% clip. Baseball America ranked him the #29 prospect in the system going into 2025.

Here in camp, his 6.08 ERA doesn’t look so nice, but that’s in a tiny sample of 13 1/3 innings. He was very unfortunate in that time, with an unlucky .348 batting average on balls in play and 50% strand rate. He only struck out 13.8% of batters but got the grounders back up to 55.6%.

He seems likely to start the season working a long relief role for the Nats. They project to have a rotation of MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and Michael Soroka. By having Lord serve the longman role, it will allow the club to keep other potential starters like Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Jackson Rutledge stretched out in Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Nationals’ DJ Herz Recommended For Tommy John Surgery

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March 26: TalkNats reports that Herz has been diagnosed with a UCL tear and recommended for Tommy John surgery, but the southpaw will seek a second opinion before making a decision regarding the procedure.

March 25: The Nationals announced this morning that left-hander DJ Herz has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Herz had been optioned to Triple-A last Friday, but that option has been rescinded in favor of a major league IL placement, presumably after testing revealed an injury sustained in big league camp.

While the team hasn’t announced a formal timetable or treatment plan, it’s an ominous injury. The sprain, by definition, indicates some stretching/tearing of the ligament. The majority of UCL sprains result in Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure, either of which would wipe out Herz’s entire season. Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reports that Herz has experienced a dead arm throughout camp and saw his velocity drop this spring, which only further adds to the level of concern.

Herz, 24, came to the Nationals in the trade sending Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs back in 2023. He made his big league debut last summer and quickly showed that he has a place in the team’s long-term plans. After logging a 3.89 ERA in 10 Triple-A starts, Herz started 19 games and tallied 88 2/3 MLB frames, working to a solid 4.16 earned run average. The 2019 eighth-rounder fanned an impressive 27.7% of his opponents and also radically improved his command in the majors; Herz has walked more than 15% of his opponents throughout his minor league tenure, including a ghastly 19% in Triple-A last year, but he cut that to a 9.4% rate in the majors. That’s only one percentage point north of league-average and is plenty passable for someone who can miss bats at Herz’s levels.

Even without any knowledge of the dead arm, a cursory glance at Herz’s spring stats would’ve suggested something was amiss. After that strong output between Triple-A and the majors last year, he’s been rocked for nine runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and nine walks in Grapefruit League play. He’s fanned only four of the 49 batters he’s faced and yielded a pair of home runs.

Having been optioned to Triple-A Rochester already, Herz wasn’t in the Nationals’ immediate rotation plan. Now, the question is whether he’ll factor into their plan anytime before the 2026 season. With Herz sidelined for the short term at the very least, Washington’s rotation will feature MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and offseason signees Michael Soroka and Trevor Williams (the latter of whom re-signed with the Nats on a two-year deal after also spending the 2023-24 seasons there). The Nats optioned another free-agent addition, former NPB lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara, to Rochester to begin his career in North American ball. They also have righty Josiah Gray and former top prospect Cade Cavalli both on the comeback trail after undergoing Tommy John surgery to address their own UCL injuries.

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