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MLB Suspends Nationals’ Sean Nolin, Dave Martinez

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5:59 pm: Nolin has apparently elected not to appeal after all. He’ll begin serving his ban tonight, Jessica Camerato of MLB.com was among those to relay.

5:18 pm: Major League Baseball announced that Nationals left-hander Sean Nolin has been suspended five games for “intentionally hitting” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman with a pitch during Wednesday night’s game. Nolin, who also received an undisclosed fine, is appealing the suspension. He’ll remain on the roster until his appeal is heard.

Additionally, MLB suspended Washington manager Dave Martinez for one game as a result of Nolin’s actions. Martinez, who also received an undisclosed fine, will serve his ban during tonight’s game against the Pirates.

In the first inning of Wednesday’s start in Atlanta, Nolin threw a first-pitch fastball behind Freeman’s back. His second pitch of the plate appearance — also a fastball — hit Freeman in the right hip. Nolin was then ejected by home plate umpire Lance Barksdale.

The night before, Braves’ closer Will Smith hit Nationals star Juan Soto with a pitch. It seems that Nolin threw behind and then hit Freeman as a retaliatory measure, although he denied doing so intentionally. After the game, Nolin told reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) he simply had trouble gripping the baseball.

Nolin made his return to the majors this season for the first time since 2015. Over five starts, the 31-year-old has worked 17 2/3 innings of 5.60 ERA ball.

Nationals Place Gerardo Parra On Injured List

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The Nationals have placed outfielder Gerardo Parra on the injured list with right knee inflammation, per a team announcement. Left-handed pitcher Josh Rogers has been recalled to take Parra’s placed on the roster. Rogers was already with the team as the 29th man for yesterday’s double-header.

Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com talks to Nats’ manager Dave Martinez, who says the plan is for Parra to just rest for 10 days. At that point, there would only be a few weeks remaining in the schedule, but Martinez is still hopeful Parra can return before the season ends. It’s been a subpar season so far for the 34-year-old, perhaps somewhat attributable to the knee issues, since Parra had knee surgery in the offseason. He’s slashing .232/.288/.347 on the year for a wRC+ of 71.

The club is well out of contention and Parra is a free agent at season’s end, leaving little reason to rush him back onto the field. But if he’s healthy enough, he can get some plate appearances before the winter comes, giving both Parra and the club a chance to assess his status going into the offseason.

As for Rogers, he could have perhaps earned himself a longer look in the Washington rotation after his start last night. The 27-year-old threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, three walks and three earned runs with five strikeouts, earning a win in the process.

Nationals Select Josh Rogers

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The Nationals have selected the contract of lefty Josh Rogers, per the team. Rogers will be added to the active roster to be the 29th man for their doubleheader today. He’s likely to start one of the two games against the Mets today.

Rogers was released by the Orioles in June, signing on with the Nats just a couple of days later. Between the Triple-A affiliates of both clubs, Rogers has a 4.48 ERA across 90 1/3 innings. He last appeared in the Majors with the Orioles back in 2019. He currently owns an 8.65 ERA in 26 career innings between 2018 and 2019.

To make room on the 40-man roster, Kyle McGowin was transferred to the 60-day injured list. McGowin is awaiting a final diagnosis, but he is potentially facing Tommy John surgery. Regardless, he won’t make it back to the hill this season.

McGowin had transitioned to a full-time role in the bullpen this season after multiple years as a swingman for the Nats. The 29-year-old had perhaps his best season as a pro, tossing 30 innings across 27 appearances with a 4.20 ERA/4.59 ERA.

Injury Notes: Giolito, Longoria, Torres, Moreland, McGowin

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The White Sox placed Lucas Giolito on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 1, due to a left hamstring strain this afternoon. It seems the move is mostly precautionary, as manager Tony La Russa told reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times) that Giolito is scheduled to throw a bullpen session next Wednesday. The White Sox can afford to be especially cautious with even minor injuries for their top players, as they’re coasting to a division title and hoping to get everybody right for the postseason. Giolito has a 3.69 ERA/3.68 SIERA over 158 1/3 innings this season.

Some more health situations around the league:

  • The Giants announced they’ve activated third baseman Evan Longoria from the 10-day injured list. The 35-year-old returns in time for perhaps the club’s biggest series of the year, as San Francisco is set to kick off a three-game set against the Dodgers, with whom they’re tied atop the NL West. Injuries have limited Longoria to 199 plate appearances this season, but he’s looked rejuvenated when healthy. Longoria owns a .289/.382/.526 line with ten home runs. Mauricio Dubón was optioned to clear active roster space.
  • The Yankees activated shortstop Gleyber Torres from the 10-day injured list before this evening’s game with the Orioles. The 24-year-old returns after a three-week absence due to a thumb sprain. Torres got off to a slow start but looked like he’d begun to turn a corner offensively before going down. He has a .253/.328/.351 mark across 407 plate appearances altogether. New York optioned outfielder Estevan Florial in a corresponding move.
  • Athletics designated hitter/first baseman Mitch Moreland landed on the 10-day injured list with left wrist tendinitis earlier this week. Manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Moreland’s wrist will be in a splint “for at least a few weeks.” With a month remaining in the regular season, that would seemingly put Moreland’s season in jeopardy — at least barring an A’s postseason run. Moreland has struggled to a .227/.286/.415 line across 252 plate appearances this season, a disappointing follow-up to a strong 2020 campaign split between the Red Sox and Padres.
  • The Nationals placed reliever Kyle McGowin on the 10-day injured list this afternoon. The right-hander has a UCL sprain in his throwing elbow and will see a specialist to determine his course of treatment, relays Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. Any injury to a pitcher’s UCL raises the specter of a potential Tommy John surgery, although there’s no indication McGowin is facing any sort of procedure just yet. The 29-year-old has made 30 relief appearances for the Nats this season, working to a 4.20 ERA/3.85 SIERA.

Nationals Release Starlin Castro

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The Nationals have released infielder Starlin Castro, tweets Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. The move comes in conjunction with the conclusion of Castro’s 30-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy.

The team announced at the time of the suspension that Castro would be released once that ban had been served, so this was entirely expected. He was initially placed on administrative leave back on July 16, and the league brought forth a 30-game suspension after looking into the allegations against him.

“Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Castro violated our Policy and that discipline is appropriate,” commissioner Rob Manfred said when announcing the suspension.

“We fully support the Commissioner’s decision and will be releasing Starlin Castro upon the completion of his suspension,” the Nationals said in a statement shortly thereafter, adding that the club would have no further comment on the matter.

Castro had been playing on a two-year, $12MM contract signed in the 2019-20 offseason. He was limited to just 16 games by a fractured wrist in 2020 and logged 87 games in 2021 before being placed on administrative leave. In 103 games and 409 plate appearances with the Nationals, Castro logged a .280/.328/.387 line.

Nationals Select Alberto Baldonado

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The Nationals announced they’ve selected reliever Alberto Baldonado to the big league roster. Catcher Alex Avila was also reinstated from the 10-day injured list. No additional moves were necessary, as active rosters expanded from 26 to 28 players today and the Nats already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster.

It’s a long-awaited first big league call for Baldonado, who has spent eleven years in the minors over his professional career. Signed by the Mets out of Panama during the 2009-10 international period, the left-hander spent the next seven seasons in the New York organization. He signed with the Cubs as a minor league free agent after 2017 and spent the next couple seasons with their top affiliate but never got a big league opportunity.

Baldonado signed a minor league deal with Washington over the winter. The 28-year-0ld has split the season between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester, posting a 2.88 ERA over 40 2/3 innings. Baldonado has backed up that run prevention with a strong 28.8% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.5% walk percentage to earn his first MLB look.

Avila is back after missing nearly two months due to bilateral calf strains. The lefty-hitting backstop owns a .167/.345/.288 line over 85 plate appearances this season. With the Nationals turning their attention toward 2022, he figures to assume a veteran mentor type of role over the season’s final few weeks, with young catchers Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams needing regular playing time at the big league level.

Nationals Option Victor Robles

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The Nationals announced they’ve optioned center fielder Víctor Robles to Triple-A Rochester. Fellow outfielder Andrew Stevenson has been recalled in his place.

It’s the culmination of back-to-back poor seasons for Robles, who finds himself in the minors for the first time since 2018. Robles has more or less been Washington’s everyday center fielder over the past three seasons, a role he’s been expected to hold for years. A one-time top prospect, Robles seized the center field job during the Nats’ World Series winning 2019 campaign. While he was a slightly below-average hitter that year, Robles rated as one of the league’s best baserunners and defensive outfielders. Only 22 years old, he looked to be a core piece who could emerge as an All-Star caliber player with just a bit of an improvement at the plate over the coming seasons.

Not only has Robles not taken another step offensively, he’s completely fallen flat at the plate. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, the right-handed hitter has posted a .209/.304/.302 line over 558 plate appearances. That translates to a 67 wRC+ that suggests Robles has been 33 percentage points worse than the league average hitter. Of the 181 hitters with 500+ plate appearances over the past two years, only four (Kevin Newman, Elvis Andrus, Gregory Polanco and Garrett Hampson) have been less productive at the plate.

Those struggles have cost Robles playing time in recent days, as he hadn’t started a game since Friday. Lane Thomas, acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, has started the past three games in center and is in the lineup there again tonight. With Robles relegated to fourth outfielder duty at the big league level, the Nationals have evidently determined it better to get him continued reps against minor league pitching.

The Nationals could bring Robles back up relatively shortly, as position players only need be on optional assignment for ten days before they’re eligible to be recalled. (They can be brought up within ten days if recalled to replace an injured player). However, the timing of the demotion could suggest they’re prepared to leave Robles in the minors for additional experience. Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players starting tomorrow, so the Nats weren’t under immediate pressure to make a move from a roster limit perspective. Instead, it seems the team has decided an optional assignment to be the more prudent course of action for Robles’ long-term development.

Even if Robles doesn’t return to the majors this season, the demotion shouldn’t have an effect on his service time outlook. He entered the season with 2.052 years of big league time and has already accrued around 152 days of service this season. That’s more than enough to push him beyond the three-year threshold as had been anticipated. He’ll qualify for arbitration for the first time this offseason and is still ticketed to reach free agency over the 2024-25 offseason — assuming he begins next year on Washington’s active roster.

Nationals Release Rogelio Armenteros

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The Nationals have released right-hander Rogelio Armenteros, The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports (Twitter link). The 27-year-old will be free to explore opportunities with other clubs.

Washington claimed Armenteros off waivers from the Diamondbacks last December, but he never appeared in a big league game with the Nats. He began the season with Triple-A Rochester, and was outrighted off the 40-man roster after being designated for assignment in June. Armenteros landed on the minor league injured list not long after, and he made one rehab appearance with the Nats’ complex league affiliate last weekend before being released.

While Armenteros’ tenure with the Nationals didn’t go as hoped, he’s not far removed from a generally well-regarded arm. Baseball America slotted Armenteros among the top thirty prospects in the Astros’ system in each season from 2017-20, thanks to his plus changeup and strike-throwing acumen. Armenteros has a 1.94 ERA over 83 2/3 innings at the Double-A level and has a decent 4.04 mark in 300 2/3 career innings at Triple-A. His big league experience consists of 18 innings with Houston in 2019, as he pitched to an even 4.00 ERA with solid strikeout (24%) and walk (6.7%) rates.

Nationals Promote Keibert Ruiz

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Aug. 30: The Nationals have formally recalled Ruiz from Triple-A Rochester and optioned Barrera in a corresponding move.

Aug. 29: The Nationals are calling up catching prospect Keibert Ruiz to make his team debut tomorrow, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old is widely-considered one of the team’s best prospects, if not the best. MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have him as the club’s number one, while FanGraphs has him second, behind only Josiah Gray, both of whom just joined the organization as part of the trade that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers.

Ruiz has long been viewed as an impact prospect, having been on Baseball America’s Top 100 list for each of the past four years. However, as he reached the upper levels of the minor leagues, it was difficult for him to get playing time in Los Angeles because the Dodgers already had an excellent catcher in Will Smith. Ruiz played just eight games for the Dodgers between last season and this one, logging only 15 plate appearances. As such, it made sense for the club to use him as a trade chip and bolster other areas of the team. With the Nationals having traded away Yan Gomes, they should be able to give Ruiz the run of playing time he never got in Los Angeles.

In Triple-A this year, Ruiz has put up tremendous numbers to back up that prospect status. In 72 games between the two organizations, he has a line .310/.377/.616, producing a wRC+ of 141. If he can produce anything close to that at the big league level, that would make him one of the best offensive catchers in the game.

Since trading Gomes, the Nats have been splitting the catching duties between Riley Adams and Tres Barrera, both of whom have been playing well. In 18 games since coming to Washington from Toronto in the Brad Hand trade, Adams has put up a line of .349/.451/.581, wRC+ of 177. For Barrera, he has a line of .270/.369/.393, wRC+ of 106 in 29 games this year. Both players have options and could potentially be sent down as the corresponding move for Ruiz, but rosters are expanding from 26 to 28 on September 1st, which could allow the club to carry all three. Since the Nats are out of contention, they can use the final month of the season to evaluate their catching options and determine how to proceed for the future.

Nationals Outright Jefry Rodriguez

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AUGUST 26: Rodriguez was passed through outright waivers and assigned to Rochester. He doesn’t have the requisite service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization as high minors depth. Rodriguez would become a minor league free agent this winter if he’s not re-selected to the big league roster before the end of the season.

AUGUST 24: The Nationals announced Tuesday that they’ve recalled lefty Sam Clay and right-hander Patrick Murphy from Triple-A Rochester. Righty Gabe Klobosits was optioned to Rochester in one corresponding move, while fellow right-hander Jefry Rodriguez was designated for assignment in another. The Nats also announced that right-hander Javy Guerra declined an outright assignment and elected free agency following his recent DFA.

Rodriguez, 28, has appeared in 14 games for the Nats this season and pitched to a 5.92 ERA with a below-average 17.9 percent strikeout rate and a 15.6 percent walk rate that is well north of the league average. The righty has pitched in parts of three big league seasons and had a bit of success with the Indians in 2019 (4.63 ERA in 46 2/3 innings), but he’s yet to find much in the way of consistency. Overall, he owns a lifetime 5.34 ERA, 16.8 percent strikeout rate and 13.4 percent walk rate in 123 Major League innings.

That said, Rodriguez did post strong numbers up through the Double-A level in the minors and has a passable 4.69 ERA in 71 innings spent pitching in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting. He’s decent depth arm for a club in need of some innings, but because he’s out of minor league options he cannot be sent down to the minors without first clearing waivers.

Guerra, 35, posted a 4.52 ERA in 83 2/3 innings between the Blue Jays and Nationals from 2019-20 but was hammered for 13 runs (11 earned) on 12 hits and three walks with four strikeouts in six innings this season. He has a career 3.98 ERA in 302 2/3 big league innings and could potentially catch on as a depth option with a contending club looking for some experience to stash in the upper minors for the remainder of the year.

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