Nationals Release Rogelio Armenteros
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
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
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.
Nationals Claim Mike Ford
The Nationals announced Monday that they’ve claimed first baseman Mike Ford off waivers from the Rays and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring right-hander Joe Ross from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Tampa Bay had designated Ford for assignment over the weekend.
Ford, 29, had a big showing with the Yankees as a rookie in 2019 when he batted .259/.350/.559 with a dozen home runs in 163 plate appearances. He’s had a near-identical sample of 156 plate appearances since that time, however, and managed just a .134/.250/.276 batting line in the big leagues. The Yankees moved on from Ford back in June when they designated him for assignment, and while the Rays acquired him shortly thereafter, he never got called to the big leagues with Tampa Bay.
Instead, Ford has spent his time with the Rays rediscovering his swing in Triple-A Durham. He’d gone just 2-for-24 with eight strikeouts in 29 plate appearances with the Yankees’ top minor league affiliate this year, but Ford righted the ship (to an extent) with a .243/.346/.529 batting line in 162 Triple-A plate appearances in the Rays organization.
Ford will now join a Nationals club that went through a broad-reaching sell off prior to the trade deadline — a housecleaning effort that could lead to him getting some opportunities down the stretch. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Rochester for the time being, but Ford has another five years of club control remaining so they could take a look at him as a longer-term option at first base (or, if it comes to the National League, designated hitter). Josh Bell has been Washington’s primary first baseman this season but recently made an outfield appearance, which could allow the Nats a path to getting a look at both players at the plate.
As for Ross, the move to the 60-day IL comes as little surprise. The Nats recently announced that the righty was found to have an ulnar collateral ligament injury earlier this month, but he won’t require surgical repair. Still, given the nature of his injury and the remaining time on the calendar, it never looked likely that he’d make it back to the mound in 2021.
Nationals Designate Javy Guerra For Assignment
The Nationals are activating right-hander Austin Voth from the COVID-19 injured list, manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). Reliever Javy Guerra has been designated for assignment to open space on the active roster.
Washington has a vacancy on the 40-man roster, but Guerra couldn’t be optioned to the minors. Bumping him from the big league club required exposing him to waivers, and the veteran right-hander hasn’t shown well over six appearances this year. Guerra has been tagged for thirteen runs on twelve hits (including three homers) with three walks and four strikeouts over six innings. He now seems likely to wind up on the free agent market in the coming days. Guerra has enough major league service time to reject an outright assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
Guerra has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past eleven seasons, logging time with the Nats in the last two-plus years. The 35-year-old has bounced around the league after breaking in as the Dodgers’ closer a decade ago and should find interest elsewhere via minor league deals.
Voth has been out of action for a little more than three weeks. He landed on the COVID-19 IL alongside Trea Turner, Daniel Hudson and Alex Avila in late July. Turner and Hudson have since been traded and activated to their new clubs’ rosters, while Avila remains on Washington’s injured list. Voth has worked almost exclusively in relief this season, posting a 4.81 ERA over 43 innings.
Nationals’ Joe Ross Out For Season, Will Not Undergo Tommy John Surgery
AUGUST 17: Ross will not need to undergo Tommy John surgery, Martinez told reporters (including Maria Torres of the Athletic). He won’t pitch again this season, but Martinez expressed hope he could be ready for Spring Training in 2022.
AUGUST 15: An MRI has revealed a partial UCL tear in Joe Ross‘s right elbow, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. Nationals manager Dave Martinez says Tommy John surgery is possible but hasn’t been decided on definitively. The righty has already undergone the procedure once before, back in 2017. Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post notes that he is going to see the same doctor who performed that surgery to determine how to proceed.
Whether the surgery is the chosen path or not, this is an unfortunate diagnosis for Ross, one of the few notable Nationals players that wasn’t traded at the deadline. One way or another, he is now sure to miss some significant time. He has thrown 108 innings this year with an ERA of 4.17, with strikeout and walk rate both slightly better than league average, at 23.7% and 7.4%, respectively. His 1.4 fWAR is the most of any Nationals pitcher this year who is still on the team. He’s currently on track to be a free agent after the 2022 season. But it’s now possible the team will not tender him a contract, given that there’s a chance he could miss the entire year.
For the team, this further diminishes a rotation that has lost Max Scherzer and Jon Lester to trades, as well as Stephen Strasburg to thoracic outlet surgery. Martinez says that Sean Nolin could potentially get another start in Ross’s absence, per Dougherty.
With Ross going on the IL, Lane Thomas is taking his place on the roster, also per Dougherty. Acquired from the Cardinals in the Jon Lester trade, Thomas is a 25-year-old outfielder. He got into 32 games for St. Louis this year, with a paltry slash line of .104/.259/.125. But his Triple-A numbers are much better on the season, slashing .278/.343/.476.
Nationals Claim Patrick Murphy Off Waivers From Blue Jays, Release Rene Rivera
The Nationals have claimed Patrick Murphy off waivers from the Blue Jays, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. Murphy was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays earlier in the week. Additionally, the club has released Rene Rivera, per Jessica Camerato of MLB.com.
Murphy worked as a starter in the minors through the 2019 season. At Double-A that year, he logged 84 innings with an ERA of 4.71. In 2020, with the minor league season wiped out, he was only able to get actual game action in the big leagues, pitching six innings out of Toronto’s bullpen, allowing one earned run on six hits and two walks.
A consistent issue with Murphy has been injuries, which continued this year. He was placed on the 60-day IL back in February and began a rehab assignment in late May. Since that time, he bounced between the majors and minors, being optioned three times. He’s dominated Triple-A hitters in 14 2/3 scoreless innings, with a strikeout rate of 29.3%. Though that also came with a concerning walk rate of 13.8%. At the big league level, he has a 4.82 ERA, but in a small sample size of just 9 1/3 innings. The 26-year-old is in his last option year, meaning Washington can keep him in the minors for the remainder of the season. But once the 2022 season begins, they would have to either keep him in the majors or designate him for assignment again.
As for Rivera, this brings a very short Nationals tenure to an end. The 38-year-old journeyman catcher was released by Cleveland just over a month ago and signed on with Washington in mid-July. He was able to appear in just four games with the Nats. Between the two clubs, his slash line for the season is .232/.293/.362. He will now be free to sign with other clubs. However, Washington had placed him on the IL just last week with an elbow contusion. The severity of that injury could determine the level of interest from other teams.
Nationals Select Sean Nolin
The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Sean Nolin from Triple-A Rochester. Fellow southpaw Sam Clay was optioned to Rochester to open a spot on the 26-man roster, while a 40-man roster spot was opened by transferring right-hander Stephen Strasburg from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Strasburg recently underwent season-ending thoracic outlet surgery.
Remarkably, this call to the big leagues will mark Nolin’s first big league action in nearly six years. The now-31-year-old lefty tossed 29 innings as a September call-up with the A’s that season — his lone action in Oakland after coming over alongside Kendall Graveman, Brett Lawrie and Franklin Barreto in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson to Toronto.
As one might imagine given Nolin’s inclusion in a swap of that magnitude, the left-hander was once a rather well-regarded prospect. Baseball Prospectus tabbed him among the game’s 100 most promising minor leaguers headed into the 2013 season. That ranking came on the heels of a 2.04 ERA in 101 1/3 combined innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, and he followed it with 110 1/3 frames of 2.77 ERA ball split between Double-A and Triple-A the following season.
A promising future for Nolin was largely derailed by injuries, however. Nolin underwent “bilateral core surgery” in the 2014-15 offseason — the same procedure Luke Voit had after the 2019 campaign — and he subsequently injured his shoulder about six weeks after returning. Nolin made it back to the mound in 2015 for that previously mentioned September run, but he was designated for assignment over the winter and landed with the Brewers. Things went from bad to worse in Milwaukee, as Nolin tore his left UCL during Spring Training and eventually required Tommy John surgery.
That injury and surgery wiped out Nolin’s 2016 and 2017 campaigns, and he went on to bounce about the game in journeyman fashion. He’s since pitched with the Rockies, Mariners and White Sox in addition to stints in the independent Atlantic League, in Mexico and in Japan, where he spent the 2020 season with the Seibu Lions.
Nolin didn’t fare especially well overseas, but he’s been effective in his return to affiliated ball. In 47 1/3 innings with the Nationals’ Rochester affiliate, he’s notched a 3.80 earned run average with a 26 percent strikeout rate and a 7.5 percent walk rate while keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average 47.7 percent clip. Nolin doesn’t even have two years of Major League service time, so if he can parlay this improbable opportunity into a lasting place in the Washington ‘pen for the remainder of the season, he could be an option for the Nats well beyond the 2021 season.
Padres Had “Strong Interest” In Trea Turner At Trade Deadline
The Dodgers’ blockbuster acquisition of Max Scherzer and Trea Turner was the biggest news of deadline season, though Los Angeles wasn’t the only NL West power looking to land that same duo from the Nationals. The Padres were reportedly close to getting Scherzer, and FanSided’s Robert Murray writes that San Diego also had “strong interest” in obtaining Turner.
Despite all these talks, there still seemed to be some distance between the Padres and Nationals in talks. Murray writes that “a deal was never close” for Turner, while even the Scherzer negotiations were described by one Washington source as “general back and forth.”
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman shed some more light on the Padres/Nationals talks, reporting that the Padres “floated a serious package” for both Scherzer and Turner, “with the idea of offering even more if Nats came back to them.” Washington apparently didn’t check back in with the Padres, instead taking the Dodgers’ offer of Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, Gerardo Carrillo, and Donovan Casey. As a counter to Ruiz, San Diego’s offer might have also included a top-tier catching prospect, as Heyman says the Padres and Nationals discussed Luis Campusano.
Had Turner landed in San Diego, the initial plan likely would have been to install him at second base, just as the Dodgers did in order to fit both Turner and incumbent star shortstop Corey Seager into the same lineup. Turner and Fernando Tatis Jr. would have formed quite a combo up the middle for the Padres, though Turner would have ended up playing shortstop anyway, if Tatis had also re-injured his shoulder in this alternate reality. Turner might have also been the shortstop anyway, had a healthy Tatis instead been moved to the outfield in order to help preserve his shoulder.
Should Scherzer and Turner help the Dodgers win this year (or in 2022 when Turner will still be under contract), Padres fans will look back on this missed trade with regret, though of course it isn’t known exactly what the Nationals would have demanded from San Diego. The Dodgers and Padres are currently on pace to meet in the NL wild card game, with Los Angeles holding a three-game lead over San Diego in the standings. The Padres also have to worry about the surging Reds, who have moved to 3.5 games back of that second wild card berth.
Trea Turner Discusses Lack Of Extension Talks With Nationals
The trade deadline’s biggest swap saw Max Scherzer and Trea Turner sent to the Dodgers in exchange for four prospects, officially marking the end of an era for the Nationals. Due to a positive COVID-19 test and a subsequent quarantine, Turner didn’t make his Dodgers debut until yesterday, and didn’t officially meet with the media (including Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post) until today, and the shortstop shared some details about the end of his time in D.C.
For starters, Turner confirmed reports that the Nats hadn’t made him a new extension offer since their earlier talks concluded in March 2020. Last week, Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo said talks were being held off due to a request from Turner and his CAA Sports representatives, as Turner’s camp preferred to see how this winter’s free agent shortstop class reset market expectations. (Turner himself isn’t scheduled for free agency until after the 2022 season.)
However, Turner had a different version of events, telling reporters “I said I would talk about an extension whenever and waited for that to happen, and it didn’t happen. So I’ve been told a lot of things over the last two years and, for me, actions speak louder than words. That’s kind of in the past now, it’s over with, and excited to start a new chapter.”
Back in March, Rizzo said the Nats were planning to issue long-term extension offers to both Turner and Juan Soto, yet it appears nothing was sent in Turner’s direction. It could be that the club did plan to re-engage with Turner’s agents at some point, except the team’s slide down the standings in July then altered Washington’s plans for both the short- and long-term. Four days prior to the trade deadline, Peter Gammons reported that Nationals ownership wasn’t planning to retain Turner on an extension, which kicked the rumor mill into high gear.
Not only did the Nats clean house and move most of their players signed only through 2021, the fire sale also extended to players with slightly more team control. Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Will Harris are now the only Nationals on guaranteed money for 2022, and the Nats now seem to be aiming towards a somewhat larger-scale retrenching around Soto (controlled via arbitration through 2024) as their cornerstone.
That made Turner expendable, and adding him along with Scherzer resulted in a nice haul of prospects from Los Angeles.The next interesting wrinkle will be to see how extension talks might develop between Turner and the Dodgers during the 2021-22 offseason. Turner’s presence gives the Dodgers a logical replacement if Corey Seager leaves in free agency this winter, and as we’ve seen with several notable names (i.e. Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner), the Dodgers have been aggressive in locking up players they see as major building blocks.