Mitchell Parker and Andrew Alvarez (unsurprisingly) was sent down to the minors adding clarity to the rotation. It's funny but we'll talk about "we're not sure what's going on with the rotation" but 9 times out of 10 what everyone thinks will happen, happens. It's just Spring talk. The Nats brought in Littell and Mikolas and Griffin to start. Cavalli will start. The 5th slot is likely Irvin's until someone, like Herz or Gray or Susana or Williams, shows themselves to be good and ready, or until he busts and Lord takes over.
On that end Gray has looked good in a couple short outings this spring and is on the quickest time frame, likely starting in AAA just to stretch out. Herz just had his first pen session so is a while off, Williams and Susana still not throwing off the mound. Lord seems fine. Irvin though has pitched ok too so it doesn't seem like he'll bomb out and lose his spot which can happen to fringy guys in Spring because vibes are as good as evaluation when dealing with mediocre players.
If we're talking about Spring in a "we don't know what to do, we'll let Spring decide" way, (which is sort of how Cavalli got the Opening Day start) Clayton Beeter looks like he's setting himself up for a closer role (better yet a shut down 7th/8th guy but you know how these things go). But Henry has looked good to. A lot of guys are hitting poorly - sorry no catcher is doing well and we haven't had a decision make itself on DH/1B. Seaver King is having a nice Spring but I can't imagine they'd push his clock up based on a few Spring ABs with a team going nowhere soon.
I guess the question is whether Jacob Young looks ready for his role as likely 3rd but possibly 4th OF after bruising his wrist but he's already taking swing so one would assume he'll be a go for Opening Day.
The big question remains Catcher. Let's see what happens there the next two weeks.
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OD is only 10 days out. I have to think JY starts on the IL if he's not in games pretty damn soon.
And I think the catcher situation (basically no one looking good but Ruiz looking relatively fine) makes it almost certain that Ford starts in AAA. I'm not even sure there is a plausible, non-injury course of action that could change that at this point. They want the extra year of control anyway, and circumstances did not conspire to make that difficult.
Re the rotation, I think it was on Zuck's podcast that I heard that they were slow walking Gray a bit with an eye on his innings limit this year. Zuck didn't like that from a development perspective because it shortens the season available to him and means a minor injury could prevent him from reaching his innings goal. In their conversation, they seemed to think it was just a clean way to let Irvin (and, let's be real, Mikolas and even Griffin) have some runway to start the year and then Gray will be ready in a few weeks if anyone is struggling.
But my thought was - I wonder if their central idea is preparing Gray for a trade. Certainly, if Gray hadn't had any injuries and was just going into his penultimate year of control as an SP4, he'd definitely be on offer come July. And having enough bullets to get through the end of the season is probably a pretty big concern for a deadline deal. If that's the plan, they'll be trying to give him enough time to establish that he's healthy and effective, but no more than that. Mid to late May seems about right to me.
Well, at least it looks like Rochester will be a >.500 team this year.
Save possibly for Brady House, no Nat of note has scorched the ball in ST, and some of note have been cold as the clay. Crews to AAA? Wouldn't want to harm his delicate sensibilities, but he hasn't shown enough to "go north".
Agreed. He says all the right things and seems to be a great teammate and competitor, but those things don't matter if you're an automatic out.
At least the pitching looks like it's not going to be "worst thing ever," especially with the bullpen. I'm not at all sold on it being "good," but there are enough bodies that there could be workable pieces. In an ideal world, at least a couple out of Littell/Griffin/Mikolas/Gray pitch well enough to be flipped at the deadline, Irvin reestablishes himself as a solid back-of-rotation innings eater the way he was in 2024, Cavalli is a solid midrotation guy, and we get at least something out of Alvarez, Herz, Perales, and/or Cornelio. "Not embarrassing, with some upside" would be a meaningful step forward.
And Beeter/Henry/Lord/McGarry/Varland/Perez/Smith could form the core of a vaguely competent bullpen, rather a shocker around these parts.
Add me to the "Crews to AAA" crowd. I'm not sure what they do with DH in his absence, but I figure an OF of Wood/Young/Lile, IF of House/Abrams/Nunez/Garcia, and Ruiz at C starts the season, with Weimer as OF4, Tena as Util (Nunez as backup SS), Millas as backup C, and Chapparo platooning with Garcia rounds things out. I can see Franklin or Hassell making a case to push their way onto the team if they finish ST strong, letting Wood and Lile rotate through DH with them as the regular corner OF; if not I'm not sure what they do there.
I can certainly see the logic of "Crews to AAA" in terms of giving Crews the best path of development going forward (and he wouldn't have to be down that long for the team to steal an extra year, so I'm sure they're open to it), but I'm very very skeptical of Hassell or Franklin being better contributors in 2026 than Crews would be.
Ford and Riley sent down, so C is Ruiz / Millas opening week. Kind of expected.
It'd be nice if Ford was a breakout talent -- but right now I'll settle for better-then-Ruiz. When can they call him up and not lose service time?
Crews officially sent down
Crews situation. Unfortunate but necessary for him to have regular playing time, constant coaching, and lots of prayers from the fans.
I actually think it's a big vote of confidence in terms of his makeup that the team thinks he's more likely to develop better this way. The countervailing theory of "being optioned will even further hurt his confidence, so we'll have to keep him up and hope he figures it out" is perfectly reasonable, and true for a lot of players, but I don't think it speaks to a preferable mindset.
It’s a test to see how he responds. Not that management is playing Jedi mind games with him, but it’s a set back. Plain and simple. He will have to bounce back and find his mojo. I’m supportive of the move. It is best for his development. It’s more about the reason “why” that’s discouraging, as I’m sure a lot of fans feel, but most of all him.
Oddly enough, I scroll to a different headline and it’s about Wyatt Langford being a sleeper MVP candidate. Go figure. Skenes might be the best pitcher in the game. Jacob Wilson is coming off an all star season… and Crews got sent down to AAA.
I know we say ST stats don’t mean anything, BUT… the fact that Crews couldn’t separate himself from this stinking pile makes his situation all the more concerning:
Crews: .103 AVG, .309 OPS (29 AB)
Franklin: .269 AVG, .631 OPS (26 AB)
Hassell: .286 AVG, .631 OPS (28 AB)
Lile: .171 AVG, .571 OPS (41 AB)
Pinckney: .077 AVG, .231 OPS (13 AB)
Wiemer: .154 AVG, .609 OPS (39 AB)
Wood: .125 AVG, .514 OPS (40 AB)
Young: .125 AVG, .425 OPS (8 AB)
Liñan isn't a huge prospect, but he feels like way too steep of price to pay for a utility infielder with no options and below average projections both in the field and at the plate. This guys was 48 hours from the waiver wire anyway - the Yankees don't have room on the roster.
Maybe the public scouting on Liñan was overly optimistic, and obviously this is small potatoes and not a big deal like the Gore trade, but I simply don't see the logic at all.
On its face, I agree. I can only hope that this is something like: one of the coaches has seen him play and was convinced that he could fix him with better coaching. We will never know, I suspect, unless against all odds he becomes a break-out success. Then everyone will be told the story, bragging rights matter after all. OR maybe they are convinced they can pass him through waivers themselves and get him down to Rochester for evaluation.
Isn’t Tena out of options? So we’d have to DFA him as Vivas is also a LHH that plays 2B/3B. Not that I’m high on Tena, but I don’t see how Vivas is so much better that we essentially give up Linan + Tena in return.
This is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but can’t remember the last time we moved multiple players around for someone else’s trash.
How bad, really, is the Nats bullpen. Fangraphs gives a grim forecast.
best three guys - perfectly decent! Rest of it - OMG NO
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