The Washington Nationals are in their final week of Grapefruit League games, and we got more cuts yesterday. The final roster might have a surprise or two. You have to think that general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez have their roster set at this point, and have not announced it publicly yet.
Going by stats won’t get you to the roster or the starters. Your top batters in camp are James Wood 1.260 OPS, Cayden Wallace 1.083, Nasim Nunez 1.067, Alex Call .994, Luis Garcia Jr. .992, Andres Chaparro .973, Robert Hassell III .972, CJ Abrams .889, and Paul DeJong .829. Those are your Top-9. And Wallace has been cut, Nunez might be sent to Triple-A, Call will be the fourth outfielder and a bench bat, Chaparro is injured, and Hassell will probably start his season in Triple-A. The same goes for your pitchers. Kyle Finnegan and Evan Reifert have similar stats with a 3.000 WHIP and ERA’s north of 15.00. The difference is Reifert has no MLB saves or appearances. And Rizzo made the correct decision, and returned the Rule-5 Draft Pick, Reifert, to the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon. The 40-Man Roster is now at 39.
In these final 9-days until Opening Day, there is a lot going on before Opening Day and the final roster reveal which usually goes official in the morning on Opening Day. This year we get the new City Connect jersey reveal on Sunday morning that is going to be an event with Ryan Zimmerman and DC Mayor Bowser arriving on Clydesdales and the reveal begins at the Center Field Gates between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM. The next day, on Monday, is an exhibition game against the Orioles then the Nationals will host their annual charity Gala at The Wharf.
Today’s game will be a 6:05 pm EDT start time against the Houston Astros in CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. This game will be on MASN and on 980AM radio with the Nationals coverage available on the MLB app.
The Nationals are at 11-11-1 in Grapefruit League play. Today’s probable starters are Trevor Williams and Lance McCullers Jr. This will be McCullers’ first start of Spring Training.
Last week, Martinez was asked about who would be his fifth starter which appears to be a competition between DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker at this point. There might not be enough time for Shinnosuke Ogasawara to show what he has. Let’s look at ERA and WHIP for each: Herz 6.52/1.970, Parker 3.65/1.220, Ogasawara 7.56/2.520.
With the competition for the starting rotation whittled down, it looks like Parker is the frontrunner — but Martinez won’t name that 5th starter just yet. In fact Ogasawara will get one more start this week in a Spring Training game after he pitched last week in a game on the backfields.
“[Gore] has matured a lot. I think he’s starting to understand who he is, really. His stuff is so good. He’s actually really starting to understand how to use his stuff, which is amazing.”
— Martinez said
One starter who is out of the competition for the rotation is Jackson Rutledge as he will join Cole Henry as former starters who have officially been moved to the bullpen. While Rutledge is certainly a candidate to make the Nationals’ bullpen, another name that has emerged is Brad Lord.
The bullpen competition is probably the most wide open of the roster decisions as there could be two or three open spots.
“[Lord’s] stuff play. I’m not saying he’s not going to revert back to a starter, but he’s done really well in Spring Training doing what he’s done. We’ll see. We’ve still got a little less than a week down here.”
— Martinez said
“We’ve still got some time to find these things out, but I think he can come in and get us a ground ball in a tough situation, which is nice.
But it’s the deception. It’s what he can do. It’s everything that he’s become and that we’ve seen that allows us to say, if this guy can throw strikes, he can give us two-plus innings.”
RHP Zach Brzykcy has been dealing with a quadricep tendon issue, and he wasn’t projected to make the Opening Day roster prior to the announcement of his injury. Amed Rosario who was scratched due to soreness in his knee earlier in the week was back to play. But we have our first Spring Training injury that will result in an IL move as Andres Chaparro injured his oblique and he will start the season on the IL.
Here is the 40-man roster as well as a list of the NRI players you will be seeing. As you also had been seeing, players from Minor League camp have been subbing in late to get some action.
There are 9-days until the Opening Day, and here is your lineup:
