The Nationals made a surprise addition to their already crowded rotation mix yesterday when they signed southpaw Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a two-year deal. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo spoke to reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASN and Spencer Nausbaum of the Washington Post) today about the club’s rotation plans for 2025 and where Ogasawara fits into that picture.
Ogasawara, 27, has posted a 3.28 ERA in 596 innings of work over the past four seasons with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chunichi Dragons. While that’s a solid performance, the lefty’s lackluster 13.6% strikeout rate last year raised plenty of eyebrows when he was posted by the Dragons last month. That skepticism about his ability to make such a profile with such few strikeouts work in the majors led Ogasawara to sign a modest deal that guarantees him just $3.5MM, well below the going rate for even back-end starters in free agency. Rizzo expressed confidence in Ogasawara as a starting-caliber option despite those concerns, but stopped short of fully guaranteeing him a rotation spot or even an active roster spot to open the season in his discussion of the club’s rotation plans.
“We signed [Ogasawara] to be a starting pitcher for us in the big leagues,” Rizzo told reporters, including Zuckerman. “Of course, he’ll have to earn that spot in the rotation. I think there’s going to be great competition for the five spots in the rotation by some good, young, talented players. If he’s not ready for the big leagues, then we could always option him to Triple-A and bring him up sometime during the season. But we anticipate him battling out for a rotation spot, and I think it’s going to be a fun competition to watch.”
That most tracks with Andrew Golden of the Washington Post’s reporting on the state of the club’s rotation. Golden characterizes right-hander Michael Soroka, left-hander MacKenzie Gore, and right-hander Jake Irvin as the three players locked into Opening Day rotation spots if healthy. That leaves two spots in the rotation for Ogasawara, veteran right-hander Trevor Williams, and young southpaws Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz to compete for, though it’s worth noting that Williams himself indicated earlier this month that he’ll be part of the club’s Opening Day rotation. That would leave just one spot for Ogasawara, Parker, and Herz to compete for. Ogasawara seems likely to be the favorite for that role headed into Spring Training, though all three have options remaining and Golden suggested that he or even Williams could be pushed to a bullpen role if Parker and/or Herz look particularly good coming out of camp.
The club’s approach of adding plenty of depth to the rotation to ease their reliance on up-and-coming youngsters without blocking them meshes will with the club’s overall philosophy for this winter. As Nausbaum notes, Rizzo told reporters that given “where [the club is] at right now,” the club was cautious about signing free agents with a qualifying offer attached due to the associated loss of draft capital and international bonus pool money. The club’s reluctance to target qualified free agents led the club to bring in a number of short-term reinforcements this winter.
That includes not only their trio of rotation additions but also Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, Amed Rosario, and Jorge Lopez. All of those veterans come with either one or two seasons of control, preventing them from blocking the young players and prospects that the Nationals have been building around since they first began what has become a lengthy rebuild back in 2021. The club’s fortunes appear to be on the upswing headed into 2025 with that group of intriguing youngsters in the rotation and an outfield that currently projects to feature full seasons from James Wood and Dylan Crews in the corners. Cade Cavalli, Robert Hassell III, and Brady House are among the other noteworthy prospects in the club’s pipeline who have yet to establish themselves in the majors but could arrive at some point this season.
That reluctance to block top prospects and young players seems to have played a significant role in how the club’s offseason has played out to this point. Early in the winter, the Nationals were among the teams most frequently connected to Christian Walker before he ultimately signed with the Astros. Walker, of course, received a Qualifying Offer from the Diamondbacks that may have limited the Nationals’ interest in him and led to them pivoting towards the additions of Lowe and Bell. It’s also possible that the club’s desire to avoid blocking young players contributing to them not signing second baseman Gleyber Torres. Torres made clear shortly after he signed with the Tigers that the Nats were among the teams pursuing him but that they had wanted him to move to third base in order to accommodate 24-year-old Luis Garcia Jr. after he enjoyed something of a breakout season in 2024. When Torres landed elsewhere, the Nationals opted to sign Rosario, who has moved around to a number of positions all throughout his career and should have no trouble playing out of position if needed.
Let’s be honest it’s not the worst
But obviously not the best. Nats are a fringe WC team this year but obviously loaded with talent
Nationals doing it right no point in signing QO ever if you aren’t a playoff team ever.
Once more with proper English grammar. Jeez.
Ignore posters who feel the need to correct grammar on sports sites. They don’t have anything else to live for. =}
I have a lot of respect for the Nationals front office. They did a really good job playing out their competitive window. I have high expectations for them in the future. I’m a Braves fan that sees them as their true rival. Don’t mean to take anything from the Mets or Phillies, especially after watching the Phillies go all big brother against Atlanta. It’s just that when the Nationals were last competitive they were very consistent.
Nationals had a boring winter and there’s really nobody on the 40 man who couldn’t have moved or got cut to accommodate a free agent.
There were plenty who play positions of need for the Nats. Still are.
And if Rizzo’s telling the truth, guess we’re not done rebuilding. But you can’t have a 10-year window without free agents. Prospects take seasons to acquire and develop and are controlled for six years only.
Org has lost some of its hunger.
Still, they’re a tier above the lose forever revenue sharing welfare teams. A couple decent moves in the off season and some confidence that if their prospects keep improving they’ll make some trades and shell out some money for free agents.
I think they’re positioning themselves to be bigger players in FA a year from now once the young core has another year under their belts. Wouldn’t mind seeing them sign Jack Flaherty never the less. He’s still just 29 and can anchor that rotation for 4 or 5 years to come.
Nationals are going to be an interesting team in 2025, but probably a competitive team in 2026.
What is the status of Josiah Gray for 2025?
He might make some appearances in August September.
Those new red pullover jerseys are sweet.
I have been a huge fan of Rizzo over the years, probably a top 3 GM in my opinion, but I’m concerned if he’s giving rotation spots to guys like Soroka, Williams and this new pitcher over guys like Herz and Parker who are good young starters and need the experience. They should get the first crack. Soroka was only good as a reliever in the past 5 years, start him there.
Parker made nearly 30 starts, keep him consistent with that workload.
I like their offseason from a rebuilding team perspective though it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to shoot for someone like Tanner Scott or Alonso if they had the cash.
Could be worst rotation in MLB maybe worst in many years in NL.
Lol not even close. They weren’t the worst in the MLB last year, and they’re better this year. I expect them to be comfortably mid this season.
Do these pitchers from Japan signed by Baltimore, LA and now DC have to get accustomed to the MLB pitch clock rule? Big deal? Yes? No? Maybe?
Yes. As there is no pitch clock in the NPB. Similarly, they also have to adjust to the bigger baseballs used in MLB. I don’t think it’s a big deal since we haven’t had a ton of pitch clock violations (602 or less than one in every four MLB games played in ’24) since the rule was implemented. The widespread adoption of Pitchcom usage has helped with this.
The Nationals should sign Anthony Rizzo to reunite the Rizzo brothers.
We’ll see if anyone offers Rizzo any kind of deal. He may be at the end of the line.
Brady House sucks
I am afraid I agree. RH 3 seems to also right now. They don’t have a third baseman or shortstop now.
More of the same from a team that has been coasting since 2020.
Two things that never happened again. The Lerner’s never put the team up for sale again and nobody ever signed a contract with the Washington Nationals for triple figure millions again.