The Nationals announced this morning that left-hander DJ Herz has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Herz had been optioned to Triple-A last Friday, but that option has been rescinded in favor of a major league IL placement, presumably after testing revealed an injury sustained in big league camp.
While the team hasn’t announced a formal timetable or treatment plan, it’s an ominous injury. The sprain, by definition, indicates some stretching/tearing of the ligament. The majority of UCL sprains result in Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure, either of which would wipe out Herz’s entire season. Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reports that Herz has experienced a dead arm throughout camp and saw his velocity drop this spring, which only further adds to the level of concern.
Herz, 24, came to the Nationals in the trade sending Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs back in 2023. He made his big league debut last summer and quickly showed that he has a place in the team’s long-term plans. After logging a 3.89 ERA in 10 Triple-A starts, Herz started 19 games and tallied 88 2/3 MLB frames, working to a solid 4.16 earned run average. The 2019 eighth-rounder fanned an impressive 27.7% of his opponents and also radically improved his command in the majors; Herz has walked more than 15% of his opponents throughout his minor league tenure, including a ghastly 19% in Triple-A last year, but he cut that to a 9.4% rate in the majors. That’s only one percentage point north of league-average and is plenty passable for someone who can miss bats at Herz’s levels.
Even without any knowledge of the dead arm, a cursory glance at Herz’s spring stats would’ve suggested something was amiss. After that strong output between Triple-A and the majors last year, he’s been rocked for nine runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and nine walks in Grapefruit League play. He’s fanned only four of the 49 batters he’s faced and yielded a pair of home runs.
Having been optioned to Triple-A Rochester already, Herz wasn’t in the Nationals’ immediate rotation plan. Now, the question is whether he’ll factor into their plan anytime before the 2026 season. With Herz sidelined for the short term at the very least, Washington’s rotation will feature MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and offseason signees Michael Soroka and Trevor Williams (the latter of whom re-signed with the Nats on a two-year deal after also spending the 2023-24 seasons there). The Nats optioned another free-agent addition, former NPB lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara, to Rochester to begin his career in North American ball. They also have righty Josiah Gray and former top prospect Cade Cavalli both on the comeback trail after undergoing Tommy John surgery to address their own UCL injuries.
More like DL HERTZ
Young guy has a huge future. Hope it isn’t the worst case scenario.
Ah man, I guess this is probably the better reason why he didn’t make the rotation.
Ugh, tough news. This kid has a bright future regardless of this setback.
Here I was hoping the Nats make it to Opening Day without any injuries in Spring Training. Hopefully Herz can heal and bounce back, but this gives Cade Cavalli more of a chance to rebound from his TJ Surgery, once he’s healthy.
Tough news, really thought at times last year he looked like our best or 2nd best pitcher. When he’s on he’s pretty damn solid.
vaderzim: Cavalli certainly isn’t going to bounce back before he’s healthy.
Best wishes to DJ Herz on his recovery. Even under the worst case scenario of needing TJ surgery, this injury should only be a relatively minor setback at the start of his career. He just turned 24 in January.
Call up MC enterprise
Call up MC hammer
Let’s come together right now and find a solution for the Tommy John issue.
The Roger Beshens football slider when taught incorrectly is a huge problem. When morphing off that football slider or morphing closer to it from a cutter it becomes a huge problem.
Come together right now for the common good and for Roger.
It doesn’t matter if other pitchers threw that football slider many years ago. They didn’t inform anyone or their TEAMS about how to throw it. Before 2018 there were NO TEAMS teaching that Football Slider. Roger Beshens actually informed ML pitchers, coaches and teams in May 2018 on twitter with thousands of messages to them on how to throw his Football Slider. He also has a You Tube video dated October 28 2016 that explains it. That’s why Roger Beshens is right when he says he started the football slider revolution. Now in 2025 every team teaches it or searches for the best ones and spends a lot of money to get them. One team has endless funds to recruit them.
Hey you’re not that bright are you. Tommy John IS THE SOLUTION to the problem. The problem has been here since they invented baseball and started throwing overhand. WAKE UP!
@MCNuts,
I think your best path forward is to pitch (pun intended) your proposal to RFKJr, or his brain worm. Maybe this, along with some beef tallow, can reverse this trending national tragedy.
We can begin with hooked on phonics and avoid using the door knob reference for sliders or any pitch.
No truer words have ever been uttered. Keep fighting the good fight.
Triumph fought the good fight until he became embittered as Conans trash talking mutt
One person with a nerdy background joins Major League Baseball and then many others like him get hired which leads to a loss of integrity in the league.
Wise coaches are open to learning which makes your statement less valuable.
MCNuts: Whom exactly would you like to come together? I doubt you or the rest of us on here have the requisite education and training in sports medicine to make anything happen.
Guess when DJ spun You Spin Me Round he spun too fast and too far
When the sweeper came out you could tell something was off and many things were wrong.
See you in 2027
Like so many other pitchers
But lets not jump to conclusions
This is NOT out of the ordinary
There’s NOTHING wrong with the current game or rules or ways in which pitchers are developed/taught
Why put him on the Major League IL? Maybe it will save an option year, but I think the downside is worse with all the wasted Major League service time he’ll be racking up on the IL that will probably allow him to hit free agency a year earlier than he otherwise would.
Herz was injured before he was optioned, so he can only go on the major league IL. There’s no choice about it. If it turns out to be a major injury they can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. He’ll earn service for the duration of his IL placement
During his time away from the game Herz will fall back to his secondary career of selling cars. So if you are looking for a new or used vehicle….
“Let Herz put you in the driver’s seat today.”
Between Gray, Cavalli and Herz, this team will have lost, or are in the process of losing, the better part of 5 years to arm surgery. That’s not even counting a year lost from Bennett in the minors. All supposed to be at least useful cogs in the pitching rebuild. I guess every team, though, has their version of this.