Every fan of the Washington Nationals who has somewhat kept up with the team in 2025 knows that the team is not exactly in the best spot at the moment. While the bullpen did somehow manage to allow just 1 unearned run in 5.1 innings of work in Friday night's win over the Baltimore Orioles, the product overall has been abysmal, currently ranking as the 2nd worst in the league behind the Los Angeles Angels.
However, it hasn't all been bad, as the recent transactions of getting rid of Colin Poche and Lucas Sims have helped the outlook of the unit overall, given how awful the two of them had been to begin the season. While some of the names that were expected to be big factors like Jose A. Ferrer and Jorge López have had their struggles to this point, it's been a pair of 2 young relievers that seem to be moving up the trust tree at this point, and should be given more opportunities in high-leverage situations.
Our site covered these 2 names earlier this week, but let's dive into their starts in a big more depth.
Cole Henry
The first name I wanted to discuss is Cole Henry, a former 2nd round pick out of LSU back in 2020 who actually began his professional career as a starter before dealing with a number of injuries that made his long-term fit with the big league club as a reliever. Despite putting up great numbers in spring training, Henry began the season in the minors as he worked on transitioning to the bullpen, but has been great since earning his shot in the big leagues.
Henry was the first name that Davey Martinez called out of the bullpen on Friday night, helping the team escape a bases-loaded jam in the 4th inning that set the stage for the rest of the bullpen to have a much-needed night of great outings all around. So far this season, Henry has appeared in 12 games, pitching to a 3.14 ERA and 1.12 WHIP in 14.1 innings, with 17:6 K:BB ratio to this point. He has shown that he should be given more chances to help bridge the gap as a setup guy to help get to Kyle Finnegan, but with Martinez' stubborn bullpen management, he might not be given those chances as soon as most people, myself included, would like to see.
Jackson Rutledge
The other name that deserves some more shine given his start to the season is righty Jackson Rutledge, who was the 1st round pick of the Nationals back in 2019. You should be very familiar with Rutledge's name at this point, as he had made appearances for the club in both 2023 and 2024 as both a starter and reliever, before fully transitioning to the bullpen in 2025.
Rutledge, like Henry, began this season down in the minors as well to work on that role switch, but quickly found his way to the big leagues and has shown no signs of that decision being a bad one at all. In 14 appearances this season, Rutledge has a 2.75 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, while striking out 23 batters in 19.2 innings. It seems as if he has finally found his place in the big leagues as a reliever, and with a 23:8 K:BB ratio so far, he too should be trusted with some high-leverage spots as well.
If I was Davey Martinez, I would look to use Rutledge as a 7th inning setup man, with Henry getting the 8th inning, in order to get them used to those more intense situations to ultimately bridge the gap to closer Kyle Finnegan.
What do you think of these bullpen breakouts so far in 2025? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.