The seemingly never-ending cycle of Cade Cavalli's rehab almost came to a screeching halt on Tuesday night. While the 26-year-old righty continues to make his way back from Tommy John Surgery that he had back in March of 2023, his rehab start earlier this week made Nationals fans everywhere hold their collective breath.
Making his first start for the Rochester Red Wings, where he will likely make at least a few rehab appearances before he gets a chance to pitch for the big league club again, Cavalli was pulled after just 2.0 innings pitched, and nobody really knew the reason why. He was relieved by Joan Adon in the 3rd inning, and alarms were sounded as it did not seem like that was the plan, especially since he had thrown 5.0 innings in his last rehab start.
As speculation brewed online about what had happened to the Nationals' #7 prospect, the team seemingly received some positive news after the game. According to Mike Rizzo, who appeared on The Junkies this morning to discuss a number of things, he said that Cavalli was lifted as a precaution due to feeling fatigued in the second inning. Whether or not he meant body fatigue or just fatigue to his arm, it seems like it was a best case scenario to lift the young righty before he went any further and potentially risked injury.
The Nationals have waited a long time for Cavalli, who has immense potential that he flashed in his lone big league appearance back in 2022, and it seems as if he will finally get another crack at the big leagues should his rehab continue to progress well. If there is any positives to take away, Rizzo was happy with Cavalli's stuff in yesterday's brief appearance, and his fastball was touching 98 MPH, which is a positive sign that his velocity appears to be coming back.
Hopefully for Cavalli's sake he is able to rejoin the club at some point this summer and can at least make a few starts so we don't have to be subjected to watching Trevor Williams struggle to pitch 5.0 innings every 5th day. For Cavalli, I'm sure that being able to get back on a big league mound after all that he has endured with his injuries would be a very rewarding moment, and I would love for him to be able to finish this season healthy, setting him up to win a rotation spot next spring out of camp.
When do you think Cade Cavalli will return to a big league mound? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.