Kyle Finnegan, who was non-tendered by the Washington Nationals less than 2 weeks ago, is seemingly going to be a hot commodity on the open market by several teams. I have already written about Finnegan potentially being brought back by the club, but will the team actually bring him back? It now appears that we might have some more clarity on the matter.
Based on a recent post by Mark Polishuk on MLB Trade Rumors, it appears that the Nationals would have been open to retaining Kyle Finnegan if contract talks had been lower than his arbitration number of $8.6 million AAV. While Andrew Golden from the Washington Post also reported that the Nats and Finnegan were "not close to make a deal to avoid arbitration," it seems likely that the club would seek a reunion with the 2024 All-Star, should his market not progress as he would like it to.
However, it appears as though the righty is going to have a strong market, as plenty of teams around the league are going to need late-inning relief help, including the Nationals. While I truly do believe that the best path forward for both the Nats and Finnegan is to part ways and allow Finnegan to pursue another opportunity as a closer elsewhere, it's important to note that familiarity always factors into free agency decisions in some capacity.
Since the club took a chance on him in 2019, Finnegan has worked his way up in the organization from being an afterthought to being an All-Star closer in 5 years. Sure, his underlying numbers aren't fantastic and his value is being boosted by his fantastic save totals, if the team fails to bring in another significant reliever to handle the 9th inning, would they look to bring back Finnegan? It's certainly possible.
If Finnegan doesn't get multi-year offers or doesn't get compensated like the All-Star closer he was in 2024, he likely will wait out his free agency a little bit longer in order to make sure he is capitalizing on his value and striking on the best offer possible. If a team like the Blue Jays, Mets, or Yankees comes in and offers him a deal worth only $6 or $7 million in AAV, would he take that deal? I don't know if he would, especially if the Nationals came in around the same price point.
He may feel slighted in the fact that the club chose to non-tender him rather than paying his arbitration rate, but looking at it from a business perspective and it's hard to argue that the Nationals made an incorrect decision. All in all, I am not going to shut the door on a reunion between Kyle Finnegan and the Nationals, and it appears as if others around the baseball world aren't going to either.
Would you want the Nationals to bring back Kyle Finnegan for the right price? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.