While the Washington Nationals continue to play an uninspiring brand of baseball as they finalized yet another series loss on Sunday, the team received some more bad news late last week to add insult to error. If things couldn't get any worse for the team, who watched their ace MacKenzie Gore get shelled against his former team, the San Diego Padres, they have now found out that one of their veteran relievers will not be returning.
That name is Derek Law, who last year became one of Dave Martinez' most reliable bullpen arms. He has been dealing with a lot of complications as he was attempting to return to the big leagues in 2025, and now has been dealt a final blow to his case to return.
We wrote just a couple weeks ago that Law had been sent out on a rehab assignment to attempt to help return to form, but evidently things had not exactly been going well for the righty, and perhaps we now know why. He told the media on Friday that he will be undergoing surgery to fix a partial tear in his flexor tendon, with an expected recovery of nine to ten months.
Obviously, with that recovery, Law will not be pitching in 2025 for the Nationals, who sorely could have used his reliable arm in their bullpen as they attempt to crawl their way toward the finish line in what has been a true nightmare season. Between firing their manager Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo earlier this month, the disappointing news of Law's injury was buried among the headlines of Eli Willits signing his contract over the weekend in DC.
In 2024, Law turned himself into a very reliable reliever for the Nationals, turning in a career-best season with a 2.60 ERA and 1.178 WHIP in an even 90.0 innings pitched for the team. He appeared in 75 games, and accounted for 1.9 bWAR as a reliever, which is not easy to do. His return was being anticipated as the Nationals have continued to struggle with their bullpen and continue to shuffle arms in and out until something clicks.
Hopefully for Law, he can put himself on track to return to a big league mound next summer, and it will be interesting to see what kind of market he has as he will be an unrestricted free agent following the conclusion of this season. Perhaps he would be willing to take a low-risk 1-year deal to return to the Nationals, but it's too early to tell.
Do you want to see Derek Law back with the Nationals next season? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.