The Washington Nationals, similar to every other team across Major League Baseball at this point, are beginning to make some final arrangements as their offseason begins to come down to the final stretch. With pitchers and catchers reporting in less than a week now, the time has come to begin taking a look at who has a chance to make the Opening Day roster.
With any luck, and that may not even be enough at this point, the Nationals will somehow ink an actual big league player, but so far that has seemed like a tall task for the new front office led by Paul Toboni. Of course, it is a two-way street, and the Nationals are not exactly the most appealing free agent destination right now.
That might be part of the reason why the Nationals are seemingly trying to create a lot of healthy competition in their major league camp this year at multiple positions. Perhaps the two most intriguing battles to watch might be the one going on behind the dish, and how the pecking order in the bullpen ends up shaking out.
At catcher, the ones expected to receive the larger amount of the playing time will be new acquisition Harry Ford and incumbent option Keibert Ruiz, with Drew Millas expected to compete and even push for serious time as well. However, after being designated for assignment last month, the Nationals announced they would be extending a non-roster invite to Riley Adams, who had also been outrighted to AAA Rochester since being DFA'd.
The other player that had recently been designated for assignment who also received a non-roster invite was righty Andry Lara. He has experience both as a starter and reliever so far in his professional career, although all 9 of his big league appearances have been out of the bullpen. Lara got his first call-up to the majors last year, and did not exactly do a lot to impress in his short time.
He pitched to an 8.79 ERA and 2.442 WHIP in those 9 games, and also sported just a 10:8 K:BB ratio in 14.1 innings after appearing in the big leagues before ever appearing at AAA in the minors. The 23-year-old Lara will have an opportunity compete for a spot in the Nationals' wide open bullpen competition, and hopefully for his sake he can earn put his best foot forward in the spring.
What do you think of Andry Lara and Riley Adams being added to the non-roster invitee list? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.