The Washington Nationals are going to be facing the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday in what will be the deciding game of their 3-game series. After dominating in the first game of the series on Friday night, the Nationals were beat down in the second game on July 4th, leaving Sunday's contest as the one that will decide the series.
Meanwhile, the Nationals have been busy continuing to make moves and minor improvements to their weakest part of their roster across multiple levels, and continuing to throw darts to see what sort of impact they can get from newer acquisitions, especially as injuries continue to mount. Just days after making a small deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the first ever between the clubs, the Nationals struck another deal on Friday night.
Nationals acquire Tom Cosgrove from Astros for cash considerations
The deal the Nationals made was one with the Houston Astros in which they went out and acquired more organizational bullpen depth. Lefty Tom Cosgrove is now the newest member of the Nationals, and his profile is a pretty interesting one that could ideally make him a candidate to be part of the team's bullpen moving forward.
Cosgrove has appeared in 74 games in the majors to this point, and has actually posted pretty solid numbers overall. He owns a 3.86 ERA and 1.186 WHIP over 70.0 innings in parts of 3 seasons, but he has not appeared in a game in the majors since 2025 with the Chicago Cubs after spending 2023 and 2024 with the San Diego Padres.
His best year came in 2023, as across 54 games, Cosgrove had a 1.75 ERA and 0.974 WHIP, striking out 44 batters and walking 19 overall. He also had a 3.70 FIP, indicating that he was a firmly above-average reliever when given the opportunity. The Nationals will likely send him to AAA Rochester to start out, as he will not be on the 40-man roster, but there is a good chance he finds his way to Washington sooner rather than later.
All the Nationals gave up in return for the 29-year-old southpaw was cash considerations, and for someone like Paul Toboni to continue to take shots like he has, it at least shows that he is unafraid to keep swapping out arms if the unit's struggles persist overall.
What do you think of the Nationals acquiring Tom Cosgrove from the Astros? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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