The Washington Nationals just wrapped up an extremely impressive stretch of games in which they played 17 games in 17 days. Remarkably, the Nationals finished with a 9-8 record over that stretch, and the club has to be riding high heading into an off day today.
On Sunday, they closed out their series with a victory over the Chicago White Sox in extra innings by a score of 2-1. It was a gritty victory that saw lefty newcomer Foster Griffin fire 7.0 shutout innings, although he walked away with a no-decision. After Griffin, the Nationals' bullpen did a good enough job to nail down the victory, including righty Paxton Schultz, who closed out the game after just being recalled from AAA Rochester.
Schultz had just re-joined the Nationals on Sunday after only being sent down just 8 days earlier. Typically, the rule is that he would have had to wait a minimum of 15 days before being brought back up, but he was replacing an injured arm that could be detrimental to the Nationals for the foreseeable future.
That arm was righty Clayton Beeter, the Nationals' closer for the most part this season, as he is now headed to the 15-day Injured List with right forearm soreness. While usually a guy having some type of forearm ailment as a pitcher is usually a sign that Tommy John Surgery is in their future, but it seems like Beeter may have avoided a serious scare.
As Dan Kolko pointed out during yesterday's broadcast, Beeter has not been pitching a lot recently, but apparently Blake Butera and the team feels pretty good about getting him some much-needed rest in the meantime to let him rest up and recover. This is great news for a Nationals club that has been devastated by injuries to their pitchers so far.
They of course lost lefty Ken Waldichuk for the season recently due to Tommy John Surgery, and also are without reliever Cole Henry, another one of their high-leverage arms. The Nationals are now without the guys who opened the season as their closer and setup man, and other arms will have to continue to step up.
Offseason acquisition Gus Varland seems as if he will primarily handle save opportunities going forward, as he has mostly been the next man up in Beeter's place. According to Kolko, who spoke with Butera before yesterday's game, the Nationals will likely go closer-by-committee where numerous guys will get chances, such as Paxton Schultz yesterday.
How do you think the Nationals should look to replace Clayton Beeter as a back-end bullpen arm? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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