According to some reports late on Monday afternoon, the Washington Nationals and veteran righty reliever Lucas Sims are nearing an agreement on a deal. While it has not been officially announced as of the time of writing, the deal will likely be finished at some point today, so that Sims can report to West Palm Beach to join the other pitchers and catchers.
This is yet another uninspiring but potentially effective signing by General Manager Mike Rizzo, as Sims features some legitimately intriguing upside, although his career numbers are somewhat mediocre at best. The righty reliever, who is now 30-years-old and will turn 31 during the season, has been in the big leagues since he broke in to the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 2017.
Sims was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2018 in a package with a few other players for Adam Duvall, and would stay with the Reds all the way up until this past season, when he was traded to the Boston Red Sox at the deadline. His tenure with the Red Sox was pretty abysmal, as he posted a 6.43 ERA in 15 appearances, and accounted for -0.3 bWAR in those games.
He was solid with the Reds throughout his 7-year tenure in Cincinnati, as he appeared in 210 games and posted a 3.94 ERA and 1.192 ERA with them. Despite beginning his career as a starter, he has since become a full-time reliever, and he has not made a start since 2019. The one thing that this potential signing has me wondering is if the club plans to use him in any sort of closing role.
While he is definitely not a closer by nature, he has a little bit of experience in handling the 9th inning, as he does have 12 saves in his career. His stuff would seem to potentially profile as a closer, and if his reported rise in velocity as shown in the video below is truly legitimate, it would be interesting to see if he can factor into the equation at all.
MLB FA Lucas Sims throwing the hardest bullet of his career (T98.0) during his first live ABs outing of the off-season ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/bHekfFqgem
— Driveline Baseball (@DrivelineBB) February 13, 2025
Besides his hard fastball, he also features a devastating sweeper that could definitely serve him well in a potential late-inning role, and there are also reports that he is adding a revamped cutter to his arsenal as well that should help offer hitters some more variety.
Overall, I do not mind this move by the Nationals, as they made a move to bring in a reliever with big league experience, however, I still believe they are sorely lacking a proven option for the 9th inning, and it could be something that costs this team ball games this season. Hopefully, I am proven wrong, but when a guy like Kyle Finnegan is still available, I wonder why they are choosing not to bring him back and going with a lesser option instead.
What do you think of the Lucas Sims addition? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.