After a disappointing series opening loss to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, the Washington Nationals are hoping to turn over a new leaf. While their offense was not the problem at all, as their pitching allowed 8 earned runs in the 8-6 loss. Jake Irvin continued to struggle as he failed to even make it through 4 innings, and the bullpen was not at their best following him up.
Fellow righty Max Kranick came on in relief and had yet another disastrous outing, as he continues to sputter at the big league level since coming back from injury a couple weeks ago. As a midseason signing, Kranick's leash will likely be a little bit longer, as he was not expected to be an instant contributor after not pitching for a long time. However, another former signing is on his way out of Washington ahead of today's game.
Miles Mikolas DFA'd by Nationals in wake of Jackson Kent promotion
As I wrote about yesterday, the Nationals are now entering the phase of their regular season where they are trying to simultaneously compete and sneak into a playoff spot while also looking towards the future. Part of this new youth movement is by giving some guys like Andrew Pinckney and Jackson Kent, who is making his MLB debut tonight, an extended look to end the season.
While getting look at Kent is going to be exciting to say the least, it also means that the Nationals will have to send someone off their roster, and after some reports came out last night that Miles Mikolas was saying goodbye to teammates in the clubhouse, the Nationals made the move official today. It does appear as if the Nationals knew that yesterday would be Mikolas' swan song in Washington, as Blake Butera brought him out of the bullpen to pitch the final 3 innings of the game.
It was a classy gesture from Butera, and Mikolas allowed a solo homer but otherwise did not allow a hit over his 3.0 even innings, striking out a pair in the process. Given that Butera gave him that gesture and that the front office chose to DFA Zack Littell before Mikolas in order to allow him to reach the coveted 10 years of service time milestone, which guarantees him a fully vested pension and healthcare benefits after his career ends.
That was a classy move by Paul Toboni and the front office, as reaching the 10-year mark is something that less than 10% of player achieve over their careers, and it also shows that the Nationals will take care of guys. That is something that will only help them moving into the future, and we wish nothing but the best for Mikolas moving forward.
What do you think of the Nationals' decision to DFA Miles Mikolas to make room for Jackson Kent? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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