The Washington Nationals have been busy making roster moves over the last couple of days. Heading into September, each team is allowed to bring up 2 extra players to their active roster, both of whom were incredible during their MLB debuts last night for the Nationals.
While the Nationals have been pretty inconsistent offensively over the last several weeks while missing several big bats in their lineup from the first half of the season like Curtis Mead and Luis Garcia Jr., they also dealt with injuries to a couple of their stars in James Wood and CJ Abrams. Luckily, they are getting some much needed reinforcements before the end of the season.
Nationals make flurry of roster moves as James Wood returns from IL
As part of welcoming back their superstar slugger, the Nationals had to make a series of roster moves to clear space on the roster. Wood will be in the lineup tonight for the Nationals, according to Paul Toboni, and the team chose to DFA veteran lefty reliever Tom Cosgrove, who had impressed early on after being promoted to the big-league club.
Cosgrove had only allowed 2 earned runs over his first 11 appearances which spanned 10.2 innings, but he has since seen a ton of negative regression that has inflated his cumulative numbers to some ugly figures. The 30-year-old now owns a 7.71 ERA and 1.469 WHIP for the year and will be on the lookout for his next opportunity. Also coming up to the majors again will be righty reliever Riley Cornelio, who has appeared for the Nationals several times already this year.
Also caught up in the fray was outfielder Andrew Pinckney, who had actually performed pretty well throughout his initial cup of coffee in the majors with the Nationals. He came up to the majors about a month ago when Wood hit the Injured List, and even homered in his debut against the Philadelphia Phillies. He held an .820 OPS across his first 25 plate appearances, but did also strike out 8 times compared to just 1 walk.
Pinckney will surely be given a look moving forward as well due to his stellar defense, and he presents a true power-speed threat that can make a big impact in the field as well. He will head back to AAA Rochester, as the Nationals' outfield is hard to get extra playing time in with Wood, reigning NL Player of the Week Daylen Lile, Jacob Young, and Dylan Crews all needing at-bats before the end of the season.
What do you think of the Nationals' decision to DFA Tom Cosgrove and sending down Andrew Pinckney? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
Add us as a preferred source on Google