The Washington Nationals have played a maddening brand of baseball recently, with inconsistencies across the board from their lineup, starting rotation, bullpen, and their defense. They are a team that definitely has a lot of flaws, but they do have some bright spots as well.
While the bigger names like James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, and even newcomers like Brady House and Daylen Lile have stolen most of the positive headlines with their play this season, there are a handful of other players who have done some great things this year as well. In fact, one of their surprising players is now being rewarded in a big way.
As of today, rookie righty Brad Lord is going to be returning to the Nationals' starting rotation, following a stellar performance out of the bullpen this season. Lord began the season by being a surprising addition to the team's Opening Day roster as a former 18th-rounder back in 2022, and ended up becoming arguably the team's most consistent reliever as the season wore on.
For the year, Lord has a 3.46 ERA and 1.246 WHIP in 35 appearances, while making 6 starts earlier this season as well. Speaking to strictly his performance out of the bullpen, Lord had a 2.79 ERA and 1.164 WHIP as a reliever, as opposed to a 4.44 ERA and 1.367 WHIP as a starter. It will be interesting to see how Lord fares in his return to the rotation, but this team desperately needs him to be at least a guy who is capable of turning in a quality start.
The team's rotation outside of MacKenzie Gore has been abysmal this season, with Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker, Michael Soroka, and a combination of Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Trevor Williams have all been up and down, but mostly down overall. Irvin has been the team's 2nd best starter, yet has just a 4.81 ERA in his 21 starts this season, which is not great at all for a serious team.
Personally, I am very excited to see how Lord fares, and while many fans have been hoping for Cade Cavalli to get a chance, his AAA numbers this season have been subpar despite a recent solid stretch of starts. Chances are, Cavalli is going to get a chance to rejoin the big league club once Soroka is inevitably traded within the next 10 days or so.
Do you agree with the decision to move Brad Lord back into the rotation? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.