On Friday afternoon, the Washington Nationals continued their recent cutdown of big league camp, as they decided the fates of 4 more players. With Opening Day now less than a week away, the team is needing to get their team to the 26-man roster limit, and these cuts have helped that process significantly. Cuts come quickly at this time of camp, and despite us just putting out an article yesterday about each player that has a chance to make the big league club, 4 more names can be crossed off that list.
However, the big news from the latest round of roster cuts is that multiple roster battles appear to be settled at this point in time, most notably the competition for the 5th starter, which was between a trio of lefties in DJ Herz, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, and Mitchell Parker. The winner of that competition is Parker, as both Herz and Ogasawara were optioned to AAA Rochester.
This should come as no surprise, and I actually discussed Ogasawara and his struggles in an article recently, and evidently the organization felt the same way that I did. He had another horrendous outing on Thursday, and that seemed to be the nail in the coffin to what I am sure was a pretty dramatic learning experience for the Japanese lefty. He finishes his spring with the Nats with a 1-3 record in 5 starts with an 11.25 ERA and 2.67 WHIP. It is clear that he needs a lot of work, and should get an opportunity to work on his craft down with the Red Wings.
DJ Herz will also begin the season down in AAA, and his spring training included an 0-2 record in 4 appearances with 3 starts, and an ERA of 6.52 in just 9.2 innings. Many who have been around camp have said that he is seemingly tinkering a lot with his mechanics, and he will now get the opportunity to work on them down in AAA against lesser competition. For a guy who struck out 106 batters in just 88.2 innings of work last year, he did not look like it at all during his time in big league camp in 2025.
The following players have been optioned to Triple-A Rochester:
— Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) March 21, 2025
LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara
LHP DJ Herz
INF Nasim Nuñez
C Drew Millas
The other names who were sent down were Drew Millas, who officially lost the battle for backup catcher. He was a guy I was very excited about coming into camp, but he has just failed to seize his opportunity whenever he has been given a chance to take that backup role behind starter Keibert Ruiz. His athleticism has always made him a lot more intriguing than Riley Adams, but collecting just 1 hit in 18 at-bats is just not going to cut it in a competition. Even Andrew Knizner is still left in camp at this point, which shows just how highly the organization thought of Millas' performance this spring.
Finally, Nasim Nuñez was also optioned down to the minors, as despite his best efforts to make the Opening Day roster, he will begin the season in AAA. He had 13 hits in 31 at-bats, and also stole 7 bases with a .970 OPS in camp, but evidently it was not enough to make the team. Evidently the team has chosen to go with José Tena and Amed Rosario over him as the team's backup infielders.
Nuñez and Millas will likely be called up quickly if there is any sort of injury, and I am unsure at this time how quickly we could see Herz and Ogasawara appear with the big league club in 2025. With Parker winning the 5th starter battle, the team has basically cemented their Opening Day rotation of MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Trevor Williams, Michael Soroka, and Mitchell Parker.
What do you think of the latest round of roster cuts? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.