The 2025 Washington Nationals bullpen has struggled more than any other in recent memory. Fans haven’t seen a reliable, consistent relief corps in over a decade, and this year’s version may be the toughest to watch yet. Through June, the bullpen holds a league-worst 5.93 ERA and a -0.8 WAR. The gap between them and the next-worst bullpen is wide enough that it’s hard to ignore.
The financial value of this bullpen has been just as disappointing. According to WAR-to-dollar estimates, the Nationals' relievers have combined for negative $6.4 million in value. Instead of helping the team win, they’ve been a costly liability. Another big-league club would have offloaded many of these arms by now.
There have been a few bright spots. Kyle Finnegan (2.90 ERA, 0.6 WAR) remains one of the more reliable closers. Rookie Brad Lord has impressed, leading all pitchers since May 22 in ERA (0.76) and opponent average (.155). Fellow rookie Cole Henry has shown flashes with a 3.58 ERA in 27.2 innings. But even they’re being leaned on too heavily, with little support behind them.
The offseason additions haven’t panned out. Lucas Sims (13.86 ERA), Colin Poche (11.42 ERA), and Jorge López (6.57 ERA) were all off the roster by June.
Elsewhere in the bullpen, Eduardo Salazar (9.00 ERA), Jackson Rutledge (6.03 ERA), and Zach Brzykcy (6.86 ERA) have struggled to find consistency. Even José A. Ferrer, who leads the bullpen in innings, carries a 5.31 ERA, though some underlying metrics suggest potential.
At some point, this goes beyond a bullpen issue and becomes an organizational one. Yes, the pitchers are struggling, but the way they’ve been managed, assembled, and deployed has only added to the problem. Who built this bullpen? Who chose not to invest more to improve it? The blame extends beyond the mound. Davey Martinez, Mike Rizzo, and Mark Lerner all share responsibility for what seems to be the most unsettled bullpen in baseball.
Coaching
"It’s never on coaching," Davey Martinez said earlier this year. That quote speaks volumes about how disconnected he might be from his own role in his bullpen’s struggles. Coaching has clearly been part of the problem this season.
Martinez has been careless with how he uses his relievers, often leaving them in until things fall apart. On Opening Day, after a strong outing from MacKenzie Gore, he stuck with lefty Colin Poche in extras to face righty Alec Bohm, despite having fresher right-handers. Bohm ripped a two-run double. Game over. Win blown.
Then there was Jackson Rutledge on June 13. After a 2.5-hour rain delay, Martinez sent him back out cold. Rutledge was hit hard right away and didn’t even get a mound visit after back-to-back hits. Martinez made a questionable call, both tactically and from a player-safety angle.
Then on June 17, the bullpen surrendered four homers in a single inning against the Rockies, turning a close game into a 10–6 blowout. Martinez let it crumble, and fans responded with “Fire Davey” chants.
On June 22 against the Dodgers, Ryan Loutos gave up four hits and a walk without recording an out, yet stayed in long enough to be charged with six earned runs. It was another case of Martinez leaving a struggling reliever out to dry as the game spiraled.
Even when starters hand him a lead, Martinez often mismanages it. Recently, on June 28, after six strong innings from Mike Soroka and a 2–1 lead, he went to Brzykcy, Salazar, Loutos, and Rutledge. The bullpen gave up seven runs in 1.1 innings, turning it into an 8–2 loss. Why not go to stronger options like Ferrer, Henry, Lord, or Finnegan? Even if some had pitched recently, managing the moment matters. Instead, Martinez seemed to fold too early.
Martinez’s bullpen decisions have drawn criticism from fans and around the league. He continues to use struggling arms in key spots, often disregarding matchups or recent workloads. Young pitchers are overworked, veterans misused, and the losses are piling up. Fans are running out of patience.
This bullpen isn’t exactly loaded with elite arms. But the manager still must put pitchers in the best position to succeed. Martinez has often done the opposite. But if he’s working with a weak hand, the bigger question is: who dealt it to him?
Front Office
The dealer of that weak hand is Mike Rizzo, guilty of one of the most disappointing roster-building efforts in recent memory. Rizzo knew the bullpen was a major weakness. His answer? Sign Jorge López, Lucas Sims, and Colin Poche—none of whom lasted past May. Not one offseason addition stuck, suggesting a failure in evaluation and planning. When all your offseason signings are gone by June, and your Triple-A bullpen is just as ineffective as the major league group, the blame falls on the general manager.
The Nationals have failed to build bullpen depth for over a decade. Other teams routinely turn Triple-A arms and former starters into solid relievers. In Washington, that pipeline has mostly dried up. Brad Lord is a rare exception, and even his promotion felt more reactive than planned. Martinez made some questionable decisions in the Angels game Saturday, but the bigger issue is why he had so few reliable options to begin with.
Even with a mid-tier bullpen payroll of $16.4 million, the Nationals have gotten little in return. Teams like the Giants, Diamondbacks, and Mariners have built better bullpens with less money. A Baseball America survey from earlier this year even ranked the Nationals among the worst at identifying talent.
Rizzo deserves credit for finding Kyle Finnegan and taking a chance on Hunter Harvey, but those hits are outweighed by a long list of misses. His approach has become predictable: sign cheap, unproven arms, hope one sticks, and scramble when they don’t. Even in 2019, the World Series team had to trade for Daniel Hudson just to steady the group. Mike Rizzo built a flawed bullpen from the start, and now the consequences are playing out nightly.
But even then, it’s fair to ask: why was Rizzo shopping in the clearance aisle in the first place? Why didn’t the Nationals target proven relievers in free agency? That shifts the focus even higher up the ladder.
Ownership
Above Rizzo and Martinez sits Nationals ownership, who share blame as well. If Martinez made poor decisions and Rizzo failed to build a strong bullpen, Mark Lerner and the ownership group limited the resources to fix it.
The Nationals don’t need to outspend everyone, but they do need ownership willing to invest in winning. The organization still lags behind modern clubs in analytics and player development. The result is a bullpen that struggles, a system that can’t identify talent, and a team that reflects it. Lerner didn’t build the roster himself, but he created the environment it came from.
The Lerners haven’t prioritized building a reliable bullpen, even during a rebuild. That’s the surprising part. Even rebuilding teams need trustworthy arms to protect young starters and close out competitive games. In Washington, the bullpen too often feels like an afterthought.
Every reliever signed in the offseason was short-term and low-cost. The team hasn’t handed out a multi-year deal to a reliever in years, and it shows.
While spending wisely rests on Rizzo, the Lerner model leaves little room for error. If the GM gets $10 million to build a bullpen, every move has to hit. If not, there’s no safety net. That’s how the team ends up with a group of arms, who’d struggle to make other rosters, pitching high-leverage innings for the Nationals.
A Shared Failure
This bullpen is costing Washington wins, stunting the development of young pitchers, and draining the fanbase. Watching late leads vanish night after night kills excitement, hurts attendance, and often leaves Nationals Park empty before the final out.
The pitchers on the mound may be giving up the runs, but the real issues began elsewhere. The problems started in the front office, continued in the dugout, and were allowed to linger by ownership. Fixing it will take leadership at every level, treating the bullpen as a real priority. If that happens, there’s still a path forward and a chance to finally give this young team a bullpen it can trust.