Why Cade Cavalli's suspension could not have come at a better time for him

On the heels of perhaps the most impressive start of his career, Cade Cavalli was being talked about for far more reasons than his 13 strikeouts recorded on the evening of June 30 in Boston. That fact wasn't lost on the 27-year-old, who expressed remorse Wednesday for a racially insensitive remark made that game to Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras.

"It hurt my heart knowing if there’s a 13-year-old Black kid in D.C. that sees that, that looked up to me and thinks that, he perceived it in a way that wasn’t intended the way that it came out, and then he’s not looking up to me anymore, that hurts my heart."

- Cade Cavalli

Both Cavalli and Contreras were suspended seven games for the incident, and while both remained on their respective teams' active rosters following appeals to those suspensions, Cavalli began serving a reduced five-game sentence on Monday. Contreras has still not received a decision from the league, though it's likely his sentence will also be reduced, as is typically the case for appealed suspensions derived from on-field occurrences.

While the Nationals bullpen feels the heat, for Cade, this suspension might be crucial time off to realign himself. Cavalli's first start after the incident, which he told reporters he lost sleep over, saw him get rocked by the visiting Pirates to the tune of four runs, eight baserunners, a balk, and a throwing error committed himself. He recorded just seven outs before exiting the game. Afterward, Cavalli reported heat-related dizziness, and his performance reflected that; his fastball, which was up around 97 MPH in the first inning, dipped to 94 MPH by the third inning--lower than any of his single-game averages on his four-seam.

Whether or not the benches-clearing incident from a week prior was on his mind when he took the mound Sunday afternoon, and whether it influenced his performance, is purely speculation. The fact of the matter, though, is that Cade's got things to work through right now. This is the second time he'd been slammed by the Pirates lineup this year, joining a mid-April disaster that saw him record just four outs.

Cavalli's suspension will be up on the 12th of July, as the Nationals take the field for a series finale against the Yankees in the final game before the All-Star break. It might not be a surprise for the Nationals to withhold Cade from making that start on the 12th and allowing him to get nearly two weeks' worth of rest before making his next outing, affording him a full mental and physical reset.

The primary factor that might prevent that from happening is a bullpen that's been taxed heavily of late, especially with a Miles Mikolas suspension appeal outcome from the same incident still pending. A debuting Eddy Yean, who reunited with the Nats over the offseason after six years in Pittsburgh's farm system, picked up the slack for Cavalli Sunday, riding the bullpen cart to the mound before recording six outs, in doing so stranding the two runners left to his care by Cade.

Thus began the proverbial shell game, as the Nationals continued to shuffle the roster over the coming days. With his job complete for the time being, Yean was optioned after the game to bring back up Cole Henry. In a thriller of a 12-11 victory Monday evening, with the Nationals desperately needing length from their arms, Henry was, as so often seems to be the case, tasked with pitching beyond his first clean inning of work.

That promptly fell apart, as Henry got just two men out before allowing four runs to score on a couple of scorchers from Braden Shewmake and Brice Matthews. Henry was promptly also optioned to Triple-A, and the Nationals will likely activate recent waiver claim Matt Krook to take Henry's spot in the 'pen before the second game of the series against the visiting Astros.

So it's two sides of the same coin for the Nationals. On one side, Cavalli's absence has the team playing down a man and in a blender, tasked with using just 12 pitchers to navigate the next week before a much-needed break. On the other, a chance for Cade to collect himself, reset, and come back in the second half looking like the strikeout machine he's showed flashes of throughout the season.

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