The Washington Nationals have been fairly active in free agency so far as we are just a few days into 2025. We have seen them bring in a couple of minor league options at multiple positions, and at least attempt to bolster the lineup and crop of arms on the big league club.
Veterans who were signed like Josh Bell, Trevor Williams, and Michael Soroka should hopefully provide some value for this young club as well, but the one area the team has yet to address in a major fashion is the bullpen. The Nationals need for an arm became even more dire after the club flipped lefty Robert Garcia to the Texas Rangers for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, meaning that the club now has to replace at least 3 valuable pieces in their bullpen from the end of last season in Kyle Finnegan, Tanner Rainey, and Garcia.
It seems as if the club could be in a prime spot to bring back a couple of these arms however, as both Kyle Finnegan and Jacob Barnes are still free agents, but will they seek to reunite with either of them?
For starters on Finnegan, the only reason he is not on the team was due to the raise he was due to receive in arbitration. While that figure was expected to be around $8.6 million for the 2025 season, it's still unclear at this time if the team is seeking to distribute that money to a couple of arms of if they are going to try to make a big splash.
I'm honestly a bit surprised that Finnegan has not really been tied to any teams in free agency so far, as while he might not be worth the $8.6 million in my eyes (or the eyes of the Nationals either), he is definitely a serviceable reliever. My guess is that he is waiting to see if his market will develop and he can get anything close to that arbitration number in AAV to hopefully capitalize on what was the best season of his career so far from a numbers perspective.
On Jacob Barnes, he is a journeyman reliever who has bounced around a few organizations over the years, and I would not expect him to be brought back. The one scenario that I could see him coming back is if he took an inexpensive deal just to ensure that he gets a shot at the MLB level in 2025. He is probably the definition of an average MLB reliever, who will have stretches of sustained success and have a handful of brutal outings in there as well.
While the relief pitcher market has yet to really develop, leaving bigger and better names like Tanner Scott, Carlos Estevez, and others still unsigned, my guess would be that Finnegan would be more likely to be brought back than the Nationals would be to sign one of those big names. If nothing develops in the next couple of weeks on Finnegan, I would not be surprised to see him in talks to come back to the Nationals as the closer for the 2025 season.
Would you want the Nationals to bring back either Jacob Barnes or Kyle Finnegan? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.