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Nats Trade for Harper

OK, fine it’s Ryne not Bryce.

The Nats claimed the journeyman—who made his MLB debut last March at the age of 30—after he had been put on waivers by the Twins following the signing of Josh Donaldson. Headed for the Minnesota minors will be Hunter McMahon, who pitched nine times for the G-Nats and Doubledays after he was drafted last June in the 9th Rd. out of Texas State.

In addition to eliminating McMahan/McMahon spell-check issue, the Nats added another arm to compete for the five or so open spots in the ‘pen while filling the last open spot on the 40-man roster. Harper posted a line of 3.81/3.66/1.18 in 54⅓ innings and 61 appearances in 2019 and would have had better marks in those categories than every reliever not named Daniel Hudson.

6 Commments

  1. So, as it now stands, 40-man roster pitchers…

    Without options:
    – Scherzer
    – Sánchez
    – Strasburg
    – Corbin
    – Voth
    – Ross
    – Doolittle
    – Hudson
    – Harris
    – Strickland
    – Elías

    With options:
    – Suero
    – Rainey
    – Harper
    – Barrett
    – Finnegan
    – Fedde
    – McGowin
    – Williams
    – Bourque
    – Braymer

    Washington can carry up to 13 on the roster (that’s now official, BTW). What will happen?

    1. Known NRIs include Javy Guerra, David Hernandez, Kevin Quackenbush, and Fernando Abad, so far. FWIW.

  2. Thanks Sao. Of the ones without options Ross, Elias and Strickland are the ones that matter.

    Voth was terrific when called up last year. The other two, not so much.

    The only issue with a lot of these guys is whether to put them in Fresno or Harrisburg. You have to think there’re not going to use the steroid ball in AAA again.

    1. I think we trade one of Ross/Voth before Opening Day, so I’m going to project our bullpen: Doolittle, Harris, Hudson, Rainey, Strickland, Suero, Elías, Abad

      Suero I don’t think is a lock, but although he had serious consistency issues last year, he was tremendous during the big rebound (June-July) and led the team in appearances out of the ‘pen. I think the Nats will let Strickland and Elías face hitters in real games before deciding on letting them go. Rainey is a lock despite his option status, IMO.

      1. We’ve had so many of these big-armed Nuke Laloosh type come through the system it’s hard to count. It did seem Rainey would be the one with light bulb on last year.

  3. Looking at Harper’s MiLB career I’m very puzzled about why he didn’t rise to the majors faster. His numbers at best have been excellent and at worst simply good. But yet he floundered in the Braves system for years before bouncing around a bit.

    If he’d been in the Nats system he’d have made the majors years ago.

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