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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Nats Trade Floro to D-Backs for Another Infielder

Washington concluded the 2024 trade deadline with a trade of veteran Dylan Floro for Andrés Chaparro, a 25-y.o. veteran corner IF batting .332/.403/.564 with 19HR in the offense-inflated Pacific Coast League.

Chaparro has been assigned to Rochester along with José Tena while Travis Blankenhorn has been re-added to the Nationals 40-man roster and RHP Joan Adon has been recalled to Washington Forrest Gump pause again.

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester Won, 15-4 vs. Omaha, 1:05 p.m. Rutledge (4-6, 7.31) vs. Cameron (AAA debut)
Harrisburg Lost, 6-4
(12 inn.)		 vs. Akron, 6:30 p.m. Solesky (0-3, 2.90) vs. Peterson (4-1, 2.37)
Wilmington Won, 6-3
(10 inn.)		 @ Greenville, 7:05 p.m. Davis (A+ debut) vs. Rodriguez-Cruz (0-0, 4.50
Fredericksburg Lost, 5-4 @ Lynchburg, 6:30 p.m. Tepper (1-0, 2.04) vs. Humphries (1-5, 4.20)
DSL Nationals Won, 7-4 @ DSL Arizona Red, 11 a.m.

Rochester 15 Omaha 4
• Luckham (W, 1-1) 5IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 4K, HR
• L. Reyes 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Crews 3-5, 2R, 2B, RBI
• Meneses 2-3, 4R, 2BB, HR, 3RBI
• House 2-4, 3R, BB, 4RBI
• Millas 2-4, 4R, BB, HR, 2RBI

Rochester went deep four times in a 15-4 smackdown of Omaha. Kyle Luckham won his first AAA game with three runs allowed on five hits (one HR) and a walk while striking out four. Dylan Crews led the ten-hit parade with two singles and a double while Joey Meneses, Brady House, Jack Dunn, and Jack Dunn each homered and combined to drive in 11 runs.

Akron 6 Harrisburg 4 (12 inn.)
• Stuart 5IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 5K, HR
• Sinclair (L, 4-2) 1⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 2K
• Lile 3-6, 2R, HR, RBI, 3K
• Pinckney 2-4, R, 2BB, 2B

The Senators got two in the 8th with a solo HR by Daylen Lile and an RBI single by Jeremy De La Rosa to force extras, but the RubberDucks won it in 12 innings, 6-4. Tyler Stuart made his Nats org debut with five innings of three-run ball on four hits (one HR) and two walks. He struck out five in the no-decision. Jack Sinclair took the loss with the last two Akron runs allowed on two hits and a walks in the 12th after working a scoreless 11th (one IBB). Lile also singled twice and struck out three times while Andrew Pinckney reach based four times on a single, double, and two walks. Roster moves: LHP Dustin Saenz activated from 7-Day I.L.



Wilmington 6 Greenville 3 (10 inn.)
• Shuman 4IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 4K
• Cronin (W, 2-0) 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 1-0 IR-S
• Collins (SV, 4) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Quintana 3-3, BB, RBI
• Glasser 2-4, R, RBI
• Stehly 2-5, 2R

Greenville homered in both the 7th and 8th to erase one-run leads but Wilmington got three in the 10th and held it for a 6-3 win in the opener. Seth Shuman went the first four innings with one run let in on six hits, no walks, and four strikeouts. Matt Cronin stranded one while getting out of the 8th and worked a scoreless 9th to get the “W,” while Brendan Collins retired the side in order in the 11th for the save. Roismar Quintana reached base four times on three singles and a walk an plated one while Phillip Glasser singled twice, scored once, and drove in one to lead the Blue Rocks offense.

Lynchburg 5 Fredericksburg 4
• Polanco 6IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 9K, HR, HBP, WP
• B. Sanchez (BS, 1) 1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 1K
• S. Vasquez (L, 4-2) ⅔ IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 0K
• Green 2-5, R, HR, 2RBI, 2K, SB(25)
• Morales 2-4, R, HR, RBI, SB

As semi-predicted yesterday, the Hillcats got single runs in the 8th and 9th to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 win over Fredericksburg. Bryan Polanco pitched six full innings for the third time this season, and allowed the first three Lynchburg runs on five hits (one HR) and a walk while tying his career high in whiffs with nine. Elijah Green drove in two with his ninth HR and stole his 25th base… and struck out for the 152nd and 153rd time. Yoyo Morales homered in his first at-bat after ten-plus weeks on the I.L. and later singled. Roster moves: 1B-3B Yohandy Morales assigned from Harrisburg for MiLB rehab; LHP Alex Clemmey, SS Rafael Ramirez assigned from Washington; IF John McHenry, RHP Kevin Rodriguez released.

DSL Nationals 7 DSL Angels 4
• De La Cruz (W, 2-4) 5IP, 2H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 6K, HBP, 3WP
• Familia (SV, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 0K
• Hurtado 2-4, 2R, BB, 2B
• A. Feliz 2-5, R, SB
• Tavarez 1-2, 2BB, PB

Despite two errors, ten wild pitches, and six hit batsman, all eleven runs were earned, in the DSL Nationals’ win over the DSL Angels, 7-4. Marlon De La Cruz picked up his second win with five inning pitched, three runs allowed on two hits and one walk. He struck out six. Victor Hurtado walked, singled, and doubled while Angel Feliz singled twice, scored once, and stole a base to pace the D-Nats attack.

24 Commments

  1. Stuart was consistently hitting 96/97. He also showed a slider and/or cutter. He just had one bad inning where he gave up three runs.

    1. Thanks for the insight! Impressive that he was sitting at 96-97. The scouting reports I’d seen had him as a low 90s finesse pitcher, so that’s a pretty startling difference!

  2. Disappointing to not see Finnegan moved. The reliever market was insane, and several 2 month arm rentals still yielded big returns (e.g. Tanner Scott and Carlos Estevez), so hopefully that remains the case next year!

    Altogether this deadline has subtracted: Thomas, Winker, Harvey, Floro
    Added: Clemmey, Tena, Ramirez, Stuart, Lomavita, Wallace, Chaparro

    At least according to MLB Pipeline, Clemmey now sits at #6, Wallace #7, Stuart #17, Ramirez #23. They haven’t added the ’24 draftees yet, but if I were to use BA’s assessment, Lomavita slots in right around Wallace (7-9th). Tena’s rookie status is still in tact, so I’m not sure why he’s dropped off these lists, when he’s clearly a better prospect than Ramirez. Seems to me he’d also slot in somewhere as high as Clemmy or as low as Ramirez (#23). That’s a pretty successful deadline, if you ask me!

    1. On Finnegan, maybe Rizzo’s thinking is that the Nats need a closer next season, whether the Nats are in any sort of playoff contention or not (probably not), just for respectability reasons. In other words, it would be a bummer for players to play their hearts out only to lose games in the ninth. And a winter deal is always possible for Finn, especially as he performs well the rest of this season. Of course, if Rizzo had got the deal he wanted, he would’ve done it. I am with you – – disappointed. I would’ve preferred spending money to get a closer next season and taken whatever prospect haul the Nats could get for Finn.

    2. I think Tena may have exceeded the 45 days on the MLB roster rule; since the pandemic they seem to be counting September time. He also was not listed in MLBs list of every prospect traded.

      1. I can’t find it specifically, but I seem to recall when they put a limit on September callups (from anyone on the 40 to 28) they eliminated that exception.

  3. Let’s see what a little time with Joel Hanrahan does. D.J. Herz only needed a start or two to cut his WHIP in half.

  4. Slowly but surely the team is finally starting to build up its prospect cupboard.

    There’s still a long way to go and I wouldn’t say it overflowing, but between trades, IFA’s seemingly doing well, and guys coming back from injuries, they’ve got quite a few nice pieces

    I would hope they can use some of these pieces to land a big fish in the off-season. With Lane and Corbin (thankfully) and eventually Finnegan gone, they are gonna have tremendous payroll flexibility

    Speaking of Corbin, has there ever been a worse free agent signing in the history of baseball?

    If he was injured a la Strasburg you could at least use that as an excuse, but the fact that he wasn’t and pitched to to his record is downright pathetic

    1. He was a big part of the WS champs in 2019, as was Rendon, who has been as disappointing in his way as Corbin.

    2. I’m hoping a Corbin DFA will happen soon for both the Nationals’ and Corbin’s own good. As a thank you for his role in the Nats’ WS win (and just to get him away from our team!), there’s almost certainly going to be some playoff contender with an injury crisis willing to take a flier on converting Corbin to relief. But please just get this guy off the team! His ERA is 0.63 points higher than the 2nd worst qualified SP this season. Ugh.

      1. Corbin DFA: why? We’re not going to make the play offs, so every additional loss gets us a better draft pick in 2025. They’ve committed the money to him, might as well get some innings out of him.

        If we had some grade-A prospect waiting to come up, or a star to come off the DL, maybe Corbin’s time would be done. But we don’t. Grey’s out for a while, Cavalli doesn’t seem like he’s gonna make it back before the rosters expand. Both our 40-man starters in AAA have sucked this year (Rutledge and Ward). Adon has already been turned into a reliever (something that sh ould have happened 3 years ago). And the rest of our AAA rotation are newly promoted guys (Lord, Luckham, Alvarez) who need seasoning.

        there’s just no one pressing for a call-up right now.

        1. Agree. Corbin’s role is to eat innings. The Nats don’t have anyone knocking on the door to take his place in the rotation; plus, can see the Nats either shutting down or at least limiting the innings for DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker over the last 60 games (maybe Jake Irvin too). To finish the season, they need to throw someone out there with no innings restriction and Corbin will be that guy. FWIW, have heard that Corbin is good influence on the younger pitchers.

          As for not trading Finnegan, have no idea what offers they turned down, but the Nats expect to try to win in 2025, and there is no one on the current roster or in the organization who can close at the MLB level other than Finnegan. So, the question about whether to trade Finny camedown to whether the prospects they would receive would be worth the cost/prospects that they would need to give up to find a 2025 closer.

          Finny has had some rough outings, but overall, he is an average to above average MLB closer. Can see why the decision to not give up Finnegan, if the return was limited.

    3. Ahem ! We are forgetting something about Corbin — 2019 .
      The Soto HR vs Kershaw
      Howie Kendrick being money .
      Like your spouse years ago . Steady once but going through some challenges presently .
      Sonny and Cher the Beat goes on : DSL Nats Dashyll gets on base .
      A Feliz scores two runs with a hit and BB .
      How much bank do the Nats have for upcoming next intl signing window time frame ?

  5. In honor of Cronin’s win last night, I wanted to give him a special shoutout to his historically good season. I commented a few days ago that this was the best Nats relief season potentially in their history, and I wasn’t kidding. I don’t know what stats everyone else likes to demonstrate effectiveness, but ERA is a good place to start. Cronin’s ERA currently sits at 0.70. To filter out small sample sizes (i.e. any season with more than 20 IP), Cronin’s ERA is the best in the past decade by any Nats pitcher (reliever or starter). In fact, only 3 (actually, technically 2) other pitchers have finished the year with an ERA under 1.00: Andrew Istler, the enigmatic Dodgers trade product who disappeared after his magnificent 2019 season with a 0.79 ERA. That same season, Bryan Pena put up a 0.92 ERA in the then GCL, and then posted two subsequent 5.00+ ERAs and got released. And the last guy? None other than Matt Cronin himself! In 2019, he posted a season ERA of 0.82. That’s the list of sub 1.00 ERA seasons since 2014. I should also note that Cronin’s ERA isn’t just good in the context of Nats relievers, but in all of minor league baseball. His 0.70 ERA is 2nd best among 979 relief pitchers who’ve thrown more than 20 IP this season, just a smidge behind Grant Tolman of the A’s with a 0.64 ERA.

    Some additional superlatives about Cronin:
    His current 15.5 K/BB ratio (31 K vs 2 BB) is also just a smidge behind the best in the minors, Cade Feeney’s rate of 16 K/BB among the same 979 player sample.

    Cronin’s BB/9 of 0.74 is also 2nd in all of minor league baseball, also second to the same Cade Feeney.

    Cronin’s HR/9 of 0.00 is, naturally, the best in the minors (tied with 68 other relievers who’ve yet to allow a HR, including Nats, Arguelles, Miguel Gomez and Moises Diaz).

    Cronin’s WHIP of 0.49 (lol that’s so absurd) is by a huge margin the best in minor league baseball. #2’s is 0.68, some 39% higher than Cronin.

    Cronin’s FIP of 1.47 is 3rd best among relievers in MILB.

    Cronin is quite simply having an unbelievably good season. Without cross checking the Nats’ almost 20 year history, I would be willing to bet that all of the above stats are Nationals Minor League records. What a tremendous season, bravo to him!

    2. When they drafted Cronin, there was some quick-to-the-majors Koda Glover-like buzz about him. Injuries kept that from happening, but it’s totally head-scratching why they’re keeping him at A+ at age 26 (27 in Sept.). He’s obviously more than “org guy” talent, but he’s being treated like one.

      1. Hope the Nats call up Cronin before the end of the season. IIRC, he would be eligible for the Rule V draft in the offseason. Past the time to see if he can get it done at a higher level.

        1. I’m pretty sure Cronin is not R5 eligible on the basis of already having been on the 40 and passing through waivers. I think the clock on him is MLFA kicking in after next year.

          I still hope he gets up sooner than later. It’s wild that they’ve kept him so long in A+.

      2. The only thing I can think they are holding Cronin back is his fastball isn’t up to what they want it to be but who knows. I will say that he should have at least been brought up to Rochester after the break. If you look at his number of pitches thrown vs strikes he’s at like 75% strikes. He’s killing it with his command which what they were worried about the previous two summers when they couldn’t find the source of his arm pain. After back surgery it looks like his command is a non issue.

  6. Speaking of relievers Marquis Grissom is not getting enough love; he’s having a terrific year.

    1. Definitely. With all the talk of a closer of the future, Grissom is my bet for that guy.

      Cronin, for the reasons I’ve already explained, should be in this discussion, but for whatever reasons the Nats disagree and have banished him to Wilmington.

      But there’s also Brzykcy, Ribalta, Sinclair, Carlos Romero, Schoff, maybe even Thomas Schultz, Daison Acosta, Joe La Sorsa and Brendan Collins, as dark horses too. Not to mention the flawed and/or struggling SPs, like Rutledge, Adon, Ward, Herz, Shuman, Marc Davis.

  7. Regarding yesterday’s discussion about Drew Millas, consider that he has only had 58 total at bats for the Nats, with an OPS of .676. You “drew” a conclusion on that? I can’t. Millas hasn’t gotten a chance yet. In tons more at bats, Ruiz and Adams are not much better in OPS. Ruiz is .679 on his career, Adams .684. And then consider catcher is a key defense position.

  8. Great to see Morales back at it after missing more than two months. It’s become a semi-lost season for him, although if he ends it back at AA and doing well, that will still be a win. He might be a good candidate for extended time in the AFL.

  9. The Trade with Guardians makes us seam heads think how a farm system should have excess fruit hanging off the branches to pull off for trades
    All the guys for Thomas were major depth fruit CLE could flip in a heartbeat moment .
    Let’s sit back and watch Adon and Blakenhorn reap their opportunities at this stage of the season .

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