Photo by Kevin Nibley for TalkNats

Coming into the offseason, the Washington Nationals bullpen was close to a finished product — then the new President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, traded the team’s closer. Yes, Toboni traded Jose A. Ferrer without replacing him in equal measure. On the 40-man roster, the team’s top save leader is Cole Henry with just two career saves. That should make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

This past week, Toboni added two minor league back-end bullpen arms with Cionel Perez and Drew Smith. They both have limited closer experience with Perez notching six saves and Smith with five in their respective careers. While that sounds promising, read the next paragraph.

The issue is Perez went from an elite reliever in 2022 with a 1.40 ERA to 8.31 last year. Perez’s usage of 193 games pitched the three years prior to 2025 screams of overuse. Smith underwent right elbow UCL reconstruction (Tommy John) surgery with internal brace augmentation in July 2024, and he hasn’t pitched in the Majors since. Both are low risk depth pieces right now. But can you count on either?

At this point, nobody from the Nationals has fully articulated the plan for the bullpen. There has to be a plan, right? If there is one, we haven’t heard it. Kevin Nibley from the TalkNats Podcast asked former Nats’ closer Drew Storen and the franchise’s top setup man, Tyler Clippard, about building a bullpen in a 2-part discussion. By the way, and a plug for the podcast, we will have Nats’ all-time saves leader, Chad Cordero, on the podcast at the end of the month.

Storen and Clippard call themselves “routine freaks” that believe in bullpen “structure” where everyone knows their given “role.” They were fortunate to have Davey Johnson as their manager, and no wonder why Johnson’s 2012 team still holds the Nats’ regular season wins record of 98.

“Hope is not a strategy” is a widely cited sports aphorism emphasizing that success requires, actionable and concrete planning and structure, rather than a wish upon a star and a reliance on a positive outcome without previous success.

With a combined ERA of 5.59, that placed the Nats’ relievers at last in MLB in 2025. Subtract out the trade of Kyle Finnegan on July 31 last year, and Ferrer in early December, and you have a new look to the bullpen. The addition of Clayton Beeter from the 2025 trade deadline plus Henry, and you have two key set-up men unless one of them will be your closer. Behind them are at least 20 viable names after we removed the four locks that we had in the starting rotation with Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin, Foster Griffin, and Miles Mikolas. While Travis Sykora is listed as a non-roster invitee, he won’t be pitching out of the bullpen in 2026. We removed all five of their names. This list is 27 names:

If Clayton Beeter, Cole Henry, PJ Poulin, and Jackson Rutledge are four locks, and Griff McGarry the Rule-5 pick either makes it or gets offered back to his previous team, that might be five of the eight man bullpen. If Brad Lord isn’t in the starting rotation, he might make it six of eight. That leaves at least two spots open with a dozen real candidates for those two spots. Again, who is the closer? Will Toboni acquire a closer?

You have 100+ MPH gas from both Luis Perales and Jarlin Susana. Would Toboni dare convert either into a closer? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Who knows, and probably not. With that said, Perales will be on an innings limit after his return last year from his own UCL surgery, and Susana had surgery on his upper lat.

As we look at the list, the number is surprising to see that many pitchers in camp. Many were acquired by simple waiver claims and minor league free agent signings. As you start to click on the names, you have to think that someone will have to click in as one of those dumpster dive finds — and then you hope they are not fool’s gold.

This sounds like Spring Training is going to be a tryout in front of the new coaching staff. Will new coaching matter? Manager Blake Butera named Simon Mathews as his new pitching coach to replace Jim Hickey. And Sean Doolittle returned as the assistant pitching coach with Dustin Glant as an assistant pitching coach / bullpen coach. Their task is to take this pitching staff and improve them. The approach is to take the traditional “Driveline” pitching lab approach from offsite into real-time on the field-of-play — wherever that is.

Let’s also talk once again about the team defense (second worst in MLB) as well as the catchers (worst in MLB). If we peel back the onion, what we find is that the relievers were the second worst in baseball if neutralize the defense using the FIP stat, and that says they should have been a 4.86 ERA last year versus their actual 5.59. If you dig further into the process, maybe use and usage were also contributing factors to the failures.

If you want immediate improvement in your pitching staff, pair up the pitchers with competent catchers and at least a league average defense in the infield and outfield. The team hired Bobby Wilson as their catching coach / run game coordinator. But mostly, this is about having good players.

❝… We’re going to be really open-minded [on offseason signings]. I don’t think you can ever have enough pitching. … We’re going to see how it plays out, and what opportunities present themselves.❞

— Toboni said at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas in November

Per Roster Resource, Richard Lovelady and McGarry are the only 40-man pitchers without options. Now if Trevor Gott and Perez make the roster, they don’t have options to be sent back down without clearing waivers and accepting a Triple-A assignment.

Because the bullpen was such a disaster last year, this is where we had hoped Toboni would have spent resources to upgrade. Yes, there was a tremendous amount of addition by subtraction last season. And the team did lose its two primary closers in Finnegan and Ferrer. There was also a 3-week period after the trade deadline that the bullpen came together and was actually good. But the final two weeks, it felt more like that fool’s gold we talked about.

The thinking as of now is that Henry and Beeter will compete for the closer’s role. But again, Toboni and his coaching staff might have other ideas like hoping someone else emerges. There is that word “hoping.” Do a lot of hoping and praying, and buckle up. I will be listening to Dusty Springfield signing, Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’, plannin’ and dreamin’ each night of his charms — that won’t get you into his arms! I hope that gets us some arms. We will need it.