Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

Remember when we sourced a week ago that President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, “did not spend anywhere close to his entire budget.” Well, the team just signed RHP Zack Littell to a new deal per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. We confirmed that news, and the deal is subject to passing a physical. Jon Heyman of the NY Post reports this is a one-year deal with a mutual option. Dollar figures have not been disclosed at this time, but expect it to be heavy in incentives.

When the deal becomes official, the Nats will have to clear a 40-man roster spot because Littell’s agreement is for an MLB deal per our source. Who the Nats take off the roster won’t be made official until Littell passes his physical.

Littell put up a 3.81 ERA last year, and he had been on our radar for over a year. Mostly because he is a pitcher who not only can eat innings, but he also put up a 3.81 ERA last year. While things didn’t go well for him after he was traded from Tampa to the Reds in 2025, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball in the month of May. Before the trade to Cincinnati, Littell had a very good ERA of 3.58 with the Rays.

Before Littell went to the Rays, he was with the Boston Red Sox. And as mentioned, he was with the Reds last year. You have to think both Toboni and manager Blake Butera are both familiar with Littell, as well as pitching coach Simon Mathews. Why the right-handed pitcher didn’t sign until now is more of a mystery. Littell is a CAA client.

What happens with the rotation with a stable of starting pitchers that was already thick with mystery given that Foster Griffin, Miles Mikolas, and Cade Cavalli looked like the only locks — but there are another half-dozen arms like Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin, Andrew Alvarez, Brad Lord, Mitchell Parker, and Ken Waldichuk were all competing for the final two slots — that is now the final “one” spot with the acquisition of Littell. On top of that, DJ Herz and Trevor Williams are both on the 60-day IL as they recover from their UCL elbow surgeries.

Both Lord and Parker pitched out of the bullpen while also starting last season, that is most likely where both will be to start the 2026 season. All of this makes for an intriguing push to Opening Day which is just 18 days away. Here is a link to the Nats 40-man roster.

Littell’s name shouldn’t be a mystery to Nats fans. We have mentioned him a number of times going back to the 2024 offseason. Mostly, we had Littell as a target because of his age (30), and he would be an upgrade based on his ERA — and he was known as an innings-eater. Last year Littell put up 186 innings after 156 the previous season.

Stay tuned on this one.