Photo by Intrepid/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals pivoted strategically to pitch Cade Cavalli today instead of Miles Mikolas. This all had to be done prior to their appeals for their suspensions during the fracas in Boston.

Tomorrow’s starting pitcher for the Nats is now a TBD and is dependent on whether Mikolas can pitch or serve his suspension. With Thursday’s day-off, Cavalli was set to pitch on Monday with an extra rest day. Today he will start on regular rest.

The other issue with the suspensions is the Nats at some point could be playing down two players if Mikolas and Cavalli’s suspensions overlap. To be down two starting pitchers could be costly — but the All-Star break starts a week from tomorrow. The Nats after today have just six games remaining before the All-Star break.

The Nationals have announced that they have acquired LHP Matt Krook off outright waivers from the Athletics, and the assumption was that he would be added to the active roster. He was not. Instead the Nats promoted Eddy Yean to the active roster and DFA’d Robert Hassell III. To make room for Krook, the Nats DFA’d RHP Andre Granillo. To make room for Yean, the Nats optioned RHP Zak Kent to Triple-A Rochester. That ends the trade of George Soriano for Granillo which failed miserably by Paul Toboni.

On January 30, Toboni acquired Soriano, but then Toboni traded Soriano for Granillo which seemed like an odd move at the time. As of today, Soriano is one of the Cardinals’ best bullpen arms with a 1.122 WHIP and a 3.29 ERA. Granillo posted a 2.250 WHIP and a 9.64 ERA during his time with the Nats. He wasn’t much better at Triple-A with a 6.82 ERA and a 1.547 WHIP.

Speaking of relievers, things didn’t work out with Carson Palmquist as the opener yesterday. He gave up four earned runs. That set the Nats up for a loss. The only run the Nats scored was from James Wood‘s 7^th lead-off home run. By the way, after the game, both Wood and CJ Abrams were named All-Stars.

❝Awesome, [I am] fired up for both CJ and Woody. Both extremely well-deserved honors. CJ starting at shortstop, Woody outfield reserve. All their teammates were really fired up for them.❞

❝CJ always jokes from the dugout steps, it’s always 1-0 [Nationals] just because the chance that Woody can do what he did like he did today. Woody is a really good hitter and when we get him up to the plate as many times as possible we like our chances.❞

— manager Blake Butera said after the game yesterday

On offense, the Nats have the 2nd in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 480 runs, and that is an impressive 5.33 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.66 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +15 run differential on the season.

Here is manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen chart:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

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Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:00 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV PEACOCK
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 184 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.

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