Photo Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

Fans and players alike just want hope. A legitimate chance to win every day. Are you going to purchase tickets when you see that Zack Littell or Miles Mikolas are pitching? Okay, you might buy tickets tonight to see the free Jason Derulo concert after the game. In these games that feel “must win,” the Nats have Littell for tonight and Mikolas for Sunday.

Every time manager Blake Butera fills out that lineup card, you have to think he has trepidation in his office as he pre-plans for his pitching on the days when Littell and Mikolas are scheduled to pitch which is every 2-of-5 game turns in the rotation. Fortunately and for now, Butera has Cade Cavalli and Foster Griffin in each turn of the rotation. For now, Andrew Alvarez is a temporary placeholder. Jake Irvin and Brad Lord are both still on the IL.

The numbers are 5.60 and 5.34. Those aren’t sprint times. That is Mikolas and Littell’s ERAs unfortunately. And if you think the FIP is any better, Littell’s FIP is actually 6.25. To dig in deeper, Littell averages 4.80 innings per game, and Mikolas is even less at 4.67 IP/G. Basically, the bullpen has to pitch at least 4.20 innings in each of their games.

This is Butera’s biggest issue. These two pitchers are stressing his bullpen and generally have given up multiple runs in the process. How can Butera get a 5-game winning streak when he has to pitch Mikolas and Littell in 40 percent of the games? The Nats longest winning streak this year is only four games. They went 4-2 on this road trip just completed. The two games they lost were with Littell and Mikolas as the bulk pitchers.

When you needed it the most, Littell has been horrible in his past seven games. The team is 1-6 in those games, and Littell’s ERA is 6.54 in that span. The same for Mikolas as the team is 2-5 with his ERA at 5.11 in his past seven games. That is a combined 3-11 record. One of those games was the 12-11 win over Houston when Mikolas gave up 7-earnies.

Aren’t there pitching upgrades who can give you more? What you are looking for is incremental improvement. There is no suggestion here to go after another team’s top starter at the trade deadline. The team still has not tried their top minor league pitching prospect in Triple-A, Jackson Kent. Maybe President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, doesn’t think he is the answer, because if he did, you would have done that by now, right?

Surprisingly, there is worse in MLB. We saw the two worst in Kyle Freeland and Michael Lorenzen in Colorado. But Mikolas and Littell aren’t far behind for pitchers throwing at least 90 innings this season. They rank as the 7ᵗʰ and 8ᵗʰ worst on the list. And no, MacKenzie Gore wasn’t the answer. He has a 4.80 ERA.

Now here’s the thing, there are plenty of 4.20ish ERA types of starters who are available on salary dumps like Seth Lugo. That’s the type of trade you make now. He would save you 2.18 runs per 9.0 innings versus Littell and give you more innings per start. And what about Reid Detmers and his 4.05 ERA? He can’t cost much in prospect capital, right? He sure could if you want a High-K starter. He saves you 1.06 runs per 9.0 innings and gives you more innings than Mikolas. There are others too.

The top teams might not want either of those pitchers, because they are shopping at Nordstrom, and not Nordstrom Rack. They want a Foster Griffin. They want Dylan Cease. They want Casey Mize. They want Tarik Skubal.

To be honest, I am not sure what we are waiting for. This is too easy. Do this then we can talk about fixing the bullpen.