Andrew Alvarez: A
Some early wobbles aside, Alvarez was everything the Nats could have hoped for this season. The rookie was easily the team’s second-best starter this second half, a capable Robin to Cade Cavalli’s Batman. While advanced metrics suggest he outperformed his raw stuff, Alvarez’s performance doesn’t seem to be all smoke and mirrors, with a FIP right in line with his ERA. Never a top prospect, the now-27-year-old lefty simply seems to have figured out how to pitch in the big leagues. Being able to write his name in pen into the 2027 rotation makes a challenging puzzle for this front office a significantly easier task.
Clayton Beeter: D
Beeter led the team in saves this year, with twelve. Unfortunately, he also led the team in blown saves, with seven. That is not a very good ratio, and Beeter paid for it with a late-season demotion to Triple-A Rochester. Able to outrun his ugly peripherals through July, Beeter finally fell apart completely in August and September, stumbling to a 6.46 ERA over his last sixteen games before he was finally optioned to the minors. Beeter’s woes continued with Triple-A Rochester, as he was the losing pitcher in the Triple-A championship game. The Nats expected better after Beeter’s promising finish to his 2025 campaign. But Beeter played with fire all season long, with one of MLB’s highest walk rates, and eventually he got burned. His place in the 2027 relief corps hardly seems assured at this juncture.
Jake Bird: B
He might have been a throw-in as part of the Luis García Jr. trade at the deadline, but Bird actually acquitted himself decently in limited action with the Nats this year. He turned in a 3.24 ERA over eight appearances, with a svelte 0.96 WHIP in that limited sample size. Bird was more erratic with the Yankees earlier in the season, and the Nats gave him less run than one might have expected for a reliever who is out of options next year, so there’s a good chance Bird won’t be back for the sequel in 2027. Still, he generally did his job when called upon.
Cade Cavalli: A+
The Washington Nationals have an ace. Cavalli became the first Nationals pitcher this decade to reach 200 strikeouts in a season. He did so while making every scheduled start and tallying a 3.02 ERA with a 3.25 FIP. If he doesn’t pick up any downballot Cy Young Award votes this fall (which he should!) it will only be because the field is particularly deep this year. Cavalli was Washington’s best pitcher all year long, defying the expectations of some who expected him to be unreliable due to his injury history and relative inexperience. Aside from a bit of a wobble midseason, when he was suspended and missed a start after taunting a Red Sox player (Cavalli was deeply apologetic and hasn’t shown a hint of the schoolyard behavior recurring), he posted all year and looked excellent in the process.
Riley Cornelio: B
The 2025 Nationals Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Cornelio began his rookie campaign by taking the loss in a tight game against the White Sox back in April. Across multiple stints in the major leagues, he allowed at least one run in each of his next five appearances with the Nats, entering the All-Star Break with a foreboding 7.82 ERA. Then, suddenly, in the second half, Cornelio was arguably the Nats’ best and most reliable pitcher not named Cade Cavalli or Andrew Alvarez, appearing in twelve games (three of them as an opener) with a sparkling 1.50 ERA. The young right-hander still gave out far too many free passes, but his stuff clearly plays and he didn’t allow much hard contact: just one home run all season. On the strength of his second-half resurgence, he’s been getting some buzz as a potential rotation option for 2027, and it will be intriguing to see what the Nats do with him in spring training.
Tom Cosgrove: D
Paul Toboni couldn’t have been expecting much when he acquired Cosgrove in a cash deal in July. Cosgrove wasn’t even on the Astros’ 40-man roster, and he hadn’t been credited with a major league win since his debut all the way back in April 2023. As it turned out, he didn’t get much from Cosgrove. The soft-tossing lefty had some early success, offering a radically different look out of the bullpen and baffling hitters with a painfully slow frisbee slider, and he did finally get that second career win in late August. But the league quickly figured Cosgrove out, hammering him to the tune of a 7.71 ERA in eighteen appearances. Cosgrove was outrighted in early September after a particularly disastrous series of appearances, the last of which was a brutal blown save against the Marlins in front of a lustily booing Nationals Park crowd.
Yovanny Cruz: D
When the Nats acquired Cruz at the deadline as part of a package of young pitchers from the Yankees, the hope was certainly that Cruz — who had only appeared in four major league games but posted excellent results — would immediately slot into the back end of the bullpen. However, it quickly became clear that Cruz had work to do to refine his command and pitch effectively in the major leagues. Blessed with a 99-101 mph fastball, Cruz seemed strangely nervous about using it; and unfortunately, the slider he preferred in his first few appearances as a National got smoked. The Nats sent Cruz down for a reset at Triple-A, and he came back looking somewhat more comfortable, if still well short of dominant. The bones of a potentially very good reliever are here, but Cruz wasn’t the plug-and-play solution to the Nats’ season-long eighth-inning woes that the team (and fans) might have hoped for this season.
Will Dion: A-
While Dion wasn’t perfect in his first season as a National, the rookie (who actually debuted for the Guardians against the Nats before being traded at the deadline) was the most productive player in the major leagues that Paul Toboni acquired in July/August. Dion was unscored upon in his first five games after the trade deadline, including three long relief outings. He wasn’t quite as even after that, but he kept Blake Butera’s trust by regularly filling up the strikezone and competing when called upon. He’s one of very few relievers on this team who is a virtual lock for the 2027 Opening Day bullpen.
Connelly Early: INC
Acquired in late July in a surprise deal with the Red Sox for Curtis Mead, Early came off the injured list to pitch in the last weekend of the regular season. The results (though good!) weren’t nearly as important as finally seeing a healthy Early on the mound for the Nats. Early is a building block for a young team, and he is very likely to open the 2027 season in the starting rotation, seeded somewhere behind Cavalli.
Julián Fernández: INC
Claimed off waivers late in the 2025 season, Fernández impressed in a limited sample size with a fastball that brushed triple digits. Unfortunately, he struggled badly in spring training this year and started the year in the minors, only coming up briefly and giving up three runs (one earned) in three appearances. Fernández went back to Rochester and quickly landed on the injured list. He was released to clear a roster spot and doesn’t appear to have landed anywhere since. Fernández’s results were solid in an extremely limited sample size with Triple-A Rochester, and it seems likely he would have made his way back to Washington at some point if not for the injury, so an “incomplete” grade feels right here.
Andre Granillo: F
It looked like a minor masterstroke when the Nationals traded a waiver claim (George Soriano) for a 25-year-old multi-inning reliever who posted a 1.29 ERA in Triple-A last year and reached the majors for the first time. It turns out the Cardinals might have known what they were doing when they cut bait on Granillo. The big right-hander was an utter disaster in D.C., breaking camp but soon being sent to the minors with a 9.64 ERA in eight appearances, and then DFA’d after continuing to struggle at Triple-A. He was claimed by Detroit but released after putting up almost identical results for their Triple-A affiliate. Easily forgotten now, in this retrospective, Granillo has to rate among the most disappointing players of the season.
Josiah Gray: INC
Working as a starting pitcher in spring training, it appeared Gray was on course to make the Opening Day rotation after missing most of the 2024 season and all of 2025 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Instead, Gray suffered another setback with a forearm injury that sidelined him until August. Gray came off the injured list in mid-September, working out of the bullpen and even picking up his first career save. While his stuff still isn’t dominant, the important thing for him is that he’s healthy. Whether the Nats keep him around for 2027 remains to be seen, but hopefully, Gray has nowhere to go but up from here.
Foster Griffin: A
Griffin was more than the Nats could have possibly hoped for this season. Paul Toboni took a flier on the lefty, returning to the States after an excellent stint in Japan, as his first-ever major league free agent signing. Griffin rewarded the Nats with a 3.06 ERA in 22 starts, slipping slightly toward the end of his tenure but generally authoring excellence. There was some discussion of extending Griffin instead of trading him, even as the Nats were slipping out of contention by the end of July, but the two sides didn’t see eye-to-eye on those talks and they didn’t get anywhere. It looks like the Nats may have traded Griffin at the right time, as he pitched to a 5.19 ERA over the last two months of the regular season for Cleveland and it’s unclear how they’ll deploy him in the playoffs. The Nats could explore a reunion this winter, though.
Cole Henry: F
For years, a torn UCL was the stuff of nightmares for pitchers. But the bigger bugbear these days has to be thoracic outlet syndrome. While some pitchers (longtime NL East nemesis Zack Wheeler comes to mind) have managed to shrug off the effects of this serious shoulder issue, TOS has knocked too many promising careers off track in recent years. One of those careers belongs to Henry, who belongs in the Nationals pantheon of what-ifs. Henry roared through the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A weeks into his second professional season and posting a 2.06 ERA over his first two years in the Nats system, before suffering TOS symptoms and ultimately going under the knife in 2022. Henry did make it back midway through the 2023 season, and eventually made it to the big leagues in 2025 — but he never looked as dominant as he did before surgery, his workload was severely limited, and things fell apart for him in 2026. Over three stints with the Nats, he worked to a gnarly 7.90 ERA, with results at Triple-A Rochester that were little better. He was released in September after landing on the injured list for the third time this year.
DJ Herz: INC
It’s enough of a success that Herz finally made it back, after needing Tommy John surgery at the end of spring in 2025 and suffering a setback while rehabbing early this season. He started two games for Washington down the stretch, and while the results showed some rust, it’s a profound positive that he looks to be on track to compete for a rotation spot in 2027.
Jake Irvin: D
Irvin added velocity this season but didn’t see much improvement in his results. Although he missed about two months with a right shoulder strain, Irvin spent most of the year in the rotation before moving into a bulk relief role in September, with the Nats wanting to get a look at him out of the bullpen. In whatever role, Irvin simply wasn’t very effective, and with a raise due through arbitration this winter, it’s unclear whether he has a spot on the 2027 roster.
Jackson Kent: C+
One of the Nats’ better pitching prospects, according to preseason rankings, Kent ended up flying higher and further than most probably expected in 2026. Being called up to effectively replace Foster Griffin in the rotation was a tall order for a 23-year-old who actually started the season with Double-A Harrisburg. Kent’s results over eight MLB appearances were uneven, and his 5.94 ERA is certainly nothing to write home about. But the young lefty competed well, earning his first career win with a brilliant seven-inning performance against the Marlins in late August and his second with four strong innings in his relief debut against the Tigers, to end his rookie campaign. He took on some extremely tough opponents in September, making his only three starts of the month against the Dodgers, the Padres, and the Phillies. As always, these grades are relative to expectations, and while Kent certainly has a great deal of room for improvement, he exceeded expectations this year, earning a plus to his letter grade.
Zak Kent: D
Not one of the more memorable players on this year’s team, Kent was claimed off waivers from the Twins in May and served as up-and-down bullpen depth for the rest of the season. Kent never locked down a regular role with the Nats, and that was probably because the Nats never really knew what they were going to get from Kent, who put up a 5.68 ERA in nine major league appearances after the trade. That ERA was a full run higher before he provided two scoreless innings of long relief in a one-game cameo in September, his first major league appearance in more than two months, before summarily being sent back down to Triple-A Rochester.
Max Kranick: F-
The Nats signed Kranick to a major league contract in May, even as Kranick was recovering from elbow surgery, in the hopes the right-handed journeyman could come back and stabilize the bullpen. He was activated in July, almost a year post-op, but he immediately struggled, giving up five earned runs in his first appearance. The Nats stuck with him for a month and a half, trying him in different roles out of the bullpen, but Kranick never really figured things out. The team holds an option on him for his 2027 season, but after he was outrighted to Triple-A in early September, there’s no chance of it being exercised.
Matt Krook: D
Brought in not once but twice in July to buttress a deeply troubled relief corps, despite a lousy track record in the major leagues, Krook simply didn’t have anything to give. To his credit, and despite a woeful lack of “stuff” as well as below-average command, Krook managed to get through four of his six appearances in a Nats uniform without giving up a run. The less said about the other two outings, the better. Krook walked more batters than he struck out as a National — never a good sign — and ended up in Triple-A by August.
Justin Lawrence: D+
Claimed off waivers during one of the lowest points of the first half, Lawrence became the first Nats pitcher since Sean Doolittle to earn a save in his team debut. He didn’t do much good after that, and he was outrighted off the roster less than a month later. While Lawrence stayed in the organization, he wasn’t a particularly reliable arm in Matt LeCroy’s bullpen at Triple-A Rochester, and he figures to head into minor league free agency this winter without any obvious suitors.
Zack Littell: D
Representing the middle of the pack among the Nats’ three major league pitcher signings last winter, Littell unfortunately was a lot nearer the bottom than the top. Hit hard in his first few appearances after signing relatively late in spring training, Littell stabilized enough to author a string of effective performances in May and early June, pitching to a 2.27 ERA over seven appearances. Unfortunately, Littell never managed to provide consistent length for the Nats, despite his reputation as an innings-eater; his only two quality starts of the season came in the aforementioned stretch. Then the wheels started coming off again, and the Nats found no takers for Littell at the trade deadline. He was released shortly after the deadline, appearing out of the bullpen thrice for the Diamondbacks before being released again.
Brad Lord: C+
Lord was excellent in relief in his rookie season, with a 2.79 ERA that had fans debating whether he should go back into the rotation or potentially even become the Nats’ closer in 2026. As things turned out, Lord was…fine. His splits reversed in 2026, as he was actually much better in five starts (as an opener) than he was in relief, where he had a 4.02 ERA. Excellent through mid-June, Lord had a really rough few weeks out of nowhere (including a horrific blown save against the Phillies) before landing on the injured list with what the Nats described as left side tightness. After a monthlong layoff, Lord came off the injured list in August and was slightly better in the second half, but he still wasn’t reliable enough to be sure what his role in 2027 looks like. On balance, it was not an unsuccessful season for Lord, but he didn’t take that next step that many of us expected.
Richard Lovelady: C-
Lovelady has the swagger and intensity of a closer but the stuff of an up-and-down lefty specialist. Alas, he’s out of options, so the Nats simply had to make the best of it this season after claiming Lovelady off waivers in April. Lovelady actually spent spring training with the Nats before being DFA’d and landing back with the Mets, where he spent much of 2025. The Mets ultimately waived him and the Nats picked him back up. Lovelady spent a significant chunk of the season on the injured list with a triceps strain, before returning to action in September. Lovelady’s results were tolerable, but his peripherals were hideous all season, with way too much traffic on the basepaths and an overreliance on other pitchers coming in and stranding his bequeathed runners. Overall, he did his job, but he didn’t do it very well; and with his out-of-options status and a raise due through arbitration, Lovelady’s roster spot appears tenuous at best this winter.
Miles Mikolas: F+
Mikolas was a cheap flier on a one-year deal for the Nats, much like Griffin and Littell. The oldest player on this year’s roster, Mikolas frankly looked over the hill for his entire time in Washington, and it would surprise no one if this ends up having been his last season of a pretty decent MLB career. Mikolas struggled all year to miss bats, set a new team record for earned runs allowed by a pitcher in a game (11) in just his second appearance of the season, and ended up pitching behind an opener in more games than he started. He gets a plus to his letter grade for gamely stepping up to the plate and dropping down a perfect bunt when the Nats were out of position players to bat in extra innings, in one of his last appearances before the Nats released him in mid-August.
Carson Palmquist: D
One of a few guys the Nats picked up midway through the season in minor trades or off the waiver wire, Palmquist didn’t come to Washington with much of a track record of success. He continued that track record in D.C., pitching to a 7.71 ERA in eleven appearances. Palmquist was deployed as an opener more than half the time, and the role just didn’t work for him; he was considerably more successful in his five appearances out of the bullpen, but that’s not much of a sample size, and the Nats weren’t impressed enough with his stuff to keep him around for long after the trade deadline, optioning him to the minors, where he ended his season on the injured list.
Mitchell Parker: F-
It doesn’t seem that long ago Parker was a promising 24-year-old rookie starting pitcher. Unfortunately, it’s been all downhill for him since 2024, and a disastrous 2026 campaign for Parker — infamously including a catastrophic meltdown in San Francisco that saw the Giants storm back from an eight-run deficit to walk off the Nats on an “ultimate grand slam” — ended when he underwent an internal brace procedure on his left elbow in July. By rWAR, Parker was the worst player on the team, a dubious honor he held in 2025 as well with an identical -1.1 mark. Eligible for arbitration this winter, Parker seems likely instead to be non-tendered and sent into free agency with a wounded wing, leaving his future in MLB altogether uncertain.
Luis Perales: F
Frequently wild but typically effective for Triple-A Rochester, especially after being moved into a relief role, Perales was nothing short of a disaster after earning an August promotion to the major leagues. Although Perales can hit triple digits, he struggled badly with command all year and was almost entirely incapable of getting major league hitters to chase out of the zone. It’s unclear whether the Nats will be able to secure a fourth option year that would give Perales more seasoning in the minor leagues next year. He will need to take major, major strides to be a viable option for the 2027 bullpen.
Cionel Pérez: D-
Signed as a bounceback candidate after a dismal, injury-plagued final season in Baltimore, Pérez only escapes the worst possible letter grade by dint of signing on a minor league contract. Grades are weighted against expectations, after all, and was it ever truly reasonable to expect Pérez not to be terrible in 2026? The Nats had seen enough of the lefty by early May, jettisoning him after sixteen appearances in which Pérez pitched to a 6.19 ERA with more walks than strikeouts. Pérez did eventually catch on with the Mets, with whom he had better results.
PJ Poulin: B
Poulin is a difficult pitcher to grade. On one hand, he put up a 2.70 ERA and was one of few relievers on the team to finish with an rWAR north of 1. On the other hand, his walk rate shot up and his strikeout rate cratered this year, to the point where his strikeout-to-walk ratio hovered around 1 for most of the season, earning him a brief midseason demotion after he walked or hit a batter in ten of twelve appearances. Poulin came back from that short stint with Triple-A Rochester looking considerably sharper and getting good results. Unfortunately, just as he seemed to be settling into a trusted late-inning role, the injury bug bit, sending him to the injured list in mid-July with a season-ending left flexor strain.
Orlando Ribalta: B+
While he wasn’t dominant all season long, Ribalta seemed to hit his stride when the Nats needed him most. Unfortunately, like Poulin, he got hurt not long after that, ending up on the injured list in early September with right forearm inflammation. By the time he got hurt, Ribalta had established himself as Blake Butera’s most trusted late-inning arm. His rise coincided with an offensive dropoff by virtually the entire team in August, and so despite being the Nats’ de facto closer before he got hurt, Ribalta only picked up two saves during the season, and none in the second half.
Jackson Rutledge: F-
Rutledge’s disappointing tenure with the Nats came to a disappointing end when the team released their former first-round draft pick in early May. Rutledge appeared in just one game for the major league club, getting blasted for seven runs in one of the most hideous relief performances of the season. His results were better in a limited sample size at Triple-A Rochester, but he walked nearly as many batters as he struck out before the Nats decided to cut bait. He was briefly picked up by the Phillies but never made it to the big leagues with our division rival, instead being released and signing a deal to go pitch in Japan.
Paxton Schultz: F
It was a modest surprise when Schultz hit the waiver wire last winter, after a decent first major league season and strong results at Triple-A for the Blue Jays in 2025. The Nats, searching for pitching help wherever they could find it, snagged him off waivers and plugged him into the Opening Day bullpen. Alas, Schultz just wasn’t very good in 2026. His walk rate was low, but he was much too hittable, working to a 6.40 ERA in 27 appearances. The Nats gave him plenty of rope, trying him in various roles, and even sent him to the minor leagues for a month or so starting in late June to try to get him right there. Nothing really worked, and Schultz ended up back at Triple-A after just two outings in late July.
Jared Simpson: D+
Few people had Simpson’s name on their bingo card to contribute to the 2026 team at the start of the season, which Simpson began with Double-A Harrisburg. It’s an impressive accomplishment and very much to Simpson’s credit that he made it to The Show at all, let alone for him to twirl three perfect innings and earn a win in his major league debut. That earns him a plus on what otherwise has to be a failing grade, even measured against low expectations: Sinclair walked seven batters while getting just one out across his last two major league appearances, earning him a demotion back to Triple-A.
Jack Sinclair: A
No one could have possibly expected Sinclair, an organizational player who never ranked among the Nats’ most notable prospects, to rebound from a demotion to Double-A Harrisburg this season to become Washington’s de facto setup man by the end of the season. Promoted in early September, Sinclair was a workhorse for the Nats, pitching 11 innings with a 2.45 ERA and becoming one of the only Nats relievers all season never tagged with a blown save or a loss. He earned his first career win and save on back-to-back days, then finished his first stint in the major leagues with five consecutive appearances in which he was credited with a hold. While the advanced metrics suggest Sinclair would benefit from a more reliable putaway pitch, he provided badly needed stability for the back end of the ‘pen at the end of a challenging season.
Erik Tolman: A-
The Nats used the minor league development list this season to impressive effect. An oft-overlooked tool for giving players time off from game action to work on mechanical adjustments, get a mental reset, practice a new pitch, or whatever else they need to get back on track, the development list was where Tolman spent all of June and half of July before he was reinstated at Triple-A Rochester, where he had struggled to a 5.79 ERA through late May. While Tolman’s results weren’t perfect upon returning, they showed enough improvement that the Nats made the surprise decision to promote Tolman to the big leagues in late August. Tolman almost immediately became a fan favorite, with fans quickly learning how the left-hander revived his career after Tommy John surgery and a freak on-field injury that left him with limited movement and sensation in his right foot (he still wears an ankle brace when he pitches). In just his fifth major league game, he inherited a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning, pitched out of it without allowing a run, and then struck out the side in the ninth for his first career save. This is the stuff of Disney movies. Of course, we live in the real world, and the era of good feelings hit a few speedbumps in September as the league developed a book on Tolman. While he picked up four saves in September, he also blew three saves, including one in another tricky bases-loaded spot that officially broke the MLB record for blown saves in a season. It may not have been a “September to remember” for Tolman, but he showed the resiliency and moxie the Nats missed all year in the ninth inning.
Gus Varland: D
Claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks in January, Varland was decently intriguing as a relief pitcher. The brother of the Blue Jays’ closer, the Nats’ Varland actually got his career off to a more promising start than his younger bro, before injuries kept him out of MLB altogether in 2025. Indeed, Varland was one of Blake Butera’s most reliable relievers in the early part of the season, owning a 2.84 ERA at the end of April. He wobbled through a somewhat less convincing May, with just a couple of blowups, before a nightmarish June punched his ticket to Triple-A Rochester. The Nats called upon Varland a couple of times to bolster the bullpen in the second half, but he never re-established himself as a go-to depth piece.
Ken Waldichuk: INC
Finally returning to the major leagues for the first time since 2023, Waldichuk lasted all of five games before tearing his UCL and undergoing his second Tommy John surgery in three years in April. While he wasn’t particularly effective in an extremely limited sample size, Waldichuk also entered the season with no particular expectations attached to him, and he didn’t get much of a chance to show what he could do, so the “incomplete” grade seems appropriate.
Matt Waldron: INC
Another short-timer whose season ended due to injury before the Nats really had much opportunity to evaluate him, Waldron appeared in just three games before landing on the 60-day injured list with chest inflammation. Waldron was notable as the first-ever Nats knuckleballer, although unlike most of the “true” knuckleballers of old, he uses the knuckleball as a secondary pitch. He didn’t allow a run in any of his three appearances, including one short start, although he didn’t induce a lot of swing-and-miss.
Trevor Williams: B+
Williams genuinely exceeded expectations this year, coming back from a yearlong layoff due to injury and not allowing a run over his first five games after activation. Coming back in late July, at a time when the team was swooning badly, most of Williams’ opportunities came in garbage time, but he made the most of them. The Nats released Williams before the end of August, wanting to give opportunities to younger pitchers (for better or worse). Given his brief service and his $7 million salary, Williams can’t possibly merit an A grade, but he deserves credit for doing whatever he could to help the team during the lowest point of the season and pitching better than a perennially injured righty with a high-80s fastball has any right to pitch.
Eddy Yean: A-
It’s a little surprising we didn’t see more of Yean this season. A former top pitching prospect with the Nats, he was sent to the Pirates as part of the Josh Bell trade back in December 2020, but he never reached The Show with the Bucs and ended up back with the Nats on a minors deal last winter. Yean worked as the usual closer for Triple-A Rochester and finally earned a shot in early July, delivering a strong 2.45 ERA in eight scattered appearances for the Nats but never solidifying his spot on the major league team. While he ended the year back at Triple-A, the hard-throwing 25-year-old ought to get a more extended look in 2027.
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