DJ Herz has slipped a bit out of the Nationals conversation, but he probably shouldn’t have. For a club sorting through the arms in its system and trying to picture the next competitive team, the 25-year-old left-hander still belongs on the radar.
Herz’s road back has been a long one. He had Tommy John surgery in April 2025, which wiped out the rest of that season and most of 2026.
Then, just as his rehab began this summer, a flexor strain knocked him off track again. Even so, he has kept moving forward since restarting the process, climbing from Single-A Fredericksburg to Double-A Harrisburg and now Triple-A Rochester.
The numbers from his rehab stint are encouraging. In his first eight minor league appearances this season, Herz has a 3.71 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 17 innings.
He still has not been stretched out fully, but reaching Triple-A is a meaningful checkpoint. If his body keeps responding the right way, the Nationals could have a path to get him back in the majors before the season is over.
That would be Herz’s first big-league action since 2024, when he made 19 starts for Washington and finished with a 4.16 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 88 ⅔ innings. The rough edges were there, as you’d expect from a 23-year-old rookie, and command issues came with the territory.
But the strikeout stuff jumped off the page right away. He averaged nearly 11 strikeouts per nine innings, and that kind of swing-and-miss is not easy to find in a starting pitcher.
His signature outing came against the Miami Marlins in just his third major league start. Herz punched out 13, did not walk a batter and gave up only one hit across six scoreless innings.
He became only the second pitcher since 1901 to record at least 13 strikeouts without a walk in his first three career appearances. It was the kind of start that makes you see the ceiling, especially when his fastball and changeup were both playing.
Of course, there’s still a lot to clear before anyone can pencil him into a role. Tommy John recovery is never simple, and Washington has every reason to protect his long-term health instead of chasing a few extra innings this year. If he does make it back, the Nationals may choose to ease him in rather than throw him straight into the rotation.
But Herz still deserves a place in the plan. Among Washington’s young arms, he has shown more pure strikeout upside than many of the others. Whether he ends up starting again or becomes a multi-inning option out of the bullpen, the stuff is real enough to give him a legitimate shot at becoming a meaningful major league piece.
In Other News...
Nationals Roster Move Adds Intrigue To A Telling Minors Night
While the Nationals farm system cycled through another full slate of minor league action, the night offered a mix of useful development markers across Rochester, Harrisburg, Wilmington and Fredericksburg. There were timely hits, steady innings and a handful of pitching lines that helped round out a busy evening for the organization, the kind of update that often says as much about depth as it does about the box score.
Amid all of that, the roster shuffle at the big league level added an extra layer of intrigue, with right-hander Max Kranick being outrighted from Washington. And because the performances below the surface carried their own weight, the night also stood out for what DJ Herz and Juan Reyes were able to do on the mound, giving the Nationals a couple more reasons to watch those affiliates closely as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Have A Growing Nasim Nunez Problem At Shortstop
Nasim Nunez has kept himself in the Nationals lineup because of the things he does away from the batters box. His defense and baserunning have value, and Washington has continued to give him chances at shortstop, hoping the rest of his game can help cover for the offensive gaps. But for a player being treated like an everyday option, the bat has been too light for too long, and the underlying numbers only reinforce what the eye test has shown.
The concern now is that the production has slipped even further at a time when the Nationals need more from that spot, not less. Nunezs recent stretch has dragged down an already difficult season at the plate, and it has pushed the question from whether he can survive there to whether Washington can keep running him out regularly without getting burned on offense. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Bullpen Is Chasing The Wrong Kind Of History
The late-season numbers have been ugly enough for the Nationals bullpen to make unwanted history, and the latest reminder came in a loss tied to Mookie Betts going deep. Washington has now seen 16 different pitchers record blown saves this season, a sign of how many different arms have been asked to shoulder the problem while manager Blake Butera keeps trying to piece together workable innings out of a unit that has spent most of the year under pressure.
There is still more uncertainty ahead, too, because one of the more important relief options is dealing with a forearm issue that could keep him out for a while. For a staff already chasing the wrong kind of milestone, any absence only adds to the challenge of keeping games within reach and avoiding another entry in a season full of negative firsts. [Read more 🡒]