The Nationals made a bullpen swap before Wednesday’s game against the Texas Rangers, sending right-hander Yovanny Cruz to Triple-A Rochester and selecting the contract of left-hander Erik Tolman, who is now lined up for his major league debut.
Cruz’s move stands out because he came to Washington as part of the return from the New York Yankees in the Luis Garcia Jr. deal. The organization had reason to dream on him.
He’s got a triple-digit fastball and a sharp slider, the kind of stuff that can jump off the page. But the results in Washington never matched the radar-gun promise.
Across six outings for the Nationals, Cruz struggled to throw strikes, walking five in four innings. He allowed five earned runs on nine hits and picked up two blown saves in his two chances to finish games. The swing-and-miss that usually comes with that kind of arm wasn’t there either, with only four strikeouts over those four frames.
The Nationals, though, were never treating him like an instant answer. Cruz had made just four big league appearances before arriving in Washington, and all four came this season. The ceiling is still there - a high-leverage reliever, maybe even a closer someday - but for now he’s heading back to Rochester to keep working on command.
Tolman’s path is the far more remarkable one. The 27-year-old left-hander has spent years fighting through injury after injury just to get to this moment. He had Tommy John surgery in his final collegiate season at Arizona State University, then needed another Tommy John procedure after tearing his UCL again during rehab from the first one.
A 14th-round pick in 2021, Tolman didn’t even make his first pro appearance until 2023. Then came another brutal setback: a freak knee injury in a game that left him with a dislocated knee and tears to his ACL, PCL and LCL, while his hamstring was torn off the bone.
He also ruptured the peroneal nerve in his right foot and needed surgery because his foot was paralyzed. Tolman told FanGraphs that he had to "rewire" his brain to walk again.
Now he’s on the brink of a debut after all of that.
The stuff has played well in Triple-A. TJStats gave Tolman a TJStuff+ rating of 104 across 32 outings for Rochester this season. He’s struck out 29.8% of hitters, a mark that sits in the 89th percentile, and his 37% whiff rate lands in the 97th percentile at Triple-A.
The results haven’t been spotless. Tolman has a 5.23 ERA in those 32 appearances, and walks have been an issue - 23 free passes in 31 innings. Even so, he’s punched out 42 batters and held opponents to a .229 average, which points to real upside.
However it shakes out from here, Tolman’s journey to this point is the story. After everything he’s endured, he’s finally in position to make his major league debut.
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