WASHINGTON - Sunday’s loss in Miami put a number on the Nationals’ bullpen problem, and it’s an ugly one: 35 blown saves, two shy of the MLB record.
Blake Butera, in his first year managing Washington, knows where his responsibilities begin and end. He said it’s his job “to do the best job I possibly can with the team that we have and the bullpen that we currently have.”
But he also made clear that the front office has a winter task waiting for it.
When asked whether he thinks about the club possibly adding late-inning help this offseason, Butera didn’t dodge.
“No doubt,” he said.
“We need somebody to step up that wants the ball in the ninth inning to finish the game,” he added.
That need was laid bare again in Sunday’s 6-2 loss to the Marlins. Washington used its best reliever for two innings to protect a 2-0 lead, then handed the ninth to Max Kranick and Tom Cosgrove.
The inning unraveled quickly: a bunt single, two walks, a pitching change, a hit batter, a sacrifice fly, and then a throw to third that Jorbit Vivas missed and let bounce into the Marlins’ dugout because Cosgrove did not back it up. Miami then stole home and later added a two-run homer as the home crowd of 20,000 booed.
Cosgrove didn’t sugarcoat it.
“It was just a straight-up embarrassing inning,” he said. “I didn’t do a single thing right.”
That kind of honesty was rare, even by the standards of a rough season.
The larger issue for Washington is what comes next. Teams in this stage of a rebuild don’t usually make splashy bullpen investments, and the Nationals’ ownership group hasn’t shown much appetite for major big-league spending during this process.
Still, the argument for some winter aggression is hard to ignore. The lineup looks like a real strength, even if it slips next year, and the source material suggests it could still project as a top-10, maybe top-five, offense in MLB.
That’s the kind of edge a team shouldn’t waste.
There’s also reason to think the Nationals can do a little more than they did last winter. They were mostly quiet in free agency, focusing on staffing changes and one-year pitching additions after a 66-win season and without a clear core in place. This time, the farm system is improved, and the club’s positive run differential points to a better team than its 65-74 record says.
And then there’s the week-to-week evidence: one crushing loss after another.
The bullpen isn’t the only possible offseason fix. A high-end, controllable starter could easily be the top priority.
But there’s a case for taking some risk on relief help, especially with the market shaping up as a deep one. David Bednar, Adrian Morejon, Bryan Abreu, Jason Adam, Raisel Iglesias and José Alvarado are among the most compelling names available.
Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Matt Strahm, Shawn Armstrong, Kirby Yates, Evan Phillips, Paul Sewald and Danny Coulombe could also be in play.
Money could help, too. Stephen Strasburg’s contract is up after this season, and there’s almost no money tied to the active roster.
Butera kept coming back to the same point: the ninth inning is its own animal.
“At the end of the day, the ninth inning is different in the big leagues,” he said. “It’s hard to get saves. But we’ve got to find somebody.”
Washington has made some progress in the pitching pipeline. Clayton Beeter and Orlando Ribalta have earned Butera’s trust, and the club added nine pitchers at the trade deadline.
Erik Tolman and Luis Perales have also emerged as potential contributors, though their roles remain TBD, and there are more arms in Triple-A Rochester. Jarlin Susana, who is a starter at the moment, is also part of the picture.
Even with that progress, the organization’s bullpen depth in the majors and upper minors is still mostly built from new additions this season, which says plenty about how much work had to be done in the first place.
That point came through clearly when president of baseball operations Paul Toboni explained the organizational approach in July.
“Dating back to the offseason, if you’re not going to give out major-league deals for players - you’re going to decide to deploy your money elsewhere - then you start to think, ‘OK, how are you going to build it out?’ And there are only so many paths you can go down to do so,” Toboni said.
“That was the decision that we made. And I obviously think a lot about that, given how the current year has gone.”
There’s a lot more for Washington to think about now.
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