The Washington Nationals have a bullpen problem they can’t keep papering over.
Their relief corps isn’t the very worst in baseball by ERA, but a 5.09 mark still leaves them tied for 27th. That’s a rough place to live for a club trying to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2019, and the 27 blown saves on the season only sharpen the alarm. That total is on pace to smash the MLB record.
Washington has already tried to patch the issue with waiver claims during the year, but those moves haven’t done much to change the picture. With the trade deadline approaching, the front office may need outside help. And the Pittsburgh Pirates may have just handed them a chance to grab it.
According to Darragh McDonald of MLB Trade Rumors, Pittsburgh designated veteran right-hander Dennis Santana for assignment after acquiring right-hander Ron Marinaccio from the San Diego Padres. Santana is now on waivers, and even with the rough year he’s having, he looks like the kind of arm Washington should be willing to take a shot on.
The appeal is easy to see. Santana was a hot name heading into last year’s trade deadline, and even though he wasn’t moved, he still put together a strong 2025 season.
He finished with a 2.18 ERA and a 201 ERA+ over 70 appearances, and he went 16-for-19 in save chances. That’s the kind of track record that makes a reliever worth a look, especially in high-leverage spots.
This season has gone in the opposite direction. The 30-year-old has a 6.05 ERA in 44 outings, and the warning signs are all over the stat line: more hard contact, more walks, more home runs, and fewer strikeouts than he had when he was pitching like a late-inning weapon.
Even so, there’s a case for Washington to pounce. Santana is on a $3.5 million deal he signed with Pittsburgh to avoid arbitration, so the financial risk is manageable.
And the numbers underneath the surface suggest he may have been a bit unlucky. His expected ERA sits at 5.33, below his actual 6.05 mark, while his expected FIP of 5.21 is also lower than his 5.48 FIP.
That doesn’t make the season good. It does hint that some correction could be coming for a reliever who was effective over the previous two years.
The concern, though, is workload. Santana logged 132 appearances and 142 innings combined in 2024 and 2025, and that kind of mileage may be showing up now.
His Stuff+ of 92 is the lowest of his career.
Still, the Nationals have already taken chances on pitchers with less on their résumés this year. With Santana suddenly available, Washington has a clear opportunity to try to stabilize a bullpen that badly needs help.
In Other News...
Should The Nationals Bring Max Scherzer Home For One Last Run
Max Scherzer is still showing enough to make the idea of a return to Washington feel more than sentimental. In a rehab assignment with the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate in Rochester, he worked five no-hit innings with seven strikeouts, a reminder that even late in his career he can still miss bats and control a game when he is right.
For the Nationals, the appeal goes beyond nostalgia. Scherzers playoff rsum still carries weight, including his recent postseason innings and the World Series Game 7 start that helped define his legacy, and a reunion would also bring a veteran presence into a young clubhouse that could use it. Whether that kind of move is realistic is another matter, but the fit is obvious enough to keep the conversation alive. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Have Two Rotation Problems They Cant Ignore Anymore
The Nationals have reached the point where their rotation issues are no longer just a midseason annoyance. Zack Littell and Miles Mikolas have not given the club enough length or consistency, and the strain has shown up in a bullpen that keeps getting asked to cover too many innings. When two starters are regularly working short outings, the rest of the staff feels it, and Washington has been living that reality for weeks.
There are only so many ways to patch it, which is why the conversation has started to turn toward outside help and internal options alike. The trade market could offer names such as Seth Lugo, Reid Detmers, Dylan Cease, Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal, while the organization also has to decide how aggressively it wants to test its own depth. Jackson Kent has not yet been pushed to Triple-A, leaving the Nationals with a rotation question that is becoming harder to postpone. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Offense Is Building A Storyline Fans Cant Ignore
The Nationals are heading into a six-game homestand with a lineup that has started to look like more than just a collection of young bats. Washington opens against the Diamondbacks before turning to the Blue Jays, and the early signs are hard to miss: the club leads the majors in stolen bases, Nasim Nuez is pacing the sport individually, and James Wood has become a constant threat at the top of the order while ranking among the National Leagues top hitters in several offensive categories.
Woods production has given this offense a different kind of edge, one that blends power with pressure on the bases and makes every inning feel a little less settled for opposing pitchers. CJ Abrams and Wood have also put themselves in rare company among MLBs all-around threats, and the bigger question now is whether Washington can keep stacking those kinds of performances as the homestand unfolds and the lineups momentum gets tested by a pair of different pitching staffs. [Read more 🡒]