The Nationals have spent the first half of the season in an awkward but interesting spot: good enough to think about buying, not quite secure enough to act like buyers. At 47-46 on July 8, Washington sat 3.5 games behind the final National League wild card spot, and the biggest reason that conversation exists at all is the bullpen.
That’s the hole staring the front office in the face. If the Nationals had even an average relief corps, they’d be sitting much more comfortably in the race. Instead, they’re weighing whether to add or deal before the deadline, and one name has surfaced as a strong match if they decide to chase help on the mound.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic listed Colorado Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela as the best fit for Washington if the club goes after a reliever.
Senzatela’s path has been a winding one. Signed by the Rockies as an amateur free agent in 2011, he climbed the system as a starter and impressed in the minors despite lacking premium strikeout stuff.
Colorado brought him up in 2017, but his major league results never matched that minor league success. The 2020 season was the only one in which he finished with an ERA under 4.00.
Then came the injuries. Near the end of 2022, he tore his ACL.
In 2023, a UCL sprain led to Tommy John surgery. He returned in mid-September of 2024, but that comeback was rough: nine earned runs in three starts over 12 1/3 innings.
The struggles continued last season, when he posted a 6.65 ERA in 30 appearances, including 23 starts.
Colorado shifted him to the bullpen before this year, and the move has worked. Through 27 appearances, Senzatela has a 2.93 ERA and a 169 ERA+, meaning he’s been 69 percentage points better than league average.
He’s also shown the ability to work multiple innings, which is exactly the kind of weapon Washington could use. Away from Coors Field, he’s been even better, logging a 1.54 ERA across 23 1/3 innings.
That production makes the fit easy to see. The harder part is the money.
Washington’s payroll decisions have to be viewed through the lens of how little the ownership group has spent in recent years, and Senzatela is under contract for $12 million this season with a club option for $14 million in 2027. If the Nationals traded for him, they would only be taking on the rest of this year’s salary, and they likely would not exercise that option, which would make him a rental. Even so, adding that kind of salary may not be appealing to the Lerners, especially with no guarantee that it would push the team into the playoffs.
So while Senzatela looks like a clean baseball fit, there’s still a real chance Washington passes. If the Lerners do give president of baseball operations Paul Toboni the green light to add someone in that mold, though, Bowden’s read suggests it wouldn’t take much to get a deal done with Colorado. That would line up with a deadline approach aimed at helping the current club without stripping away top prospects for the future.
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