It was a long journey into the major leagues for Nationals’ prospect Kade Cavalli. He made his major league debut against track and field in August 2022. 1⁄3 He was closed with seven innings of the ball and eventually an arm injury that required Tommy John’s surgery. This cost him the entire 2023 and 2024 season. For some time in 2025, when he got off to a start with an arm pain it looked like he came again for him, but thankfully it turned out to be just preventative. Now perfectly healthy, he finally looks like his former self, posting 2.89 ERA and 9.88 K/9 at 37 1⁄3 Innings so far between the three minor league levels in 2025.
Cavalli’s success in the minor leagues and Trevor Williams’ notable failure at the big league level have not missed a start all season, but still haven’t had enough innings to qualify for the ERA leaderboard (he’s the worst with solid margins). The biggest knock in Cavalli’s performance so far is his lack of distance to the start, and although he has not yet passed five innings, Williams has the same problem, never past this season (two finished two after the sixth) and six innings. If you’re not going to take that far from your starter, do you not want it to be from a younger, perhaps better pitcher?
There are several theories as to why Nats refuse to make changes to the rotation and raise Cavalli. For one, Davy Martinez and his staff really believe Williams will change his season and start pitching like his 2024 self. Williams’s isn’t very good anymoreand the batters are not fooled by it. Williams is also the leader of the Nats clubhouse. This is a quality characteristic that should not be overlooked when dealing with the future at the club, but he can lead the same way from the bullpen as he can rotate.
Another theory is that they don’t think Cavalli is ready to handle pitching every five days at the big league level. However, it was a problem that only appeared once more than a month ago, and not since. You want Cavalli to eventually go deeper into his outings, but for now he’s stacked up solid performances and things look very good.
The third and most likely reason for the delay in Cavalli’s call-up is that if the Nationals wait until July 16th, they’ll get a year’s working hours for him. Nats missed two years’ worth of service time while recovering from Tommy John, as players earned service time while earning service time while on the injured list. But in the short term, running and firing Trevor Williams every five days is hurting the public. By not replacing Williams with Cavalli and not improving the roster a bit soon, the front office thinks the roster isn’t enough to compete for the playoffs.
Another reason they don’t want to remove Williams from the rotation is their financial commitment of 7 million this year and next year. Moving him to a long relief spot, slotting Blood Road, or putting Kavalli in his rotation spot could quickly improve the team a little. It’s frustrating to see Cavalli restrained and not replacing Williams, but there’s some understanding when he understands that his extra yearly control is good. However, not replacing Williams with a young arm who proved he could start on Blood Road and do well shows that Natt’s front office can’t admit that he paid him and forgot the cost of sinking him and made a mistake.
Cade Cavalli’s return to DC is imminent. He is one of the top pitching prospects for the Nationals system and is finally ready to handle the big league loads. But he probably has to wait as the Nationals front office manipulates his service time and Trevor Williams’ inferior talent can rob the ball every five days. As long as he can stay steady in his wait and keep on pitching well, he will have the opportunity to show everyone why he is the Nationals’ first round pick in 2020 and at some point a top 100 prospect in baseball.
