Davey Martinez described a conversation he had late in the 2023 campaign with opposing team officials eager for information on how the Nationals got through the season with just eight starting pitchers.
They make up the bulk of their starting rotation with five pitchers (Patrick Corbin, 32, Josiah Gray, 30, Trevor Williams, 30, Mackenzie Gore, 27, and Jake Irvin, 24). , three more pitchers (Joan Adon, 10, and Chad Kuhl) started. , 5; and Jackson Rutledge, 4), stole the ball for the remainder of the outing.
“I’ve already had a lot of people ask me, ‘Hey, how did you get through the year with only seven starting pitchers?'” Martinez told reporters (before Rutledge appeared in eight games). ). “And I just laugh, I don’t want to give anything away. But I said part of it is the players buying into what they have to do during the start. Their strength. Well, maintain that mechanism. [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey works with the mechanics every day to keep them as clean as possible. Strength coaches and everything else and obviously we went with a six-man rotation, which definitely helped and we’ll probably seriously consider that in the future.
“But with that said, I’m proud of them. [We were] We monitored everything they did every day and made sure they were there. There were days when we had to force them to work, but they did it and it worked out well for all of them. ”
Martinez said the fact that so few starting pitchers were used is even more impressive considering the injury history of some of the pitchers.
“We had a lot of guys, you remember Jake Irvin, what he’s been through, Mackenzie, Josiah, he’s had some shoulder issues. So for us, when they go into the game, we have five players. It was definitely a plus to see us fight every win and six losses, seven days no matter what. And it’s going pretty well. As far as health goes, they’ve all exceeded our expectations and definitely improved. There is room for that, and I can see it coming.”
Martinez said he is also looking at a future rotation in D.C., including 2020 first-round pick Cade Cavalli (who underwent Tommy John surgery last spring) and Rutledge (2019 first-round pick). He said both players (designated players) are playing a bigger role.
“Yeah, it looks pretty good. Nice, yeah,” he said with a smile. “You can see our youth right now and what we might see here in the future, and I love it. And like I said, they’re young and learning and we They still have a bit of a way to go, but for the most part they are eager to learn and all are doing well.”
They’ve been exploring the trade and free agent markets this offseason, but at last week’s winter meetings, coach Martinez said he wants to continue developing his young pitchers while getting some stability from veterans like Corbin and Corbin. I was asked what I thought about the balance. Williams again or possible additions? Will the Nationals consider adding a starter given their own talent?
“[GM Mike Rizzo]he’s a competitor and wants to win games,” Martinez said.
“You could add another starting pitcher to that mix. But it definitely helps develop young players and young pitchers as well.
“But I want to see young pitchers pitch. Some of these guys have a year of experience, some of them have three-quarters of a year. I want to see what I can do from training.
“You know, we did some different things in terms of limiting their innings. We went with a six-man rotation to keep them fresh. Hey, we’ve got future I knew I was trying to take care of them because of it.”
“So I want to see them grow. I want to see them compete. A lot of them pitched a lot, so this for me is just to see how they bounce back from last year. It’s going to be an interesting spring training. We’ve had some players get injured before, but they got through last year. So this is going to be a big year.
“But yeah, we’ll always take a quality starter.”
“I think we’re going to be cautious” about how the club plans to handle its young starters in 2024, Rizzo said when speaking about his media availability during winter meetings.
“We’re always being careful. But this year we’re going to take those reins off a little bit. Last year we were very careful and handled everything with kid gloves. It’s a combination of two veterans. – Trevor [Williams] He hasn’t pitched that many innings in years, he’s had the ball every five or six days when he needs to, and Patrick [Corbin]. I think we’re going to loosen the reins on them a little bit this year. We have some depth in the minor leagues, which we haven’t had a lot of in the past, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy to really learn in the major leagues. I think we saw some progress with these pitchers last year, but hopefully all of these pitchers can take another step in progression and replenish some of their own prospects from the minors to the major leagues. . ”
Both the manager and general manager are unsure of their plans after Williams, who signed a two-year/$13 million free agent contract with the club last winter, returned to the starting lineup full-time with what could be described as a mixed record. I was asked if it would fit like this (5.55 ERA, 5.98 FIP, National League-leading 34 home runs, 144 batting averages, .300/.359/.533 line. 1⁄3 IP).
“Trevor’s player is our fourth or fifth starter right now. We’ll see what happens over the winter,” Martinez said.
When asked if there was a scenario in which Williams played as a long reliever, as he did the few seasons before signing with D.C., Rizzo said, “We’re going to use our best five starting pitchers.”
“If he’s one of those five, he’ll start. If not, he’s capable of being a swingman, a multi-inning reliever, a multi-day reliever, and just a workhorse.” I don’t want to discount what he did last year for this team in a lot of innings and a lot of starts, taking the ball away and doing it when he hadn’t done it in years. Very team-oriented and very unselfish, and I thought he did a great job for us in that regard.”
Rizzo said his best five will be in the rotation, but given how well things went with a six-man rotation late last season, would he consider doing it again?
“We’ve already talked about that,” Martinez said.
“I looked at the schedule and luckily I got a lot of time off at the beginning. There are some stretches where I play 17 games in a row, 15 games in a row.
“So we may incorporate a six-man rotation in the meantime.”
In addition to Williams’ efforts, Corbin gave the Nationals 32 starts and 180 innings (In 180 IP, he recorded a 5.20 ERA, 5.28 FIP, 57 walks (2.85 BB/9), 124 Ks (6.20 K/9), a batting average of .293/.344/.481, and 33 home runs. (1.65 HR/9)). So where does he stand as he enters the final year of his six-year/$140 million contract after struggling to find his groove in 2018-2019 over the past four seasons?
“Look, we saw a lot of positives last year because of Corbin,” Martinez said. “The record doesn’t show it, I know his ERA doesn’t show it. But this guy takes the ball every five days and doesn’t complain and gives us the innings we need. He was able to do the job he’s done and give our bullpen a breather so we could develop our young players.
“So if you look back over the past year, it was usually the first inning where he lost something.
“If we can get him that win, he’s going to do big things for us, he really is.
“I know he’s already working hard. He’s in Florida, so hopefully he can come back and have a year like he gave us in 2019. We know we can.”