Washington Nationals news & notes: Trevor Williams starts back up; Season 2 in D.C.

Signed to a two-year/$13 million free agent contract last winter, Trevor Williams pitched in a swing role for several seasons before returning to full-time starting action with, to put it politely, mixed results (be 5.55 ERA, 5.98 FIP, NL-leading 34 home runs, .300/.359/.533 line in 144 1⁄3 IP).

Despite his struggles, Nationals leaders discussed this winter how the 31-year-old veteran posted up and stole the ball 30 times in the first year of his contract.

Has he performed well enough this season to remain a part of the rotation?

Or will he return to swinging between the bullpen and starting mix?

GM Mike Rizzo said this winter, “I’m going to go with my top 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.”

“Right now, Trevors, he’s our fourth or fifth starter,” coach Davey Martinez said at the 2023 Winter Meetings in early December. “Let’s see what happens during the winter.”

The start of his second spring at Knott’s was delayed so Williams could be with his family for the birth of his child.

He worked from home and arrived in West Palm Beach, Fla., ready to pitch in front of the Nationals’ staff in the raw bullpen.

“I feel like my body is where it needs to be,” Williams told reporters. Quoted by Mark Zuckerman of MASNupon arriving at the camp on February 25th.

“Now that I’m here, my brain is catching up. I’m hoping my mind here will be in midseason mode soon. I’m just happy. [Davey Martinez] They let me be with my family and made sure mom and babies were okay before they left. ”

Williams took some time off this winter, but realized the 2024 campaign was a big one for him and returned to work immediately at the end of the 2023 season.

“Every offseason you take a little bit of time off from work, but I didn’t take a lot of time off,” the right-hander said.

“I knew this was a big offseason for me, that I had a lot of work to do to get back to where I was.”

The manager said Williams, who spent 2023 healthy, is in a good position to start another full season after performing as well as he did last year.

“The last few years, he’s been eating innings out of the bullpen. It’s a different routine for him. In the first half, he was OK. It’s been a little bit of a stretch because he had to eat every inning. I think it’s happened to him. I think he’s developed himself this year and gotten a good feel. He worked on some things over the winter mechanically as well. He’s in a good place. ”

Williams pitched two scoreless innings on Monday, with three strikeouts and a total shutout win. st louis cardinals, 1-0. He threw 27 pitches, 20 of which were strikes, which he said was a good start.

“My goal going into this game was just to come back healthy,” Williams said. Quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco.

“At this point in spring training, we want to get as much volume as possible. Thankfully, we were able to see two full innings today. About 15 more pitches in the bullpen to increase that volume. I was able to throw it. In that sense, I think it was a success.”

“I was able to attack the strike zone, I was able to throw everything I wanted to throw today, and thankfully I came out unscathed,” Williams added.

“I think last year really helped him understand who he is. I think he’s going to get better,” Martinez told reporters previously about what 2023 will look like for Williams. repeated.

“And he ran out of gas last year. I mean, it’s been a while since he’s done it, so I think he might be even better this year once he gets that under his belt.”

Williams said he is grateful that Martinez was patient with him last season and allowed him to recover, and is ready to contribute even more this year if needed.

“I have the ability to go from 145 last year to 185 to 190 and I want to get there. That’s what I prepared for this year, this offseason, and that I was able to at least reach that goal last year. Thank you very much.”

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