Who will be this year’s Chris Heisey? Photo via Washington Times
Third year running for this post: Here’s a link to 2016’s version and a link to 2015’s post.
Every year the team invites a bunch of Non-Roster Invitees (NRIs) to Spring Training, and every year we wonder if any of these guys have a chance to make the team. This post discusses the NRIs and their chances. Through out the winter some NRIs were announced with signings; on 2/11/17 the full list of NRIs was announced.
This is no throw-away post: here’s what has happened to Washington Nationals NRIs the last two spring trainings:
Summary of NRIs from ST 2016: 20 NRIs total (plus perhaps a couple more that got signed late):
- Two (2) made the 25-man roster: (Chris Heisey and as noted in the comments, thanks for the correction, Matt Belisle).
- Two (2) eventually got added and called up (Lucas Giolito, Sean Burnett)
- Two (2) have since been added to 40-man (Matt Skole, Austin Voth)
Summary of NRIs from ST 2015: 20 NRis total:
- Two (2) made the 25-man roster out of spring (Dan Uggla and Clint Robinson)
- Two (2) others eventually got added and called up (Rafael Martin and Emmanuel Burriss)
- Two (2) others were young catchers since added to the 40-man (Spencer Kieboom, Pedro Severino)
So that’s six NRIs from 2016 that eventually played for the Nats or got added to the 40-man roster, and six from the year . So odds are a handful of these players will eventually have a major league impact for this team. Lets take a look at 2017’s NRI roster. From the mlb.com NRI roster, lets break them down by position.
Starters
- RHP Jacob Turner: once upon a time he was halfway decent for an NL East team (Miami), but lost his effectiveness somewhere in the 2014 timeframe and hasn’t gotten it back. Seems like AAA rotation filler to me.
- RHP Vance Worley: an interesting minor league signing; why couldn’t he get a 40-man contract after the season he just had in Baltimore? Could be a sneaky effective pickup.
- RHP Jeremy Guthrie: 272 career starts but none in the majors since getting dumped from Kansas City’s 2015 rotation. In 2016 he posted an ERA north of 7.00 for Miami and San Diego’s AAA squads. He’ll be 38. I’m not sure he’s really any better of a “spare starter” option than what we already have in house.
- RHP Erick Fedde: his invite clearly indicates to me that the MLB staff wants to get a look at him, figuring that he’s taken over as the next big thing in terms of starting pitcher prospects. With all due respect to A.J. Cole and Austin Voth, its really Fedde that I’d like to see pitching in the majors if/when we have a month long starter injury later this summer.
- RHP Taylor Hill; may be up to see if he’s got anything left in the tank, or perhaps to eat some split squad innings? Once you’re off the 40-man it seems pretty hard to get back, and that’s the dilemna that Hill faces.
- RHP Kyle McGowin, recently acquired in the Danny Espinosa deal. I’m guessing the team wants to see what they have. McGowin’s 2016 numbers were awful … but pitching in the PCL is generally awful, so its hard to scout the stat line here.
FWIW, a couple of these guys who I’ve called “starters” (Turner and Worley) may actually still be starters, but they’re close enough to starting that the team could look at them as such. I could see Worley getting the last spot in the MLB rotation and acting as a swing man/6th starter, not unlike what we used Yusmeiro Petit for last year. The minor league invites mean that the whole AAA rotation will be in camp. Unless the team suffers 3 SP injuries in camp, nobody here is making the 25-man on 4/1.
Right Handed Relievers
- RHP Matt Albers; Great in 2015, awful in 2016. Wrong side of 30, losing his swing and miss stuff. Seems like he’s just in camp to rebuild value and likely opts out if he doesn’t make the team.
- RHP Mike Broadway: career journeyman, was formerly with Nats in 2013 time-frame. Little MLB experience, seems like he’s AAA insurance.
- RHP Joe Nathan: 377 career saves, but he’s 42, was last effective as a 38yr old in 2013, and this seems like perhaps an audition for him to take a role on a coaching staff here.
- RHP Dustin Antolin: longtime Toronto farm hand who spent 3 straight years in their AA team and was a part-time closer for their AAA team last year with good results; seems like a safe bet to close in AAA and serve as middle relief insurance.
- RHP Derek Eitel; similar to Antolin; long time farm hand who finished a ton of games in AAA for San Diego last year. Averaged a K/inning but had a ton of walks.
- RHP Wander Suero: a long-serving middle relief option for the team, Suero has grown up in the system. He’s entering his 8th pro season and I’m guessing the team wants to see if he’s a MLB middle relief option and/or an option to eventually add to the 40-man roster ahead of his pending MLFA deadline.
Left handed Relievers
- LHP Tim Collins: hasn’t pitched in 2 years thanks to a failed TJ surgery that cost him a second season, but was pretty effective for Kansas City to that point. I think he has to think he’s heading to AAA to prove to teams that he’s ok.
- LHP Braulio Lara: seems like a lottery ticket based on performances from a few years past; he got shelled in Korea, shelled in AAA recently.
- LHP Neal Cotts: long time reliever who has had some bouts of success over the years, but who didn’t make it out of AAA last year. Can’t see him supplanting the 40-man guys ahead of him on the Loogy pecking order.
- LHP Nick Lee, who like Hill before him was on the 40-man and then passed through waivers to get removed from it. He was good enough to protect in 2015 (putting up good numbers in a closing role for AA) but really struggled with his control in 2016 (42 walks in 50 innings). Perhaps a mechanical tweak can put him back on the radar to being an effective reliever.
Tangent: The recent addition of optionless Enny Romero may complicate a 25-man path for these guys. Or perhaps not; the arm they gave up (Jeffrey Rosa) was so insignificant that I had to look him up because I forgot who he was. In case you were wondering, Rosa was the “ace” of this year’s GCL team, getting 11 starts and posting a 4.91 ERA. As a 21 year old. So that means he was a 19-yr old IFA signing from a land where most players of note sign at 16 and only the rare cases make it to 18 and still have a minor league impact. So perhaps the team isn’t entirely wedded to Romero making the roster/challenging his no-options status. That trade was more about Tampa shedding a 40-man spot and getting something (anything) in return.
Discussion: So, no real “closers” in here, even if you somehow think Nathan can still produce (I don’t). I think a couple of these guys will exercise opt-outs and the rest will sign up in AAA. I can’t see any of them seriously challenging any of the existing 40-man arms for a spot. The one exception could be Collins for me; he was good, had bad luck with his injury and could very well come back and be effective; is he a better Loogy option than our current set of lefties (Perez, Solis, Romero and Grace)? I doubt it. I like the call-up of Suero and Lee; i think its a good idea for the team to see what they have here.
Catchers:
- Jhonatan Solano, who probably reprises his role as AAA backup for Syracause and is in camp mostly to help with all the warm-up duties.
Infielders:
- Emmanuel Burriss: we are quite familiar with Burriss, who is a Washington DC native and was with the org two years ago. I see little chance of him breaking with the team but he’ll do exactly what he did for us in 2015: toil in Syracuse, wait for an injury in the infield and bide his time until he can get some MLB at-bats. In 2015 he was up by June 26th; what are the odds that the Nats infield holds up without injury again in 2017?
- Grant Green; primarily a 2B, but can play like a utility guy around the field. He’s a former 1st round pick and a highly regarded prospect; don’t see much of a position for him though. Will he stick around if he doesn’t make the team?
- Corban Joseph: owns a grand total of 7 MLB at-bats, and that was in 2013. He has toiled in the minors for the last four full seasons, bouncing around organizations. He plays 1B and 2B and seems like the backup to the backup for Daniel Murphy. In other words, if Joseph is playing, we’ve really suffered some serious injuries.
- Neftali Soto: the 2016 MLFA signing had such a solid year for the organization that they re-signed him and gave him the NRI invite this year. I suppose he’s Ryan Zimmerman insurance … but like Snyder is a RH hitter who is more or less limited to 1B. Hard to see a pathway for him.
- Drew Ward: this NRI seems a bit premature; he was in A-ball a year ago this time. But Ward also faces Rule-5 protection this coming off-season and is one of the few remaining hopes of the 2013 draft class of producing much in the way of MLB talent for the home team. He could be a replacement for an Anthony Rendon injury at some point too.
Its hard to see any openings here, especially given the Stephen Drew re-signing. Are any of these guys beating out Wilmer Difo? Doubt it.
Outfielders
- Brandon Snyder: another local product (Westfield HS in Chantilly) and another 1st round pick who has sputtered out. He has some pop, but he bats right handed … and the RH bench spot is already committed (along with $1.4M) to Chris Heisey. Snyder seems like AAA “spare parts” insurance for 2017.
- Andrew Stevenson: I know he was a high draft pick, but based on what I saw of him in college i’m still kind of shocked he’s advanced so quickly. He joins several other CF-capable players in camp and signals to me at least that the team clearly thinks he’s got a role going forward.
Note that there’s really nobody invited to compete with the likes of Michael Taylor/Brian Goodwin for 5th outfielder spot. Yes Stevenson is a CF … does anyone think he’s MLB ready? Snyder seems to be competition with Clint Robinson/Matt Skole/Chris Heisey for bench bat/corner spots. He had good numbers in small sample sizes for Atlanta last year; maybe he’s an option. Problem is that he bats righty and the team already guaranteed money to Heisey, so there’s no direct competition for Robinson/Skole as a “corner lefty bat with some pop.”
Conclusion/predictions: I predict no NRIs make the team out of spring training right now. But I could see several of these guys head to AAA and get call-ups in the case of a 60-day D/L trip. And a number of the minor league invite guys will feature eventually.
Post-publishing update: indeed, no NRIs made the opening day 25-man roster, but clearly the plan was in the works to bring in NRI Jeremy Guthrie to make a spot start early into the season and perhaps stick around as the long man…. Except that Guthrie got absolutely battered in said start (10 runs in 2/3rds of an inning), leading to his immediate DFA and the subsequent call up of a second NRI Matt Albers (over, it should be noted, four other 40-man roster relievers). Then, thanks to two quick infielder injuries the first week, a third NRI Grant Green was called-up to provide some cover.
So technically zero NRIs made the team but several were used inside of the first week.
By the end of 2017 season, here’s the final list of ST NRI invites who appeared for the Nats: Guthrie, Albers, Green, and Stevenson