The Nationals made a surprise addition to their already crowded rotation mix yesterday when they signed southpaw Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a two-year deal. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo spoke to reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASN and Spencer Nausbaum of the Washington Post) today about the club’s rotation plans for 2025 and where Ogasawara fits into that picture.
Ogasawara, 27, has posted a 3.28 ERA in 596 innings of work over the past four seasons with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chunichi Dragons. While that’s a solid performance, the lefty’s lackluster 13.6% strikeout rate last year raised plenty of eyebrows when he was posted by the Dragons last month. That skepticism about his ability to make such a profile with such few strikeouts work in the majors led Ogasawara to sign a modest deal that guarantees him just $3.5MM, well below the going rate for even back-end starters in free agency. Rizzo expressed confidence in Ogasawara as a starting-caliber option despite those concerns, but stopped short of fully guaranteeing him a rotation spot or even an active roster spot to open the season in his discussion of the club’s rotation plans.
“We signed [Ogasawara] to be a starting pitcher for us in the big leagues,” Rizzo told reporters, including Zuckerman. “Of course, he’ll have to earn that spot in the rotation. I think there’s going to be great competition for the five spots in the rotation by some good, young, talented players. If he’s not ready for the big leagues, then we could always option him to Triple-A and bring him up sometime during the season. But we anticipate him battling out for a rotation spot, and I think it’s going to be a fun competition to watch.”
That most tracks with Andrew Golden of the Washington Post’s reporting on the state of the club’s rotation. Golden characterizes right-hander Michael Soroka, left-hander MacKenzie Gore, and right-hander Jake Irvin as the three players locked into Opening Day rotation spots if healthy. That leaves two spots in the rotation for Ogasawara, veteran right-hander Trevor Williams, and young southpaws Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz to compete for, though it’s worth noting that Williams himself indicated earlier this month that he’ll be part of the club’s Opening Day rotation. That would leave just one spot for Ogasawara, Parker, and Herz to compete for. Ogasawara seems likely to be the favorite for that role headed into Spring Training, though…
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