Washington Nationals Make Reliever Signing Official With One-Year Deal
The Washington Nationals have brought in some more bullpen help, making a deal with a veteran reliever official.
Andrew Golden of The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the deal with former Boston Red Sox reliever Lucas Sims was made official with a one-year, $3 million contract.
The corresponding move was to send fellow relief pitcher Mason Thompson to the 60-day injured list.
Sims has been in MLB since 2017 and has a career ERA of 4.50. He has proven to be a great strikeout pitcher who has just never been able to get his control in order.
The Red Sox traded for Sims at the last trade deadline, but it backfired when he got lit up in his first few outings with the team.
Their hope was that he had finally figured things out after a solid season-and-a-half of production with the Cincinnati Reds. The 30-year-old has had a few flashes of potential, but has never been able to find the consistency to go with it.
Back in 2023, he had a solid 3.10 ERA with 10.6 K/9 and a 1.180 WHIP. It was his best year outside of the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, which was weird for pretty much everyone.
He followed that season by starting out 2024 with very similar numbers, which is the reason why Boston traded for him in the first place.
Now it is the Nationals that are hoping he can find that rhythm again as they continue re-tooling their bullpen ahead of the upcoming campaign.
