Washington Nationals Rising Star Has Interesting Outlook for Next Season
As the Washington Nationals head into the offseason, there is a lot of hope and excitement surrounding the franchise.
In 2024, the Nationals might have only won 71 games, but they saw a lot of their young, talented players get called up and make a positive impact in the Majors. For the last couple of years now, multiple prospects have been called up as the franchise hopes to get this rebuild completed soon.
The last campaign was a big one, however, as there were a ton of rookies on the team.
While the lineup and the elite prospects on offense have garnered most of the attention, Washington also had many young starting pitchers getting extended time on the mound in 2024.
One who got a lot of work was left-hander DJ Herz.
Even though he wasn’t expected to come up this season, the opportunity arose when Trevor Williams went down with an injury. Herz made the most of it by totaling 19 starts.
The southpaw will be just 24 years old to start next year. Like most young pitchers, there was a lot of inconsistency, both good and bad, and he is still very much an unknown.
Recently, Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports spoke about what the 2025 outlook will be for the lefty.
“Where does that leave Herz in the Nationals’ current and future plans? There are probably more variables with him than anyone of their other young starters. There’s a scenario in which it all comes together for him and he ascends into a prominent role near the top of the rotation. There’s a scenario in which he’s just too erratic to be counted upon like that and he instead settles into a back-of-the-rotation role, with the hope that he spins some gems scattered around his duds. And there’s a scenario in which he doesn’t succeed with enough regularity and he gets bypassed by other up-and-coming arms.”
2025 should be a good opportunity for Herz to prove himself in the league and for the Nationals to evaluate what he can be for the franchise moving forward.
After showing some positive signs last season, Herz should definitely be in the rotation on Opening Day barring massive additions to the team.
For Washington, he will certainly be a pitcher they keep an eye on, as he has shown some glimpses that he could be a very good pitcher at some point during his career.
