Washington Nationals to Re-Sign Veteran Pitcher to Bolster Rotation
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The Washington Nationals have agreed to terms to bring back one of their free agent starting pitchers.
Nine-year MLB veteran Trevor Williams, who has been with the Nationals for the last two seasons, will re-sign with Washington on a two-year deal worth $14 million. The news was first broken on Monday morning by Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic.
Williams will turn 33 shortly after the start of the 2025 season, but he was on his way to the best year of his career in 2024 over his first 11 starts before missing the next three months of the season with a a right flexor strain.
In those 11 starts, Williams posted an ERA 2.22 over 56.2 innings and would finish the season strongly as well once he returned from the injury to make two more starts at the end of the year.
Throwing 10 more innings over two starts late in the season, Williams would give up just one run and close the season with an overall mark of a 6-1 record, a 2.03 ERA, a WHIP of 1.035, an ERA+ of 199, and 59 strikeouts over 66.2 innings pitched. With those kinds of numbers extrapolated over a full season of health, Williams would have been good enough to be a strong candidate for the Cy Young award.
Never having been an All-Star during his career, Williams spent the first half decade of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. But outside of a very solid 2018 season when he made 31 starts and posted a 3.11 ERA, his career has largely been unremarkable. He has also had stints with the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets before arriving to the Nationals.
He has also spent time in the bullpen, with 2022 for the Mets being one of the better seasons of his career numbers wise, but over just 9 starts and 30 overall appearances. That 2022 season was good enough for Williams to earn his first two-year deal with Washington, signing in the offseason prior to the 2023 season for $13 million.
Coming off an ugly but healthy 2023 season with the Nationals where Williams had a 5.55 ERA over 30 starts, the pressure was on this season. And while the injury was unfortunate and only allowed him to make the 13 starts, he showed enough over his limited action to convince the team to hand him a low-risk similar type deal to the one which brought him to Washington two years ago.
Look for Williams to compete for a spot as a veteran presence in a young, ascending starting rotation for the Nationals.