Young Left-Hander Set to Play Major Role in Washington Nationals Bullpen
The Washington Nationals are heading into the offseason looking to improve and evaluate what the organization will look like in 2025.
In 2024, the Nationals had the same number of wins as they did in 2023, but they were able to do it with a lot of the young talent that they hope will be on the team for years to come.
On offense, Washington was led by CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. in the middle of the infield, as the duo had emerged as All-Star caliber players. In the outfield, the talent is a bit more unproven, but players like James Wood and Dylan Crews have very high upsides.
For the pitching staff, there is also a lot of young and fairly unproven talent that the Nationals are trying to evaluate for the future. In the bullpen, there is currently some nice talent, with Derek Law and Kyle Finnegan leading the way.
In addition to their two veterans leading the way, Washington also saw their young left-hander Jose Ferrer take a nice step forward in 2024. Recently, Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports spoke about the outlook for Ferrer heading into next season.
“2025 outlook: The Nationals needed Ferrer to get healthy before they could do anything else with him this year. Once he got over that significant hurdle, they were finally able to get him valuable experience pitching late in major league games. And given the way he responded, it’s fair to believe he could be considered a key part of the 2025 bullpen right from the outset.”
Coming into 2024, the Nationals had some high hopes for the southpaw, unfortunately, he had a significant injury to start the season and didn’t come back until after the All-Star break.
However, despite a little bit of a slow start as expected returning from injury, the left-hander ended up having a much more significant role toward the end of the season. As a southpaw, Ferrer provides a lot of value out of the bullpen, and will be an important piece for the Nationals moving forward.
In their division alone, having a great lefty out of the bullpen will be important when facing the Philadelphia Phillies and their star sluggers in Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.
With a 2.20 ERA in September, there is a lot of reason to believe that Ferrer is going to be used in high leverage situations in 2025. At 24-years-old, the future is looking bright for the southpaw out of the bullpen.
