The Washington Nationals did it again, and by it, I mean blowing another save. Last night, the Nats blew their 36th save of the season. That obviously leads the league, but is also only one off tying the all-time record. With about 20 games to go, it is very likely that the 2026 Nationals will grab this piece of unwanted history.
We saw why the Nats have all these blown saves last night. Throughout the season, walks and home runs have killed this bullpen. This bullpen leads baseball in home runs allowed
and walks. That is about the worst possible combination you can ask for. It leads to free base-runners and those free base-runners scoring.
Clayton Beeter blew his 7th save of the season last night, and he is the poster boy for this issue. When he is on, Beeter can actually be an effective reliever. However, he has been off far too much, especially lately. Beeter does a good job avoiding hits with a .209 average against.
The walks and home runs kill him though, as we saw last night. He walked the second batter he faced before allowing a single and a 3-run homer. For the season, Beeter has allowed 1.57 HR/9 and has walked 6.07 batters per 9 innings. That is a toxic combination and Beeter is lucky his ERA is only 4.50 to be honest.
I wrote a piece about which relievers I thought locked down spots on the 2027 team. Beeter was not included and that erratic command is the reason why. He cannot be trusted as a high leverage arm and is not a multi-inning guy either. Beeter’s slider can be filthy, but he has proven that he is not a trustworthy arm.
Obviously Beeter is not the only problem in the bullpen though. He leads the way with 7 blown saves, but there are still 29 more. Somehow, Mitchell Parker remains second on the team with 5 blown saves. Orlando Ribalta, Richard Lovelady and Tom Cosgrove have each blown three. Brad Lord, Cole Henry, Yovanny Cruz, PJ Poulin and Gus Varland have all blown two. Finally, Ken Waldichuk, Matt Krook, Riley Cornelio, Paxton Schultz and Max Kranick have each blown a solitary save.
It has truly been all hands on deck when it comes to blowing games. A big part of this is due to not having an actual closer. That is something that needs to change next year in my opinion. All this stuff about platoon matchups has its place, but in the 9th inning, you need an alpha.
We have seen the consequences of not having one this season. Even a guy like Kyle Finnegan, who was far from perfect at least brought some stability. The new regime may be hesitant to admit it, but this year has shown that the 9th inning is different.
The Nats are likely to get two more blown saves this year and set the all-time record for blown saves. However, I think there is some room for optimism going forward. Between the trade deadline and some homegrown arms emerging, there is some solid depth. We are seeing that with the likes of Erik Tolman, Jared Simpson and Jack Sinclair.
However, the blown save problem will remain until the Nats find a real killer in the back end. David Bednar, Adrian Morejon and Raisel Iglesias are the big ticket items in free agency this offseason. While the first two are probably out of the Nats price range, Iglesias is a guy I think the Nats should go after. He is exactly the type of stable veteran closer the Nats need.
One of the many issues with this bullpen is that there are just not enough adults in the room. Outside of Orlando Ribalta and Erik Tolman so far, all of these guys are just so scary to watch. I am tired of seeing the likes of Clayton Beeter either spray pitches way out of the zone or throw pitches right down the middle.
Honestly, watching this bullpen has been a traumatic experience for me, and I know that I’m not alone in this feeling. It is time to throw real resources at the back end of the bullpen. If setting the all time blown saves record is not a wake up call, then nothing will be.
With the lack of proven commodities, this bullpen being bad was not a surprise. However, the depths of their ineptitude did catch me off guard. With an analytically minded front office, I thought there would be more hits on some of the waiver claims or smaller moves. Honestly, none of Toboni’s bullpen waiver claims have worked.
If this regime is unable to build a bullpen on the cheap, they have to throw resources at the problem. They did this at the trade deadline, targeting relief prospects in trades over higher upside pieces. However, they will have to do more and find real proven commodities. Otherwise, we will be writing the same story again next season.
