While the Nationals bullpen was disastrous in 2025, Clayton Beeter was a bright spot for the unit down the stretch. After arriving in a deadline deal that sent Amed Rosario to the Bronx, Beeter quickly
went from a prospect to a trusted bullpen arm. He brought swing and miss stuff to a bullpen that desperately needed that.
His arrival to the Nats was a funny example of the reality of the deadline. He was pitching for the Yankees AAA team when he got traded. His team was actually playing against the Nats AAA team in Rochester when he was traded. So all Beeter had to do was switch dugouts and jerseys. The next day Beeter was pitching against his old teammates and fired a scoreless inning.
In his 24 Nationals appearances, we got a good idea of the Clayton Beeter experience. A lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks and not many hits. Watching him struggle to find the strike zone can be frustrating, but he can make up for his mistakes by just overwhelming hitters.
He struck out 38.1% of hitters with the Nats, while walking an alarming 16.7% of batters. Beeter was able to make up for that crazy walk rate by simply not allowing hits. In DC, batters hit just .114 against him. That is a crazy number, and probably not sustainable, even if I think Beeter will keep his batting average against numbers low.
With that in mind, Beeter will need to throw more strikes in 2026. He does not have to be some command specialist, or even an average strike thrower. A realistic goal should be to get that walk rate to around 11 or 12 percent rather than over 16%. He can live in that 12% range and have plenty of success because of how nasty he is.
Beeter had a crazy 14 game run where he was just unbeatable. He did not allow a run in those outings and only surrendered two hits in 13.2 innings. When he was on, Beeter was just blowing guys away with his simple two pitch mix.
So how does Beeter blow guys away? Well, he does it with a two pitch mix of a fastball and slider. As many pitchers are adding more pitches, Beeter just throws a 4-seamer and slider. That is all he needs because those two pitches work so well as a tandem. He tunnels them so well, which makes his slider particularly devastating.
The fastball averages 96.5 MPH and gets good carry at the top of the zone. However, the slider is the real star of the show here. He throws it 46% of the time and it is lethal. Batters hit just .098 against the pitch and whiffed over 49% of the time. Beeter got 29 of his 33 strikeouts on the pitch.
His slider is a true bullet slider, meaning it has a lot of vertical drop without moving much horizontally. The pitch just drops off the table. That slider is going to be his money-maker in the big leagues. If he can get ahead of hitters, he has no problem putting them away.
The next step for him will be to get ahead more often. If he can do that, Beeter can be a leverage arm in the Nats bullpen for a long time. However, if that walk rate remains over 15%, Beeter will be a frustrating arm who shows glimpses of dominance, but someone you can never fully trust. I am interested to see what he can do in 2026, because he gave a good first impression, even if the command was spotty.
Season Grade: A-
