After an absolutely brutal start to the season, the Nationals bullpen has been settling in lately. The unit is still far from a strength, but they have not been losing the Nats games recently. I am still knocking on wood here, but guys like Gus Varland and Richard Lovelady have been holding down the fort.
Yesterday was a great example of the bullpen’s improvement. Mitchell Parker, Richard Lovelady and Gus Varland combined to only allow one run in 5 innings against the Mets. That allowed CJ Abrams’
go-ahead homer to be the difference in the game. There are now seven teams with a worse bullpen ERA than the Nats 4.90 mark now.
The new leader of this rag tag bullpen is Gus Varland, who got a gutsy four out save yesterday. Varland now has a 2.84 ERA and a 2.66 FIP in 13 outings. I loved how fired up he was after getting the save. He looked like a true closer out there with his swing and miss stuff and expressive demeanor.
Varland has a loud mound presence, but when I chatted with him, he struck me as more of an introspective guy. He talked about how he needed to be confident on the mound and does not take the fact he is pitching in the big leagues for granted. After all, Varland is a former 14th round pick out of Concordia University who only has 55 appearances at 29 years old.
Despite being a journeyman, he has found a home in DC to start this season. Between Gus and his brother Louis, who is dominating with the Blue Jays, 2026 has been the year of the Varland brothers so far. Both were late round picks out of the same small school in Minnesota, but now both brothers are closing games in the big leagues.
Varland has the best strikeout stuff in the bullpen, but he is not the only guy doing well. The whole unit has been performing lately. Over the past five games, the bullpen has only given up 3 runs in 19.2 innings. It has been more than just five games though. The unit has seen their collective ERA steadily drop over the past couple weeks.
Do not mistake this praise for me saying that the Nats have a good bullpen, they do not. However, if the unit can prove to not be a total disaster, that would be a win. There will be some games where they blow it, and that is fine. It is still not the most talented group, and blown leads happen. The fact they have shown that they have the ability to hold their nerve in these tight games is encouraging though.
After a bunch of experimenting, the Nats have stumbled across a couple guys who have been reliable for them. While the Nats are likely to have a closer by committee approach, I think Varland should be the first choice for the 9th inning. He has been their most reliable arm and has the best combination of strikeout stuff and control. Varland has a tendency to give up hard contact, but he has the swing and miss stuff to bail himself out.
There are other arms stepping up behind him as well. Richard Lovelady has a sparkling 2.63 ERA this season. While Lovelady does not have typical high leverage stuff, he is deceptive and has been fooling hitters with the Nats so far. Paxton Schultz, Brad Lord and PJ Poulin have also been serviceable. I would love to see Lord in some higher leverage spots.
Even Cionel Perez has not been awful since his blowout against the Dodgers. Perez is a guy who I still have some pretty big doubts about due to his erratic control. However, he does have a sub-4 ERA since April 6th. Hopefully Cole Henry and Clayton Beeter can help the unit as well when they come back.
Those two were supposed to be the Nats two best relievers, but both were erratic before going down with injury. However, they both have very good stuff and showed some great things last season. Beeter’s control makes him dicey as a closer, but he can be a valuable piece of the bullpen with his nasty stuff. If Henry can get back to who he was in the first half of 2025, he can be another trustworthy arm for Blake Butera when he returns.
Before the season, I predicted that the bullpen would be much improved. That prediction looked pretty awful at the start of the season, but now I am feeling better about it. Last year, the Nats had a bullpen ERA of 5.59 and now after April, the unit has a 4.90 ERA.
I would predict that the Nats bullpen ends the year with an ERA somewhere in the mid to high 4’s. That would still qualify as a fairly significant improvement. It is still not a great bullpen, but at least we have hope that the unit won’t be a total dumpster fire. I am still crossing my fingers though, because this piece could come back to bite me soon. Hopefully the bullpen can continue to be praiseworthy.
