Washington Nationals Boss Discusses What He is Looking for in Fifth Starter

The Washington Nationals have a key position battle taking place this spring, and their manager discussed what he wants a player to show before choosing one.

Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez on the field against the Atlanta Braves during the eighth inning at Truist Park. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Washington Nationals have had some very intriguing young prospects making splashes during spring training, which makes their position battles much more interesting to watch pan out. One of the most notable ones is the race for the fifth starting position in the pitching rotation, where three players are vying for one spot on the roster.

Those three players are Mitchell Parker, DJ Herz, and Shinnosuke Ogasawara, all three of whom are relatively new in their own right.

Parker and Herz both made their MLB debuts last year and are either at or below 25 years old. Ogasawara on the other hand is a 27-year old, but this is his first year in the MLB after spending nine seasons with the Chunichi Dragons of the NPB.

With all of these players coming in as relatively inexperienced at the MLB level, there is a choice to make for manager Dave Martinez. In a recent article by Mark Zuckerman of MASN, he transcribed a quote from Martinez discussing the choice of the fifth starter, and what may go into it, which read as follows:

“I want to see these guys — it’s going to happen during the season sometimes — in high-leverage situations, how they’re going to handle it. And it’s about throwing strikes, pounding the strike zone," he said.

Additionally, he believes the decision won't be easy.

"There’s a few good candidates out there, so it’s going to be a tough decision," he said. "Some of these guys are deserving of it because of what they did last year, but it’s a competition and we’ll see how it goes."

Ultimately, it is clear that Martinez does not have a set fifth starter in mind, and will allow the three to compete in the remaining spring training games to see who can come out on top.

With Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Michael Soroka, and Trevor Williams taking up the first four starting spots, the Nationals already have a strong core put together.

At the moment, Parker has had the strongest spring showings of the bunch, with a 4.91 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, seven strikeouts, no walks, and is allowing a .290 batting average against his pitching.

The other two pitchers have inflated ERA numbers with a 7.56 for Ogasawara and a 8.10 for Herz, and both have a WHIP higher than two, which indicates pretty poor pitching over the course of that span.

With that said, the battle is by no means over, and there is plenty of time for any of these three pitchers to pull ahead and win the job.