Ramifications of Nats' six-man rotation

PHILADELPHIA – Yesterday’s news that the Nationals are moving to a six-man rotation wasn’t surprising. It was more a matter of when they would finally decide to do it.

The time works out really well now.

Joan Adon is here and pitched well in his return to a major league mound on Saturday, pitching a perfect game through 6 ⅔ innings. He’s earned another chance to stick with the Nats.

Meanwhile, the young pitchers that have been here all season are entering the Dog Days of August and are either approaching or have already eclipsed their career highs in innings for a season. So, it’s a good time to give Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin extra rest for the home stretch.

But what other ramifications does a six-man rotation have?

The move affects the whole pitching staff and even the catchers on the squad. Though it helps the starters in the long run, is it an ideal situation if the Nationals can utilize the six-man rotation for the rest of the season?

“It could be, but I worry about the bullpen, too, the back end of the bullpen,” said manager Davey Martinez. “I know there's a few guys that can give us multiple innings in our bullpen now, but we definitely have to keep an eye on that as well. So, we'll keep an eye on everything that goes on from here on out, as far as innings, as far as how much usage the bullpen has. A lot of this too is, you start winning games consistently every day here and the back end of that bullpen, as you see, they've been used a lot more. That's a good thing. I feel that's a good thing.

“And I always reiterate to those guys that are in those high-leverage situations, (Kyle) Finnegan and (Jordan) Weems now and (Andrés) Machado, is that there's gonna come a time where you might not pitch for two or three days, but the times that we have an opportunity to win a game, you almost gotta be readily available. Unless otherwise you tell me, 'Hey, I can't do it today,' and I can understand that. But they've been great. They've been great down there. They want to pitch. They want the ball. And for them, it's been a lot of fun.”

Before his insertion into the rotation, another option for Adon could have been the bullpen. He made two relief appearances in his first stint with the Nats earlier this year, pitching three and two innings.

Now that he’ll be used exclusively as a starter, is there a need for a long reliever to aid the rest of the bullpen? Cory Abbott, who also has starting experience, and Joe La Sorsa and Robert Garcia, who both can pitch multiple innings, are options to help out on that front.

“We have Cory. Robert Garcia can give us multiple innings if need be. And La Sorsa can give us multiple innings, if need be,” Martinez said. “So right now, we feel like we're OK with that. Like I said, the guys that we really got to keep an eye on are the Finnegans and the Weems, who are our back end of the bullpen guys. But they understand, too, even Machado yesterday and Weems both, they wanted to go back out. And I told them that was good.”

This move is also easier to make with a younger pitching staff with two veteran starters who understand the process. It might be harder to do with a bunch of veteran pitchers who want the ball every five days, no more, no less.

“I sat down with all of those guys and (pitching coach Jim) Hickey and had a conversation with all of them,” Martinez said. “And they were great. They all had their input. But it was an agreement amongst all of us. Even if they would have said otherwise, I would have said differently. But I want to make sure that they understood what was going on.”

And understand they do.

“Rest, we all know there's something (to it),” Gore said. “I was hurt last year, I didn't throw many innings. So that's a real thing that we're gonna have to deal with. So yeah, it's gonna be good. We got some guys here that we're getting to that point of season. But yeah, six-man's great. I pitched with it last year in San Diego and we're just gonna get a little extra rest. We'll be fresh. But when we do go out there, we gotta pitch a little better.”

Staying fresh for this year is the short-term name of the game. For the long run, it’s about staying fresh for next year and beyond.

“We did it a couple of times in Tampa when we had some of our younger pitchers,” Martinez said. “And it did well. It stretched them out. It gave them a little breather in between their starts. I even talked to Josiah (yesterday) about it and he thought it was awesome even for him right now. Only time will tell how it's really gonna work. But like I said, it's more about keeping these guys healthy, getting them through the rest of the year and making sure that this winter that they're ready to do their winter program and be ready for spring training.”