Washington

Nationals

The 28-year-old backstop split his 2024 season between the Astros and the Nationals organizations, slashing a combined .187/.314/.335 with eight homers and 25 RBI in 300 plate appearances at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. He’ll continue to function as organizational catching depth for the Nats.

With his velocity well down after Tommy John surgery, Rainey scarcely resembled a major leaguer at the beginning of last season. The velocity, though, did begin to get better, and he wound up with a 2.48 ERA in his final 29 appearances, albeit with pretty middling peripherals. He would have gotten only a modest raise from last year’s $1.5 million salary in arbitration, but the Nats have decided to look elsewhere for now.

A stunner. Finnegan’s arbitration salaries have been inflated by his save counts, but the Nationals could have traded him at any point in the last couple of years and gotten something for him. Plus, it’s not like they have much else they’re spending money on; not counting what they still owe Stephen Strasburg, Keibert Ruiz is their highest-paid player at $5.4 million. Finnegan wound up with a 3.68 ERA and 38 saves in 63 2/3 innings last season. It’s fine if the Nationals think they can put the $8 million-$9 million they’re saving here to better use, but they knew this day was coming months ago and still didn’t flip him for a prospect at the deadline.

No word yet on the finances of the deal. Thompson, 26, missed the entire 2024 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Before the operation though, he was a mainstay in the club’s bullpen and they’re hopeful that he’ll return to that role at some point during the 2025 season.

Both players are now not eligible for the Rule 5 Draft in December. Hassell was one of the top prospects acquired from the Padres in the deal for Juan Soto, but hasn’t lived up to expectations just yet. Lara is one of the better pitching prospects in the Washington system, and both certainly would have had interest in the draft next month.

Saenz got the nod in the title game after going 2-1 with a 5.52 ERA and a 12/4 K/BB over 14 2/3 innings in the regular season. That line is nothing special, of course, but he did better the overall league ERA of 5.89 in the circuit this year. Saenz, a Texas A&M product drafted in the fourth round in 2021, was limited to 13 starts during the minor league season, finishing 1-6 with a 6.54 ERA and a 30/17 K/BB in 42 2/3 innings. A left-hander who relies on an 89-92 mph sinker, he’ll be available in the Rule 5 draft next month unless the Nationals make a surprising decision to add him to the 40-man roster this week.

Helvey has made 193 minor-league appearances, all of them with the Giants after being drafted by San Francisco in 2018. He appeared in 41 games with a 4.96 ERA for Triple-A Richmond in 204, and he struck out an impressive 102 batters over his 74 1/3 innings. He’ll have an outside chance of helping the Nationals’ bullpen to begin 2024.

All three have elected free agency and will search for new opportunities after being jettisoned from Washington’s 40-man roster. Of the trio, Meneses was the only one with any semblance of fantasy relevance in the past few years, but he was unable to parlay his late-career breakthrough into a long-term role with the Nationals.

Hassell, the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft, is coming off another disappointing season, though at least his .729 OPS in 60 games in Double-A was his highest mark that he’s had at any stop since the Nationals got him from the Padres in the Juan Soto deal. The Nats have to decide in the coming weeks whether it’s worth protecting him from the Rule 5 draft. One imagines they will, since they’re not really hurting for spots on the 40-man at this point, but it might come down to how he performs in the AFL.

What a year it’s been for García. He smoked an 0-2 knuckle curve from Aaron Nola that caught a little too much of the plate for a lead-off home run. He’ll end his breakout season with 18 homers, 22 stolen bases, a .282/.318/.444 slash line, and will still be 24 years old when next season begins.