Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats

The Washington Nationals have not officially named their Opening Day starting pitcher. We are just 15 days away from that first game of the 2026 season to take place in Chicago at Wrigley Field on March 26. Well, as we pointed out five days ago, Cade Cavalli lines up perfectly to start on Opening Day, albeit with no extra rest days. The postgame today might be the perfect time to name the Opening Day starter. Just sayin’.

And all of a sudden the Nats have a plethora of starting pitchers after the official signing of Zack Littell yesterday. As we know, too many starting pitchers is a good thing, especially when you have team control.

“It’s always a good problem to have too many starting pitchers. We’ll talk through it as Zack is still building up. Of course, what that looks like in the beginning could be different than what it looks like during the year. We want to be responsible with what he’s doing. He was obviously throwing while he was a free agent, but we want to get him under our eyes and make sure we’re smart with how much he’s throwing — and how long he’s going and all those things. So we’re still just going to work through what that all looks like.”

— manager Blake Butera said yesterday

Littell joins Foster Griffin and Miles Mikolas as the new kids on the block as they were new signings to this season’s roster. With Cavalli, Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin, Brad Lord, and Mitchell Parker, that is eight starting pitchers for five spots. That doesn’t even include the injured DJ Herz and Trevor Williams.

The Nats internal depth chart posted on Nationals.com has already moved Lord and Parker into the bullpen. Interesting, huh? That might indicate that the battle for the 5th rotation spot is between Gray and Irvin. But is Littell going to be ready for Opening Week? Is Gray going to be ready for Opening Week?

A source saw Littell throw a side session yesterday in front of coaches. He did a media session yesterday and said he had been throwing “live” BP the past couple of weeks as he remained unsigned. What Nats fans will like is that Littell doesn’t walk many batters, and in fact, in 2025 Littell led all qualified pitchers in the fewest walks per batters faced (.042).

The other part about Littell is that he wants to lead the staff in innings pitched and set at least 180 innings as his goal. He has big bonus incentives to get past 140 innings to earn $500,000. Then he would earn $250,000 at milestones of 150 and 160 innings, and $500,000 at each milestone of 170, 180 and 190 inning marks. Add that up, and Littell could earn $2.5 million for being a workhorse.

“I’ve always kind of prided myself on just being a guy that goes out there and throws innings. … I see myself as a starter. I came [to the Nats] to start. … I think over the last 2 1/2 years, I’ve kind of proven that I can start and belong in the rotation. So the opportunity was presented here, and it’s definitely what I wanted to do.”

— Littell said in a media session yesterday

The Nationals are 9-4 with three ties so far through the first 16 games. Throw in the 5-1 win against Venezuela’s WBC team, and they are 10-4. If only Spring Training records were an indicator of what will happen in the regular season.

At this point, we only have 16 Spring Training games in the books and the one exhibition game, and no batter has more than 25 official plate appearances on the Washington Nationals. And for that matter, no pitcher has more than 9.0 innings in official games. As the starters play deeper into games, there will be more plate appearances and more innings going forward.

Some of the numbers are really really bad on those stat sheets. Should we be concerned by the poor stats and pleased with the good stats? Yes and no to both. There are cautionary tales on both. But some of the “process” we have seen has been bad and yes, that is concerning.

From yesterday’s game, it was good to see some improved plate discipline from Brady House even though the AB ended in a strikeout. He didn’t chase one pitch above the zone, and although that at-bat ended in a strikeout (looking), the pitch was clearly above the zone. Of course he added a home run and a double on his day and is the hottest hitter on the team. On the other side, James Wood had three strikeouts and each time chased sliders well below his knees. You tell me, should we be concerned? Same with Dylan Crews on his struggles. He was 0-2 with a strikeout but also drew a walk. Wood has a higher OPS than Crews: .417 versus .388.

Again, small sample size stats can change on a dime. And guess what, House has a higher K rate than Wood. Yes, that is a fact. House’s K rate is 36.4 percent. If Wood or Crews have a 3-hit day, everything changes quickly. Even CJ Abrams has a poor statline of .150 with a .570 OPS, but guess what, his K rate is only 20 percent with a .200 BABIP suggesting that he has hit into bad luck. Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. have both shown patience at the dish. Garcia’s K rate is 7.7 percent.

Again, a mixed bag of results.

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach, Florida
1st Pitch: 1:05 PM EDT
TV: N/A
Radio:  MLB app

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