{"id":679472,"date":"2026-04-19T23:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679472\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:48:24","slug":"nationals-option-left-hander-back-to-minors-after-he-secured-win-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679472\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Option Left-Hander Back to Minors After He Secured Win on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The Washington Nationals won the finale of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/nationals\/onsi\/3-things-stood-out-during-nationals-weekend-series-giants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">three-game series against the San Francisco Giants<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">After losing the first two contests of that set, winning the final game could provide a boost for this young team as they get ready to take on the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves starting Monday. And in the midst of some major pitching issues, it was a welcome sight to see the Nationals throw a shutout.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">A huge part of the success Washington&#8217;s pitching staff had on Sunday was due to Andrew Alvarez. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/nationals\/onsi\/nationals-send-down-paxton-schultz-promote-lefty-starter-gain-fresh-arm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The left-hander was recalled<\/a> ahead of the finale, and after replacing Miles Mikolas, Alvarez impressed once again by throwing 4 1\/3 scoreless innings. But the feel-good story was short-lived, as the Nationals <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NationalsComms\/status\/2045976095338475693\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> they optioned him back to Triple-A Rochester following his outing.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Alvarez Gets Sent Back Down to Minors<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpm0x326nc3rt4ryd4.jpg\" alt=\"Washington Nationals pitcher Andrew Alvarez\" title=\"Washington Nationals pitcher Andrew Alvarez\" width=\"2284\" height=\"1284\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"71\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Washington Nationals pitcher Andrew Alvarez | Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">While this move might be confusing on the surface since he performed so well, it seems like the Nationals still view him as a starting pitcher. So by sending him back down to Rochester, that opens up a spot in their bullpen for a reliever ahead of their series against the Braves and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/nationals\/onsi\/news\/nationals-left-hander-named-international-league-pitcher-of-the-week\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gets Alvarez back on schedule as a starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">Who Washington is aiming to callup isn&#8217;t clear at the time of writing. Paxton Schultz was optioned to Triple-A before the finale against San Francisco, and Alvarez was recalled as the corresponding move. Schultz could be brought back, but a fresher arm might also be used to begin the Atlanta set.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Despite the fact that he was sent back down, Alvarez should be feeling positive about everything. He once again performed well in a major league outing. And after coming out of the bullpen this time around, he has given the Nationals options for how they might use him going forward.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Nationals won the finale of their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. After&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,4,415,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-679472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nationals","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-nationals","13":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116434050649901382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}