CINCINNATI \u2013 Sometimes, a player takes great care and thought before signing with a new team. And sometimes, Andrew Chafin gets a call from the Nationals, and the veteran reliever just says yes right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called and said: \u2018We\u2019ve got a job for you.\u2019 I said: \u2018Alright, let\u2019s do this thing,\u2019\u201d the left-hander said. \u201cSo then I showed up today. It\u2019s pretty simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
That right there should tell you everything you need to know about Chafin, the 34-year-old reliever with 601 games of major league experience, now about to pitch for his seventh different team after the Nats offered him a one-year, $1 million contract Thursday.<\/p>\n
As Nathaniel Lowe, briefly his teammate in Texas last season, put it, Chafin is \u201cuniquely himself.\u201d There\u2019s nothing phony about him. What you see is what you get.<\/p>\n
And what the Nationals are hoping to get are a whole lot of quality appearances out of the bullpen, providing some stability and experience to a group that sorely needs it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to use him in high-leverage situations,\u201d manager Davey Martinez said. \u201cHe\u2019s done it before. He\u2019s used to getting big outs. He\u2019s excited to be here. We\u2019re excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owner of a 3.42 ERA, 1.275 WHIP and 20 saves across parts of 11 seasons with the Diamondbacks, Cubs, Athletics, Tigers, Brewers and Rangers, Chafin found himself opening this season at Triple-A Toledo after he didn\u2019t make Detroit\u2019s Opening Day roster. It was his first extended stint in the minors in nearly a decade, but he thrived for the Mud Hens, posting a 2.13 ERA while striking out 17 and walking only four across 12 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Chafin\u2019s contract included a May 1 opt-out, and when that date arrived, he used it and immediately got the major league offer from the Nationals.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to be in the bushes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe opportunity, I had been pitching well. I think we should take this chance. I opted out and see what\u2019s out there. These guys called, and it\u2019s like: \u2018OK, let\u2019s go! Sounds good to me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chafin has prided himself for years on his ability to take the ball whenever needed and usually perform well. His answer to a question about his impressive durability says it all about his personality: \u201cWell, you can\u2019t pull fat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve just been blessed and have a body that\u2019s too stupid to get hurt, or what,\u201d the 235-pound lefty said. \u201cBut I just do what my body tells me I need to do that day to be prepared to go do what I gotta do. The body will talk to you, you\u2019ve just got to listen to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his round face, thick mustache and long, curly hair, Chafin looks straight out of central casting. He\u2019s from a small town south of Cleveland, a mere 3 1\/2-hour drive to Cincinnati this morning after he sent his kids off to school.<\/p>\n
He fully admits he doesn\u2019t know much about the Nationals, but he happily introduced himself to everyone this afternoon in the clubhouse at Great American Ball Park before putting on his new uniform and heading out to the field for batting practice. He fully expects to be called upon out of the bullpen before night\u2019s end, and then many more times before season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea about anything on this team right now,\u201d Chafin said. \u201cI don\u2019t really pay attention to anything outside of my little bubble, so I have no clue what our record is or anything like that. I\u2019m going to show up and pitch my ass off and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2013 Sometimes, a player takes great care and thought before signing with a new team. And sometimes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[1705,5,50,567,908,907,4,415,568,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-7307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-andrew-chafin","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-davey-martinez","12":"tag-mark-zuckerman","13":"tag-masn","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-nationals","16":"tag-nationals-featured","17":"tag-washington","18":"tag-washington-nationals","19":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114465288101694571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307","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=7307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}