News and notes before the second half begins
Harry Ford is being promoted, Robert Hassell III has been traded and the 2027 schedule is out. Plus, an update on the state of Nats Journal.
Some news and notes from the last 24 hours to share as we wait for the Nationals to open the second half of their season late tonight in Sacramento …
FORD TO BE CALLED UP TODAY
If you missed the updated version of Wednesday’s article, the Nats are indeed planning to call up catching prospect Harry Ford from Triple-A before tonight’s game, pairing him with Keibert Ruiz for at least the immediate future.
When the team announced it had placed Drew Millas on the 10-day IL with a fractured left index finger, it did not announce who would be taking his roster spot. A source confirmed, though, that Ford will be promoted to make his club debut, news that was first reported by The Athletic.
It remains to be seen how Blake Butera will split playing time between the two catchers. After beginning the season with a near 50-50 split, Ruiz has started 23 of the Nationals’ last 33 games, having outhit Millas by a healthy margin. As long as he stays productive, it would make sense for Ruiz to remain the No. 1 catcher.
Acquired from the Mariners last winter for reliever Jose A. Ferrer, Ford was instantly viewed as the organization’s new long-term catching plan. But Ruiz’s bounce-back season (he’s slashing .275/.302/.465 in 62 games) coupled with Ford’s struggles at Triple-A (.223/.370/.335 in 58 games) made it easy for club officials to keep the 23-year-old prospect in the minors.
Ford has steadily improved as his season has progressed, though, with his month-to-month OPS at Rochester climbing from .300 to .530 to .716 to .841 to 1.027. Both Ruiz and Ford have hit left-handers better, and the Nats will be facing a left-hander tonight in the Athletics’ Gage Jump.
HASSELL TRADED TO PIRATES
Robert Hassell III’s tenure with the Nationals organization officially came to an end Thursday when the team announced it had traded the outfielder to the Pirates for cash considerations or a player to be named later.
Hassell, one of the five prospects acquired from the Padres in the August 2022 blockbuster deal for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, had been designated for assignment July 5 when the Nats needed to clear a 40-man roster spot in order to call up reliever Eddy Yean from Triple-A. When no other club claimed him off waivers, he was outrighted to Rochester and appeared set to remain in the organization for the foreseeable future.
But the Nationals found a taker Thursday in the Pirates, who acquired the 24-year-old without having to add him to their 40-man roster. (Had they claimed him off waivers, they would have been required to include him on their 40-man.)
Despite a well-regarded reputation as one of the best hitting prospects in baseball at the time of the deal with San Diego, Hassell never produced as expected. In 206 big-league plate appearances last season, he slashed just .223/.257/.315, striking out 62 times while drawing only eight walks. Demoted to Triple-A late in spring training, he also struggled in the minors this season, slashing .215/.304/.289, though he did show more patience in drawing 28 walks to go along with 67 strikeouts.
ROTATION SET FOR WEEKEND SERIES
The Nationals announced their rotation plans for this weekend’s three-game series against the A’s: Cade Cavalli will start tonight, with Zack Littell scheduled for Saturday night and Foster Griffin scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Cavalli will be in the unusual position of starting consecutive games for the team, having pitched Sunday’s first-half finale against the Yankees. The right-hander will still be on full rest thanks to the All-Star break. And despite his prior injury history, Butera recently said there are no planned workload restrictions for the 27-year-old, who could make 13 or 14 more starts if he stays healthy, bringing his season total to 33 or 34.
Whether Littell actually starts Saturday night or follows an opener remains to be seen, but his placement in the second game coming out of the break underscores the team’s desire to split him up from fellow veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas after the two were pitching back-to-back days in recent weeks.
Griffin, meanwhile, will be pitching on full rest Sunday after his impressive inning of relief in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
The Nats haven’t announced rotation plans beyond those three, but it stands to reason Andrew Alvarez would start Monday night at Colorado, with Mikolas then starting Tuesday night against the Rockies after completing his MLB-mandated, five-game suspension. Cavalli would then come back to pitch Wednesday’s road trip finale at Coors Field.
NATS TO HOST PHILLIES ON OPENING DAY 2027
Despite the fact the 2026 season is only halfway complete, and despite the fact few (if any) fans were clamoring for this particular news right now, MLB went ahead and announced the entire 2027 schedule Thursday.
The Nationals will host the Phillies on Opening Day, which falls on Thursday, March 25, the earliest scheduled Opening Day in league history. The Mets then come to town to complete the first homestand, after which the Nats will return the favor and travel to Philadelphia for the home opener at Citizens Bank Park, followed by a series at Minnesota.
Other notable games/series from the 2027 schedule:
* The Red Sox make an early weekend trip to D.C., April 9-11.
* The annual July 4 morning game will be the series finale against the A’s.
* The Battle of the Beltways will take place May 25-27 in D.C. and July 16-18 in Baltimore.
* There are four separate West Coast trips: May 31-June 6 (San Francisco, Seattle), June 28-30 (Los Angeles), Aug. 20-25 (San Diego, Arizona) and Sept. 6-12 (Anaheim, Colorado).
* The regular season is scheduled to conclude Sept. 26 at Philadelphia.
All of this, of course, is contingent upon MLB owners and players agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement before this winter’s expected lockout drags on too long to begin the season as planned.
AND FINALLY ...
With the All-Star break behind us and the second half ready to begin, I wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of you who have supported Nats Journal and helped make this new endeavor a rousing success. I’m pleased to report we have more than 7,300 total subscribers who have produced nearly 2.5 million pageviews since the site launched a little more than five months ago.
I do feel compelled to mention, though, that a majority of those 7,300 total subscribers are not paid subscribers. Paid subscriptions are my only source of revenue from this site. They cover not only my travel and work expenses, but also my salary. There’s no advertising here, nor do I have any plans to sell ads, because I strongly believe in the subscription-based model for any journalistic endeavor.
So, to all of you who are free subscribers to Nats Journal, I ask you to please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. You’ll get access to every article I write (most notably the more in-depth pieces that include pre- and post-game quotes from the clubhouse), plus the ability to read and post comments on natsjournal.com. It costs only $7.99 per month, and that price drops to $5.99 per month when you sign up for an annual subscription. (And yes, I do plan to continue publishing articles throughout the offseason and – god forbid – throughout the lockout, so no need to cancel at season’s end.)
Thanks for your continued support. Here’s to an exciting second half … and more!
There are a few good outlets that cover the Nats that have arose this year, with some new faces and some vets on the beat. I try to read them all and support where I can.
Mark is - by far - the best of them! He's been on the beat since (almost) day one. He knows the team inside and out. Reading his thoughts and reporting on the team and hearing him chat with Al Galdi almost every day, it almost feels like he's a part of my family (slight hyperbole).
I encourage everyone to become a paid subscriber and support him so he can continue giving us the coverage we all crave!
Who woulda thunk it just 5 months ago, but Nationals coverage is now better than it's ever been.
But that is ENTIRELY because of Mark Zuckerman. Yes, Spencer is doing great work at the Athletic. Andrew and Kyle are writing Nats pieces for the Banner. Jesse Dougherty is now at NOTUS and writing dinner great feature stories. Even the Post inexplicably has a Nats writer again . . .
But Mark Zuckerman remains the ONLY beat reporter covering every game and traveling with the team to most games, and is the one person on this list doing it without collecting a salary or having any of his expenses paid!
So if you haven't signed up as a Founding Member, or at least an annual subscriber, just freaking do it. Do the math. This man has a family to support. This coverage is worth much more than a few pennies a day.