After winding path, La Sorsa hopes to stick in D.C.

SAN DIEGO – The path that ultimately brought Joe La Sorsa to the visitors’ clubhouse at Petco Park this afternoon was as follows: Montgomery, Ala., to Durham, N.C., to St. Petersburg, Fla., to DFA Purgatory to Rochester, N.Y., to Washington, where the left-hander spent barely more than 24 hours learning his new surroundings before hopping aboard the Nationals’ charter flight for a nine-game road trip that will take the team from San Diego to Seattle to Philadelphia.

“I haven’t really had more than a month any place. That’s pretty much been it,” La Sorsa said with a hint of both exasperation and appreciation. “But I feel very comfortable here. How I’ve been treated here, and everything with the Nationals so far is leaving a very good first impression.”

Plucked off waivers after the Rays designated him for assignment earlier this month, only two games into his big league career, La Sorsa made four relief appearances at Triple-A Rochester before getting the call to come to D.C. and replace the injured Carl Edwards Jr. in the Nats bullpen.

He didn’t appear in either Wednesday or Thursday’s game, but chances are he’ll make his debut sometime this weekend at Petco Park, perhaps thrown into the fire to face Juan Soto in a big spot late in a game.

Davey Martinez has been wanting a left-handed reliever for nearly two months now since the Anthony Banda experiment was aborted. He’s got one now in La Sorsa, an unassuming, mustachioed, 25-year-old rookie from Westchester County, N.Y., and St. John’s University.

“For me, it’s about getting him in there when we need him,” Martinez said. “It could be a two-out situation, big moment, facing a big left-handed hitter. It could be a multitude of guys who we feel like he could match up well against. As the game goes on, we know we have him down there and we could plop him in against left-handed batters. His stuff plays. We watched him. It’s not just against lefties he can get guys out. He’s smart. He understands how to pitch and how to get guys out. I’m looking forward to getting him in there.”

La Sorsa is the prototypical “crafty” left-hander. His fastball doesn’t reach 90 mph. Everything he throws moves in some manner, from his sinker to his slider to his changeup.

“Obviously I’m not a pitcher that’s going to be blowing 95 past someone,” he said. “I’ve got to throw strikes and be crafty with it.”

An 18th round pick of the Rays in 2019, La Sorsa put up solid numbers throughout his climb up the organizational ladder. In 103 total minor league appearances, he owns a 2.91 ERA and 1.039 WHIP. He strikes out nearly nine batters per nine innings while walking only two.

The Rays gave him two chances to pitch a few weeks ago, both of them multi-inning appearances in which he topped the 30-pitch mark. Then facing a roster crunch, they designated him for assignment, and the Nationals swooped in to claim him, assigning him to Rochester.

It’s been a whirlwind since, but La Sorsa has tried to keep it all in perspective, recognizing there would probably be an opportunity for him in D.C.

“Definitely, because obviously I’m pretty aware of the situations going on in my career,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s still going to be baseball no matter what. It’s not like anything’s ever going to be handed to me. You’ve still got to perform. It’s just a matter of if I do my job, I think I’m going to have a little more of an opportunity to really express myself here and really develop. I think this organization is going to give me a good opportunity, and I’d really like nothing more than to hold up my end of the bargain of that, go out there, throw strikes and compete for them.”

La Sorsa initially mentioned that the Nationals are his fifth different team this season before realizing there was a sixth. He spent his spring pitching for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, where he became something of an overnight sensation for his jubilant reaction to recording a big strikeout.

“It was definitely an unbelievable experience,” he said. “I would love to continue to play for that team every WBC and every chance I get. The guys were great, really took me under their wing and prepared me for the big leagues incredibly well. I really just felt the heat of the moment. It’s a little bit different than the MLB, where yes there are teams you’re playing for and you want to uphold your end of the bargain for the team that’s paying you. But there it’s country and national pride, so it’s more … I don’t want to say war, but you feel the pride of the nation through you. Everyone expresses themselves determined like that. I just hopped on that bandwagon, I guess.”