Final roster moves leave Lord, Ribalta, Adams, Tena in position to make team

The Nationals’ Opening Day roster will include Riley Adams, José Tena, Orlando Ribalta and Brad Lord. It will not include Andrew Knizner, Juan Yepez or Jackson Rutledge.

The Nats announced their final roster moves late this afternoon, in the process leaving 26 remaining active players who will take the field Thursday against the Phillies.

The official transactions:

* Lord had his contract purchased, putting him on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters for the first time.

* Yepez and Rutledge were optioned to Triple-A Rochester, with Knizner (who wasn’t on the 40-man roster) reassigned to Triple-A.

* Andrés Chaparro (left oblique strain) was placed on the 10-day injured list, with Derek Law (right forearm inflammation), Cade Cavalli (Tommy John surgery rehab) and Zach Brzykcy (right quadriceps strain) placed on the 15-day IL and DJ Herz (left elbow ligament sprain) transferred to the 60-day IL to clear a needed spot on the 40-man roster for Lord.

The domino effect of all that? Adams beat out Knizner for the backup catcher’s job, Tena beat out Yepez for the final spot on the bench and Ribalta and Lord beat out Rutledge for the final two spots in the bullpen.

The Nationals took these final decisions down to the wire, bringing everyone who was still in big league camp north for Monday’s scheduled exhibition game against the Orioles. (That game wound up getting rained out.) They made today’s moves prior to a team workout at Nationals Park, the final tune-up before their season opener.

The biggest surprise has to be Lord, who reported for spring training as one of the organization’s top-rated starting pitching prospects but over the course of six weeks in West Palm Beach was increasingly used in a relief role. Club officials became intrigued at the possibility of keeping the 25-year-old right-hander, an 18th-round pick in 2022, as a multi-inning reliever who could gain his first big league experience in the bullpen but will still be viewed as a starter in the long run.

Lord, who went a combined 10-4 with a 2.43 ERA in 25 starts across three levels of the minors last season, will be the only player with zero major league experience on the Opening Day roster.

The Nats also were looking at Rutledge for a similar role, though they already made the determination last month to convert the 2019 first-round pick into a full-time reliever. Rutledge impressed with his adaptability to the role this spring and probably has a better chance of being promoted this season to fill a bullpen hole than he would have been to fill a rotation need.

Ribalta, who struggled in four big league appearances last September, turned heads this spring with an at-times dominant performance, earning a spot on the eight-man Opening Day relief staff.

Perhaps the most compelling spring battle was for the final spot on the bench, with four players of varied skills and experience levels originally in the running. Chaparro might have been the frontrunner for the job, but the slugging corner infielder strained his oblique taking a swing during batting practice late in camp and now must open the year on the 10-day IL. Infielder Nasim Nuñez, last season’s Rule 5 Draft pick, also had an impressive swing and may have been the most improved player in the organization, but club officials believe he needs to play every day as the starting shortstop in Rochester instead of coming off the bench as a pinch-runner and defensive specialist in Washington.

That left Tena and Yepez competing down to the wire. Neither put up great numbers this spring. In the end, the Nats chose Tena’s left-handed contact bat and ability to play third base, shortstop and second base over Yepez’s right-handed power bat and limited defensive versatility.

Three catchers competed all spring to back up Keibert Ruiz, none of them distinguishing himself from the pack. The Nationals already optioned Drew Millas to Triple-A late last week, then today made the least controversial pick by retaining Adams (who had a guaranteed $850,000 contract and is out of options) over Knizner (who was signed to a minor league deal this winter).

The other IL moves were notable for their various ailment and timeframe distinctions.

Law was supposed to be a key member of the Opening Day bullpen from the get-go, but given his 90-inning workload last season and expectation for similar usage this season, the team decided to delay his spring debut in an attempt to conserve bullets. That plan may have backfired when the veteran right-hander revealed his arm didn’t recover well from his first and only Grapefruit League appearance. Law was confident he’ll be ready in no more than 15 days, and the club designated his injury as forearm inflammation. With his IL move backdated to March 24, he’ll be eligible to return April 8.

Cavalli is now two years removed from his March 2023 Tommy John surgery, having been able to date to make only a handful of minor league rehab starts last summer. The 2020 first-round pick insists he’s fully healthy now, though, but given his obvious innings restrictions this year the Nationals decided to hold him back. Cavalli just faced live hitters for the first time last week and will remain in West Palm Beach to now proceed with his own version of a delayed spring training before ultimately going to pitch in the minors and hopefully earn a promotion to D.C. early this summer.

Brzykcy suffered his quad injury early in camp and wasn’t able to get himself back into shape in time to open the season. He’ll continue to rehab and try to earn his way into the bullpen at some point.

Herz, meanwhile, was competing for the fifth starter’s job that ultimately went to Mitchell Parker but disappointed this spring with diminished velocity and poor command. The Nationals optioned him to Triple-A last week, but then on Tuesday announced he was instead being placed on the 15-day IL with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. They have not yet revealed whether Herz will need season-ending surgery, but the fact they transferred him to the 60-day IL today (making him ineligible to pitch until late-May), suggests they already know he’s going to miss considerable time.

Barring a last-minute change prior to Thursday morning’s league-mandated deadline, here’s the Nationals’ 2025 Opening Day roster …

CATCHERS
Riley Adams
Keibert Ruiz

INFIELDERS
CJ Abrams
Josh Bell
Paul DeJong
Luis García Jr.
Nathaniel Lowe
Amed Rosario
José Tena

OUTFIELDERS
Alex Call
Dylan Crews
James Wood
Jacob Young

STARTING PITCHERS
MacKenzie Gore
Jake Irvin
Mitchell Parker
Michael Soroka
Trevor Williams

RELIEF PITCHERS
Jose A. Ferrer
Kyle Finnegan
Jorge López
Brad Lord
Colin Poche
Orlando Ribalta
Eduardo Salazar
Lucas Sims