Key to Nats having real bullpen depth: Suero and Finnegan

The Nationals liked their bullpen depth before they ever signed Jeremy Jeffress, so they clearly still like their bullpen depth even after releasing Jeffress on Sunday for non-performance reasons.

But they do need a couple of less-proven relievers to step up and prove they deserve to be trusted by manager Davey Martinez to get important outs when the season begins.

The Nats' top four relief arms - Brad Hand, Daniel Hudson, Will Harris, Tanner Rainey - are set to handle the late innings. The only real question at this point is Rainey, who was sidelined for a brief while with a minor muscle strain near his collarbone. But the right-hander was back throwing off a mound Monday, and both Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo made it clear they expect him to be ready for opening day.

Who, though, can be counted on beyond those four? Jeffress was well-positioned to meet that criteria. Now, Martinez is looking at two younger right-handers who have shown glimpses of success in the big leagues but must still prove they do it on a consistent basis: Wander Suero and Kyle Finnegan.

"Suero's obviously been here for a couple years now, so I think he's ready to step into a bigger role," Martinez said during Monday's pregame Zoom session with reporters. "And also Finnegan. Finnegan gained a lot of experience last year. He's a guy that I really enjoy. He attacks the strike zone. He's not afraid. He could possibly be a guy that steps into the back end of the bullpen. Maybe not the eighth or ninth, but maybe a big spot in the seventh."

What needs to happen to ensure it? In a word, consistency.

Suero's up-and-down performances are well known at this point. The 29-year-old owns a 4.10 ERA and 1.248 WHIP in 140 big league appearances over the last three seasons, but he's better viewed in parts than in the aggregate.

In the 130 appearances in which he's either been credited with a win, a save or no-decision, Suero boasts a 2.65 ERA and 1.067 WHIP. In the 10 games he's been charged with a loss, those numbers skyrocket to 33.75 and 4.950.

Spring training stats for relievers are notoriously insufficient to make real evaluations, but it's worth noting that in three appearances so far in Florida, Suero has retired nine of 10 batters faced with five strikeouts and zero walks.

"I think the biggest thing with Suero is that he's attacking the strike zone right now," Martinez said. "It's something that we've talked to him about, not really falling behind. When he does that, the stuff is electric."

Finnegan was a bright spot during an otherwise disappointing 2020 season for the Nationals as a whole. The 29-year-old rookie, given a major league contract despite having never been called up by the Athletics during seven seasons in their organization, didn't give up a run in his first nine games and carried a 1.38 ERA into September.

He endured through a brief hiccup after that, getting tagged for eight runs in a stretch of four outings, but he finished strong with eight consecutive scoreless appearances to lower his ERA to 2.92.

"Some of that stretch where I kind of got burned on a couple big home runs, most of the time it's falling behind in the count and having to throw a fastball in a fastball count," Finnegan said. "You can look at that one pitch as a mistake, but it's really that at-bat as a whole, what led you to get in that position. So it all comes back to getting ahead as fast as possible and executing as many pitches as you can."

The only two homers Finnegan surrendered last season came during that early September swoon. But the problem has arisen again this spring. In three outings so far, he's served up three homers, including another one Monday.

"Right now, it's location a little bit," Martinez said. "He's throwing the ball really well, throwing the ball hard. But I think it's more location for him. ... But I think Finnegan's going to be fine. This is why we have spring training. The ball's coming out of his hand really well. I don't want him to read into the numbers. I just want him to go out there and keep perfecting on his secondary pitches, knowing that he's got a really good fastball."

It's perhaps easy to look at Suero and Finnegan as bonus material for the Nationals. They've got four quality late-inning relievers already in place. If one or both of these guys proves worthy of joining that group, it's gravy.

But for a club that has been forced to rely too heavily on too few trusted relievers the last several seasons, perhaps leading to several injuries along the way, the more quality arms they can find, the better.

"We like the depth of our bullpen," Rizzo said. "We've got a lot of veteran presence there, and a lot of good, young, optionable arms that we believe are going to help us throughout the season. I believe it's probably the best depth that we've had at this time of year in quite a few years here."