Nats face dilemma picking spot starter for next week

The late postponement of the game made for an annoying Friday night for everyone who had already gathered at Nationals Park and had to turn around and head home. It also created a new annoyance for the Nats, who must figure out how to fill out their rotation over the next week to account for today’s doubleheader.

Teams have the ability to promote a 27th player from the minors for doubleheader games and often elect to call up a spot starter for one of the two games. In this case, the Nationals elected to promote reliever Andres Machado and have him available for both games.

Machado opened the season in the Nationals bullpen and posted a 2.45 ERA in 10 appearances, but was optioned to Triple-A Rochester once rosters had to be reduced from 28 to 26 at the end of April. He had less success with the Red Wings, allowing five runs and nine hits in seven innings since the demotion, but his experience and ability to provide more than one inning if needed made him the choice for today’s promotion.

“He’s been throwing the ball well,” manager Davey Martinez said. “Based on what we think (the Rockies’) lineup will be, and the righties they have, if we needed someone, we wanted to get a right-handed pitcher up here that can give us multiple innings.”

Aaron Sanchez, who had begun to warm up before Friday night’s game was postponed, said he was good to start today’s first game. Joan Adon will pitch tonight as originally planned. And Josiah Gray will remain on a normal schedule and start Sunday’s series finale.

With no upcoming off-days, though, the Nationals will need someone to make a spot start sometime during next week’s series at the Mets. And there’s no obvious option to make that start.

There’s only one healthy Triple-A starter on the 40-man roster: Cory Abbott, a 26-year-old right-hander claimed off waivers from the Giants earlier this month. Abbott has thrown only 5 1/3 innings for Rochester since joining the organization, giving up four runs in a 2 2/3-inning start Wednesday.

Other starting options at Triple-A, including top prospect Cade Cavalli, are not on the 40-man roster. (And Cavalli is scheduled to pitch today anyway.) Left-hander Evan Lee is on the 40-man roster, but the 24-year-old is at Double-A Harrisburg.

That could leave the Nationals to give the spot start to a member of their current bullpen, with Josh Rogers and Paolo Espino the most plausible options. Neither, though, has thrown 50 pitches in one outing since April.

“We’ll assess everything after today’s game and talk a little bit tomorrow,” Martinez said. “Eventually by Monday or Tuesday, we’ll know something.”

* Aníbal Sánchez has been at Nationals Park this week and is making progress at last in his rehab from a neck impingement that has prevented him from pitching yet in 2022. The veteran right-hander is now playing catch from up to 100 feet and is on track to start throwing off a bullpen mound next week.

“The pain in his neck has subsided,” Martinez said, “so he’s feeling a lot better.”

* Hunter Harvey and Mason Thompson are throwing off the mound at the Nationals’ spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla. Harvey (strained pronator) and Thompson (biceps strain) are expected to be ready to start facing live hitters in the near future, which would advance their rehab programs and move them closer to returning to the active roster.