Washington Nationals to Reduce Workload on Young Starters

The Washington Nationals are taking steps to limit the workload on their young starting pitchers as the season rolls on.

The team will be deploying a six-man rotation that will limit the throwing of both MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin.

The following update on Gore comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

ANALYSIS
The 24-year-old southpaw has already thrown a career-high 117 innings this season, 30 more than he tossed across all levels in 2022. "I was hurt last year, I didn't throw many innings. So that's a real thing that we're going to have to deal with," Gore said Wednesday after his start against the Phillies. Shifting to a six-man rotation will cost the Nats' regular starters a turn or two over the remainder of the season, but if younger arms like Gore or Jake Irvin show serious signs of fatigue in August, the team could re-evaluate the situation when rosters expand in September. After wrapping up May with a 3.57 ERA, Gore has regressed to a 5.64 ERA over his last 59 innings, albeit with a strong 60:22 K:BB.

As for Irvin:

The 26-year-old right-hander has thrown 106.1 innings between Triple-A and the majors this season, which already tops the 103.1 frames Irvin worked the year before in his return from Tommy John surgery in October 2020...Irvin has a 5.20 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 31:11 K:BB through 36.1 innings since the beginning of July.

The Nationals will host the Oakland Athletics on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. as Joan Adon (WAS) pitches against Paul Blackburn (OAK).