Cade Cavalli Resumes Injury Rehab in Bid to Return to Nationals Rotation

After a short delay, the Cade Cavalli rehab assignment resumed for the Washington Nationals prospect on Saturday.

The 2020 first-round pick took a break from his rehab assignment late last month when he left a game with what the Nats called fatigue. After that, Washington chose to shut down his rehab assignment and let him throw bullpens to avoid a set-back.

He was also supposed to start on Friday night, but the game was rained out. So, finally, he made his fourth rehab start with the Nationals’ Triple-A team in Rochester against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to start a doubleheader on Saturday.

How did Cade Cavalli Do in His Fourth Rehab Start?

He only threw 2.2 innings on Saturday, which is two outs more than he went in his last rehab outing where he left early. He threw 59 pitches, 31 of which were strikes. He gave up three hits, five earned runs and three walks. He only struck out two.

He ended the game by giving up a grand slam. To make it worse, the grand slam was hit by former Nationals player Dominic Smith.

Through four rehab games, Cavalli is now 1-1 with a 5.27 ERA. He has struck out 11 and walked seven in 13.2 innings. He’s given up nine hits and eight earned runs, though five of those earned runs came on Saturday. Batters are hitting just .184 against him.

Cavalli missed all of 2023 and most of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s no longer injured, so this is all about building him up so he can have a role in the Majors this season.

Cavalli has just one Major League appearance, which came in 2022 when he made one start for the Nationals and gave up six runs and seven hits in 4.1 innings. Still, he’s been regularly listed among the Nationals’ Top 30 prospects since he was drafted out of Oklahoma.

Washington hasn’t made it clear when Cavalli will return to the Majors. Manager Dave Martinez said during spring training that the organization wants to manage his workload this season. He also said that when Cavalli comes up to the Majors, they want him to stay.

The Nationals don’t intend to rush him, though they did lose young starter DJ Herz for the season due to elbow surgery earlier this year. Veteran Michael Soroka returned earlier this week from injury, and the rest of the rotation is healthy. The Nats also hope that Josiah Gray, who also had elbow surgery, will be able to help them sometime this year.