Nationals Add Veteran Reliever on Minor League Deal

The six-year veteran was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft out of Texas Christian University. He played parts of three seasons with Arizona before he was designated for assignment in July 2021. Young was claimed by the Cleveland Guardians off waivers, but was DFA'd the next season.

Over the next two seasons, Young would play in brief stints for the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Mets. In 177 career games, Young has a 4.34 ERA and 1.408 WHIP in 277.2 innings of work.

It was presumed to be a lost year for Washington amidst a complete rebuild for the team. But an underachieving NL East division and strong performances from some of their young stars have the Nationals on the cusp of the playoff picture. Washington sits second in the division behind the MLB-leading Atlanta Braves, and is just 4.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot.

The bullpen has been the Nationals' Achilles heel, with the group posting a collective ERA of 4.63. That measure is good for fifth-worst in MLB. Young will likely report to Triple-A Rochester upon his arrival, but it would not be surprising to see him with the big league team at some point this season.

Washington already has three southpaws in their bullpen in Richard Lovelady, Mitchell Parker, and P.J Poulin. Lovelady has performed well since being acquired from the Mets earlier this season. He has a 0.84 ERA in 10.2 innings of work with the Nationals, while Poulin has been used as a closer recently. Any closer in the Nationals' bullpen aside from Lovelady still has options left, so we could see Young take one of those spots as soon as he is deemed fully recovered from his surgery.