Nationals' Cade Cavalli Flashes His Ace Upside, Feels Confident After Career Night

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Cade Cavalli Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

Nationals' Cade Cavalli Flashes His Ace Upside, Feels Confident After Career Night

Originally posted on Washington Nationals on SI
By Brad Wakai | Last updated Apr 24, 2026 8:00 AM ET

On Thursday, the Washington Nationals had a chance to secure a series split against the Atlanta Braves. And on paper, there was no better starting pitcher to throw out there than Cade Cavalli.

Moved into the team's ace role following the blockbuster trade of MacKenzie Gore this winter, Cavalli was expected to have a breakout season. However, that has not been the case for the right-hander. He entered Thursday's contest with a 4.12 ERA. He hadn't secured a win and he had only gone past the five-inning mark once in his previous five starts.

While Cavalli didn't earn his first victory of the year against the Braves, he did flash his high-end upside with two earned runs allowed on seven hits across five innings pitched with 10 strikeouts and no walks. And that has the 27-year-old feeling confident.

Cade Cavalli Regains Confidence After Career-High 10 Strikeouts

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"I feel like this is who I am," Cavalli said after the outing, per MLB.com. "A strike thrower that's just going to go attack hitters and trust my defense and trust my catcher. I just want to put us in a chance to win a ball game."

The Nationals certainly got that version of Cavalli on Thursday. He threw 47 of his 85 pitches for strikes. And when he missed the zone, the majority of the time it looked like that was part of the gameplan instead of him not having command of his pitches. That was a huge step in the right direction for the 2020 first-round pick, and it allowed him to finally flash his ace upside with a career-high 10 K's.

"He looked like the Cade Cavalli we all expect to see," manager Blake Butera said.

Washington needs that edition of Cavalli going forward. After shipping Gore out of town, Cavalli is someone the organization wants to build around as their talented youngsters work their way up the pipeline. But for the Nationals to truly build around the former first-rounder, he needs to perform like a No. 1 arm.

Cavalli Has His Blueprint for Success

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What got lost in the whole discussion surrounding Cavalli this spring was the fact that he only had 11 major league starts and 53 innings to his name entering the 2026 campaign. So despite his age and pedigree, he was still someone who lacked experience in The Show.

Because of that, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see him have some issues on this stage. His lack of command became a problem, but it seems to have been fixed during his last two outings since he's issued zero walks. And following a career night where he set a personal best for strikeouts in a game, he now has a blueprint for how he can succeed in Major League Baseball.

"I hope he takes this and runs with it," Butera said. "This outing was the best one by far. ... He was attacking guys. He just looked different out there. He was ready to go from the jump and went right at people and attacked them. With the stuff that he has, when he's in the zone as frequently as he was today, the results are going to be really good."

This article first appeared on Washington Nationals on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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