Nationals To Select Jackson Kent

The Nationals are planning to select the contract of left-hander Jackson Kent from Triple-A Rochester this week, reports Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic. A precise date for the southpaw’s big league debut isn’t yet clear, but it’ll be his first call to the majors when it happens.

Washington recently opened a 40-man roster spot by designating veteran righty Zack Littell for assignment. Littell’s subsequent release and the trade of Foster Griffin to Cleveland opened up a pair of spots in manager Blake Butera‘s rotation. Kent will step into Littell’s 40-man spot and into one of those vacated rotation slots, joining Cade Cavalli, Miles Mikolas, Jake Irvin and Andrew Alvarez.

Kent, 23, was the Nationals’ fourth-round pick out of the University of Arizona in 2024. MLB.com currently ranks him eighth in Washington’s system. He’s ranked tenth at Baseball America and at FanGraphs.

Listed at 6’3″ and 219 pounds, Kent works primarily off a three-pitch mix (four-seamer, slider, changeup) but mixes in a very occasional curveball as a show-me fourth offering. He’s sitting 93.6 mph on his heater this year, with his slider clocking in at an average of 86.3 mph and the changeup sitting 84.7 mph. That fastball velo isn’t blazing but is up a couple ticks from last season, and Kent’s changeup has long rated as a plus pitch that’s capable generating swing-and-miss.

In 94 1/3 frames at Rochester this season, Kent sports a solid 3.72 earned run average. He’s fanned an impressive 27.2% of his opponents with better-than-average walk and ground-ball rates as well (7.8% and 47.2%, respectively). He’s done a nice job avoiding hard contact (87.6 mph average exit velocity, 29.6% hard-hit rate) and has accordingly averaged just over one homer per nine innings pitched.

Since this is Kent’s first call to the big leagues, he’ll have a full slate of three option years ahead of him. The Nats could technically burn one of those options this season if he’s sent back to Rochester for more than 20 days, but Kent is one of the system’s better arms and is being promoted at a time where there’s an obvious rotation need. In all likelihood, he’ll spend the rest of the year trying to pitch his way into the 2027 rotation mix.

There’s no way for Kent to accrue a full year of major league service at this point, so he’ll be controllable for at least six more years beyond the current season — possibly more, depending on future option decisions made by the Nats. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until at least the 2029-30 offseason.