Nationals Unheralded Pitching Prospect Turning Heads Early in MLB Career

One of the weak spots of the Washington Nationals roster coming into the 2025 MLB regular season was their bullpen.

The team had several spots up for grabs entering spring training, adding a few veterans to plug holes.

Jorge Lopez, Lucas Sims and Colin Poche were all signed in free agency. Closer Kyle Finnegan, who was non-tendered early in the offseason, returned to the team, as well.

That quartet was expected to provide a lot of experience for manager Dave Martinez to rely on late in games, but they ended up not having the kind of impact the Nationals were hoping for.

Poche and Sims were both released after abysmal starts to the campaign. Lopez has settled in recently and Finnegan is in the midst of what could be the best season of his career, making him an intriguing trade candidate.

Alas, it takes more than two relief pitchers for a bullpen to be successful.

In need of other players to step up, Washington has received excellent production from an unlikely source; unranked prospect Cole Henry.

Cole Henry Has Provided Unexpected Production

There was a lot of optimism surrounding the former LSU Tigers star, who was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB draft. Unfortunately, he has been unable to stay on the mound throughout his professional career, battling several injuries.

Not much was thought of Henry being on the Major League roster, but he has quietly turned into a reliable reliever for Martinez, leading to Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra of MLB.com highlighting him as one of the pleasant prospect surprises in 2025. 

There has not been much to get excited about with the Washington bullpen, but he has been one of their bright spots, and his role has increased as the season has moved along accordingly.

“Henry has relied primarily on his 93-95 mph four-seamer and 79-82 mph curveball in his early MLB days,” as written at MLB.com.

The two-pitch combo is all he has needed, with Henry performing incredibly well.

Through 16 appearances and 18.1 innings, he has a 2.45 ERA with 18 strikeouts. His ERA+ of 166, WHIP of 0.873 and FIP of 3.63 are all really solid numbers for an unranked prospect in their rookie campaign.

Henry has been scored upon in only one outing this year; a disastrous appearance against the New York Mets on April 28 when he was tagged for five earned runs in one inning of work.

All 15 of his other outings have been scoreless.

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