Washington Nationals Injured Starting Pitcher Poised for Return to Rotation

The Washington Nationals are looking to settle on a regular starting rotation as manager Dave Martinez and the team are set to benefit from the return to action of one of the team's key veterans.

According to MASN's Mark Zuckerman, Brad Lord will get another start on Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians, while the team has yet to announce its starter for Wednesday's contest.

That vacancy could potentially go to Michael Soroka, who made one start this season before suffering a biceps strain and heading to the injured list.

Soroka excelled in his latest (and likely final) rehab start on Friday, striking out 11 opposing hitters for Triple-A Rochester over five innings in which he allowed just one run.

Lord and Soroka have both taken unconventional paths to arrive where they are.

The former was seen as a longshot to make the Major League roster out of spring training, but a dearth of competitive reliever options and his own strong performance in February and March got him there.

He then moved into the starting rotation in April, and he's posted three straight starts of at least four innings pitched with two earned runs allowed on his way to a 4.43 ERA.

Lord has been a reliable, even if unspectacular, arm that Washington desperately needed with the overall lack of proven talent on the staff.

Soroka, on the other hand, has significantly more pedigree in his background, but he has been forced to overcome unimaginably bad injury luck in his relatively short career.

The Calgary, Alberta, native was a revelation at the start of his career for the Atlanta Braves, making 29 starts of 2.68 ERA ball on his way to a sixth-place finish in National League Cy Young award voting and a runner-up finish for the league's Rookie of the Year honor.

A torn achilles in 2020 followed by a re-tear of the same tendon kept him from returning to the Major Leagues until 2023, when he appeared in seven games for the Braves.

After a stint with the hapless Chicago White Sox a year ago went rather poorly, the Nationals saw something in him that compelled the club to extend a one-year, $9 million deal to allow him to turn his career around.

Now, the former star and the unheralded reliever-turned-starter find themselves in the same starting rotation in Washington, hoping to inject some life in a group that badly needs positive contributors behind ace MacKenzie Gore.