First year manager Blake Butera opened up on one star's reaction to the Washington Nationals adding a veteran pitcher to the bullpen
The Washington Nationals made a handful of moves to upgrade its pitching ahead of the 2026 season, most notably the addition of veteran Miles Mikolas to serve as a boost to a rotation now without an ace following last month's marquee trade with the Texas Rangers.
But the front office were also able to add a pair of experienced arms to the bullpen on minor league deals, giving former Mets reliever Drew Smith a chance to stay within the NL East with a non-roster invite to spring training. But the addition of veteran reliever Cionel Perez, who spent the last four seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, excited one of the Nationals stars during the first day of full team workouts.
"Our pitching groups fired up to have him, as am I," manager Blake Butera said on Monday. "He's somebody that has already had a lot of success in the big leagues. And even today, when we're doing our pick offs and Cionel [is] in the mountain, CJ [Abrams] is like, 'when did we get Cionel?' I was like, we just got him yesterday, and he was like, 'He's nasty. I'm so glad I don't have to face him. And I was like 'well you will in live BPs.' Yeah, just happy to have him here."
Perez finished his time with the cross-town rival Orioles with a 3.72 ERA across 212 games and 186.1 innings pitched, tossing 166 strikeouts to 177 allowed hits. But it will be the first chance for Perez to bounce back after a struggling 2025 season where he finished with an 8.31 ERA in 21.2 innings and 19 appearances before being DFA's then sent outright to Triple-A through final four months of the regular season.
But after Butera noted that every player has a chance to "write their new chapter" alongside a new look - and young - Nationals coaching staff, Perez will look to embrace that mantra while tapping into his experience that is limited across the roster.
"Just the fact that he's been there, he's done that, he's had success, he's been elsewhere, and he gets a chance to come in here and meet some new teammates, new people, and kind of help them understand what a routine should look like, how you prepare to go into games, things like that," Butera added. "Whenever you bring somebody in with his experience, with his abilities, only helps the rest of the group."
If Perez makes the roster, he'll earn $1.9 million with an additional $700,000 in incentives, giving a Nationals bullpen a low risk signing as president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and the front office have evaluated the evolving open market in hopes of upgrading the bullpen ahead of Opening Day. The Nationals payroll would still clim to just north of $95 million assuming he does make the roster, as expected, which still positions the front office among the lowest spenders across the league. But with a chance to resettle and upgrade a weakness for Washington, Perez will look to capitalize beginning Saturday when the Nationals kick off spring training.