Nationals wish Jeremy Guthrie a Happy Birthday by demoting him

After an epicly bad outing on Saturday, Jeremy Guthrie has been designated for assignment by the Washington Nationals.

Jeremy Guthrie spent the 2016 season out of the big leagues, jumping from minor league deals with the Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres and Miami Marlins before playing winter ball in Australia.

In February the Washington Nationals signed Guthrie to, you guessed it, a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. He was re-assigned to minor league camp just before Opening Day, but the Nationals wanted to get Stephen Strasburg an extra day of rest and Joe Ross is not going to be called up until a fifth starter is needed later this month.

With a spot start needed, enter Guthrie for Saturday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. On his 38th birthday, no less.

But Guthrie failed to get out of the first inning, allowing 10 runs on six hits with four walks in two-thirds of an inning. Reliever Enny Romero allowed two more runs in the bottom of the first, as the Phillies posted a 12-spot on their way to a 17-3 win.

If having an incredibly terrible outing in his first major league start since September of 2015 wasn’t enough, Guthrie also made some Expos/Nationals franchise history.

On Sunday morning, Guthrie was designated for assignment by Nationals. In a corresponding move, relief pitcher Matt Albers had his contract selected from Triple-A Syracuse.

Next: MLB 2017: One x-factor for each team

Guthrie posted a 5.95 ERA over 148.1 innings with the Kansas City Royals in 2015. He made at least 29 starts every season from 2008-2014, most notably with the Baltimore Orioles , but Guthrie has now surely thrown his last pitch on a major league mound.