Stephen Strasburg injured again: 3 immediate replacements for Nats

The Washington Nationals received some bad news, as Stephen Strasburg is once again hitting the injured list. 

The Washington Nationals are expected to once again be one of the biggest sellers at the MLB trade deadline. Even though they are last place in the NL East, they received some good news when ace Stephen Strasburg made his return from the injured list after dealing with thoracic outlet syndrome. Yet, the bad news keeps on coming.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez revealed on Monday, June 13 that the team is placing Strasburg back on the injured list after he dealt with discomfort in a bullpen session. The right-handed pitcher is still waiting for the results of his MRI.

In his lone start against the Miami Marlins, Strasburg surrendered seven earned runs on eight hits, and struck out five batters in the 7-4 loss.

With that, Washington will have to look for someone to replace him in the starting lineup.

3 immediate replacements for Stephen Strasburg after return to injured list

Given that the Nationals are not expected to make a run for a postseason berth, a trade is almost certainly out of the question. For them, their bests option would be to look inside their organization.

Here are three candidates that stick out:

• Cade Cavalli
• Jackson Tetreault
• Erasmo Ramirez

One move that Nationals fans will be clamoring for is to call up one of their top prospects in the farm system. That is Cade Cavalli, ranked No. 2 among all Nationals prospects and No. 47 in all of MLB.  Cavalli started in 11 games for Triple-A Rochester, where he recorded a 5.16 ERA, a 1.30 WHIP, 52 strikeouts and 24 walks over 52.1 innings.

Another top pitcher on the Triple-A roster is Jackson Tetreault, who is a former 2017 seventh-round pick. This year with Rochester, Tetreault owns a 4.19 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP and 52 strikeouts over 58.0 innings.

If the Nationals do not want to put a prospect into the starting rotation, they could look into using one of their relief pitchers. When looking at the bullpen, Erasmo Ramirez has starter’s experience, as he began 92-of-236 games. Not to mention that he owns a respectable 3.28 ERA over 24.2 innings (20 games).

What Washington does next will all be dependent on discovering how much time Strasburg will miss. But after one start, the former 2019 World Series MVP is heading back to the injured list.