Washington Nationals news & notes: Trevor Williams starts back up; Season 2 in D.C.

Notes and quotes from West Palm Beach, FL.

Signed to a 2-year/$13M free agent deal last winter, Trevor Williams returned to starting full-time after pitching in a swing role for a few seasons, with what could politely be described as mixed results (a 5.55 ERA, 5.98 FIP, NL-leading 34 homers allowed, and a .300/.359/.533 line against in 144 1⁄3 IP).

Despite his struggles, the Nationals’ brass talked this winter about the 31-year-old veteran posting up and taking the ball 30 times in the first year of his deal.

Did he show enough to remain part of the rotation this season?

Or would he return to swinging between the bullpen and starting mix?

“We’re going to go with the best five starting pitchers,” GM Mike Rizzo said this winter. “If he’s one of those five, then he’ll start. And if he’s not, he’s shown the capabilities of being a swingman, a multi-inning reliever, a multi-day-in-a-row reliever, and just a workhorse. I don’t want to shortchange what he did for this team last year, taking the ball for so many innings and so many starts last year when he hadn’t done it in years. That was, in my mind, very team-orientated and very unselfish of him, and I thought he did a great job for us in that regard.”

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“Right now, Trevor’s — he’s our fourth, fifth starter,” manager Davey Martinez said at the 2023 Winter Meetings in early December. “We’ll see what transpires over the winter.”

The start of his second spring with the Nats was delayed so Williams could be with his family for the birth of a child.

He arrived in West Palm Beach, FL ready to go, having put in work while at home, and threw a live bullpen in front of the Nationals’ staff.

“I feel like my body’s where it needs to be,” Williams told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, upon arriving at camp on February 25th.

“My brain is catching up now that I’m here. My mind will be in midseason mode here soon, hopefully. I’m just glad [Davey Martinez] was able to let me be with my family, and make sure momma and the babies were good before coming out here.”

Williams took a little time off this winter, but got right back to work at the end of 2023’s run, knowing the 2024 campaign was a big one for him.

“Every offseason, you unplug a little bit, but I didn’t take too much time off,” the righty said.

“I knew this was a big offseason for me, that I had a lot that I needed to work on to get back to where I needed to be.”

His manager said having made it through 2023 healthy, Williams was now well-positioned to handle starting for another full season after going as deep as he did last year.

“The last few years for him had been eating up innings coming out of the bullpen. It’s a different routine for him. The first half, he was OK. I think it just got on him a little bit, all the innings he had to eat. I think this year, he built himself up and he feels good. He worked on some things over the winter, as well, as far as mechanics. He’s in a good place.”

Williams tossed two scoreless innings on Monday, striking out three, in a combined shutout win over the St. Louis Cardinals, 1-0. He threw 27 pitches, 20 for strikes, in what he said was a good start.

“The goal going into it was just to come out healthy,” Williams said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco.

“At this point of Spring Training, we want to get as much volume as possible. So thankfully, we’re able to get two full innings today. I was able to throw about 15 more in the bullpen to get that volume up. I think it was successful in that sense.”

“We were able to pound the strike zone, we were able to throw everything that we wanted to throw today, and thankfully we came out unscathed,” Williams added.

“I think last year it really helped him understand who he is. I think he’s gonna be a lot better,” Martinez told reporters, reiterating what he’d said previously about how 2023 played out for Williams.

“Plus, he ran out of gas last year. I mean, first time he’s done it in a while, so I think getting that under his belt this year he might be better.”

Williams said he was grateful Martinez stuck with him last season, and allowed him to build back up so he’s ready to give even more this year, if necessary.

“Going from 145 last year, we have the ability to push it to 185 to 190, which is where I want to be at. That’s what I prepared for this year, this offseason, and I’m thankful that we were able to achieve at least that goal last year.”

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