Washington Nationals: Sean Doolittle’s indecision could give job to Will Harris
Sean Doolittle continues to go back and forth on whether he’ll play this year. Will Harris is waiting in the wings for the Washington Nationals.
The rollercoaster ride the Washington Nationals bullpen went on during the 2019 run to the World Series was unnerving. Closer Sean Doolittle was not immune to the issues. Overuse led to ineffectiveness and injury, which led to Doolittle sharing the closing duties to end the year. He may relinquish these duties all together as he ponders opting out of the 2020 season.
Doolittle has expressed frustration with the testing process, which has not gotten his results back in a timely manner. He is not sure whether he will play the season in full or any at all for that matter.
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Sean Doolittle is a free agent after this season.
The Nationals brought in two arms who could easily contend for the closer’s role, one of which has a brief history with the team.
Daniel Hudson was on the mound when the team won Game 7 of the World Series last year. He was a big reason the bullpen righted itself and allowed the team to make the postseason in the first place. Hudson shared the closer duties with Doolittle in the postseason, though remarked he is not necessarily a fan of the job.
Enter Will Harris. Yes, the Will Harris of the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” mantra. As you remember, Harris gave up the two-run gopher ball to Howie Kendrick which propelled the Nationals to the win in Game 7. He then turned around and signed a 3 year/$24M deal to play in Washington.
Harris is coming off a season where he went 4-1, with four saves and a 1.50 earned run average. Over the course of his career, he has struck out more hitters than innings pitched. The majority coming in high leverage situations.
As Doolittle continues to sit in limbo on whether to play or not, the Nationals should be grooming Harris as the new ninth-inning guy. If Doolittle begins the year there is no certainty he will finish the year.
For a bullpen to work cohesively they need to have well-defined roles. Having Doolittle begin as the closer and then have him opt out, puts a cog into the whole system. There will be a new set up guy, a new seventh-inning pitcher, obviously a new closer. Playing musical chairs with bullpen assignments is dangerous.
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The Washington Nationals need to think long and hard about this and go ahead and name Will Harris the closer from opening day moving forward.