{"id":36635,"date":"2020-08-13T21:51:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T01:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=36635"},"modified":"2020-08-13T21:51:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T01:51:03","slug":"nationals-place-sean-doolittle-on-il-and-call-up-seth-romero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/13\/nationals-place-sean-doolittle-on-il-and-call-up-seth-romero\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Place Sean Doolittle on IL and Call up Seth Romero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Before the day game on Thursday against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/new-york-mets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets<\/a>, the Nationals placed left-handed pitcher, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doolise01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Sean Doolittle<\/strong><\/a> on the IL with right knee fatigue, and called up former first-rounder<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=romero000set\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <strong>Seth Romero<\/strong><\/a> from Fredericksburg <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Britt_Ghiroli\/status\/1293951129643028481\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to Britt Ghiroli.<\/a> With the injury to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/freemsa01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Sam Freeman<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> the Nationals are very thin for lefties in the bullpen. Freeman landed on the IL with a flexor strain in his elbow.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Washington Nationals selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Seth Romero and placed left-handed pitcher Sean Doolittle on the 10-day Injured List (retroactive to Aug. 11) with right knee fatigue on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Britt_Ghiroli\/status\/1293951129643028481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 13, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chance to Regroup for Sean Doolittle<\/h2>\n<p>Since he was traded from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a>, Sean Doolittle has been exceptional in the Nationals bullpen. In 2018, he was an all-star as he posted a 1.60 ERA and 25 saves. In 2019, the Nationals had to overwork Doolittle after struggles by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rosentr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Trevor Rosenthal<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barraky01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kyle Barraclough<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> After he hit a wall in August, the Nationals placed Doolittle on the 10-day IL with right knee tendinitis. However, he rebounded in a big way in the 2019 postseason by allowing just two runs in 10 and one-third innings.<\/p>\n<p>Much like August of 2019, Doolittle got off to an awful start to the 2020 season. His fastball dipped to the upper 80s and he surrendered five runs in just three innings. Hopefully, for the Nationals, this short IL stint allows Doolittle to regroup, and work on mechanics to come back like the Sean Doolittle of the 2019 postseason. After the injury to Freeman, the Nationals need Doolittle to be a reliable southpaw in the relief corps.<\/p>\n<h2>Surprising Call-up for Seth Romero<\/h2>\n<p>Seth Romero has had an odd road to the big leagues. The University of Houston dismissed Romero after off the field issues. Then, after being selected in the first round, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/22659013\/washington-nationals-prospect-seth-romero-sent-home-violating-team-policy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he was sent home<\/a> from spring training in 2018 for violating a club policy. Through two seasons in the minor leagues, Romero had just 14 appearances. In these appearances, Romero had a 4.37 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 47 and one-third innings. After a small drop-off in velocity Romero suffered an injury and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/news\/washington-nationals-seth-romero-underwent-tommy-john-surgery-293154086\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underwent Tommy John surgery<\/a> in September of 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Following the delayed season, the Nationals added Romero to the 60-player roster pool in Spring Training 2.0. After throwing well in Fredericksburg, the Nationals skipper had praise for Romero. &#8220;We feel like he\u2019s got the stuff to get big league hitters out. So that\u2019s why he\u2019s here [on the Nationals taxi squad].&#8221; The left-handed starter was called up to be a lefty in the bullpen in place of Doolittle despite just 14 minor league appearances. The future may be now as Romero has a chance to cement his spot in the Nationals bullpen, and eventually the rotation.<\/p>\n<h2>Looking Forwards in the Bullpen<\/h2>\n<p>On Thursday, the Nationals activated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harriwi10.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Will Harris<\/strong><\/a> from the IL. With Harris, they get a key piece back to assist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/raineta01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tanner Rainey<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hudsoda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Daniel Hudson<\/strong><\/a> in the backend of the bullpen. The Nationals hope that the time off can fix Doolittle enough to add him into the mix. For the time being, they turn to a 24-year old rookie in Seth Romero.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Nationals announce they have reinstated right-handed pitcher Will Harris from the 10-day Injured List and placed pitcher Sam Freeman on the 10-day Injured List with a left flexor mass strain<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Chappell (@AlexChappell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexChappell\/status\/1293922299050164224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 13, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Main Image<br \/>\n<a id=\"re_wVWI-Q6htBGLtEU1eJw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1264582040\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'re_wVWI-Q6htBGLtEU1eJw',sig:'ny8AZPPy-PD0y57OWVgnYMmMH148ygXlw-FzmAoNdDo=',w:'594px',h:'393px',items:'1264582040',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the day game on Thursday against the New York Mets, the Nationals placed left-handed pitcher, Sean Doolittle on the IL with right knee fatigue, and called up former first-rounder Seth Romero from Fredericksburg according to Britt Ghiroli. With the injury to Sam Freeman, the Nationals are very thin for lefties in the bullpen. Freeman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3369,"featured_media":36667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[926,35,19],"tags":[1538,1382,38],"class_list":["post-36635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-milb","category-news","category-nationals","tag-sean-doolittle","tag-seth-romero","tag-washington-nationals"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}