This article likely concludes our Most/Least Favorite series. To date, this is our list of recent articles on the all time Most and Least Favorite Nationals:
- Nationals all-time favorites at each position!
- Nationals Fans Least Favorite Player at Each Position
- Nationals all-time favorites in the starting rotation
- Nationals Least Favorite Starting Pitchers
It was a real challenge to come up with a list of just 8 relievers. There are no many candidates that I am sure my fellow TalkNats folks can provide a few names to bump guys from my list. My review of the history of Nationals relievers found quite a few guys in the early years who were just flat out awful. Most did not last long; so I excluded them; Quite a few were names I did not remember; so I excluded them. And my list included subjective factors beyond their performance as measured by whatever metrics you prefer.
Here is the list I came up with in order of how long ago they pitched for the Nats. And yes, there will be some recency bias.
Levale Speigner
Yes, he dates back to the early years: 2007 and 2008. The Nationals were the only MLB team he played for. The obvious reason is that his ERA in those two years 8.78 and 11.25.
He was selected by Washington Nationals from Minnesota Twins in the Rule 5 major league draft in 2006 and returned to Minnesota Twins which was followed a few days later when he was returned to the Washington Nationals in exchange for Darnell McDonald.
Jason Bergmann
Jason was a tough call for this list. He was a National from the beginning in 2005 and lasted until 2010. He had some good years before 2010. But in 4 games in 2010 he pitched 2.1 innings and gave up 4 runs. Is that enough to be a least guy? I don’t know. But I remember him as someone who I did not want to see. Perhaps too many in person games.
He was drafted by the Expos in 2002 and came to DC when the team moved and made the active rosters for the first time as a National.
Jerry Blevins
Blevins made this list simply because he went to arbitration with the Nationals over pretty much chump change. After the fact he said he did it for no reason other than he thought it would be an interesting experience. Mike Rizzo traded him shortly there-after and it became a standing joke that Rizzo traded him for doing that. Laura confirmed later that Rizzo traded him for Matt den Dekker because of that; but the motivation was how much time Blevins wasted by doing that for fun.
He only played one year for the Nationals and pitched to an ERA of 4.17 in 2014.
Trevor Gott
Gott hung around with the Nationals from 20216 to 2018. He good for a short stint in 2016. But he followed that with just 4 appearance in 2017 with an ERA or 30; and in 2018 he made 20 appearances with an ERA of 5.68. The Nationals sent him to the Giants in the off-season after the 2018 season for cash.
Part of the reason he made this list is because the Nationals just got Gott on a minor league deal. Maybe he can redeem himself.
Trevor Rosenthal
And of course Trevor Rosenthal had to make this list. He joined the Nationals in 2019 (the Nats sold one Trevor and bought another one) after a good career with the Cardinals and missing 2018 due to injury. This was a risky move that clearly did not work. He appeared in 12 games, 6.1 innings pitched with an ERA of 22.74. His last game was June 22 and gave up 3 runs and retired no one.
Jonathan Papelbon
Papelbon made my list even though he pitched well. He made the list for three reasons. First, he cost the Nats too much in a trade. The Nationals sent Nick Pivetta to the Phillies for him. I am sure every Nats fan would rather have kept Pivetta. Trading for Papelbon to shore up the bullpen also likely had a big impact on Drew Storen who was not the same after that trade. And the last reason is physically calling out Harper for not playing hard. Bryce Harper deserved it; but it should have not been done in public in the dugout.
Will Harris
No discussion of Will Harris and the Nationals can ignore this.
While this should be enough to exclude Harris, he was a FA after this game and signed a two year contract with the Nationals. In 20 games in 2020 (a third of the shortened season) he had an ERA of 3.26. Everything fell apart in 2021 and he was gone by the end of May due to injuries after pitching 6 innings in 8 games with an ERA of 9.
Lucas Sims & Colin Poche
Need I say more. Yes, this is recency bias as there were relievers in the eary years who were worse. This list would not be complete without these two disastrous signings in 2025. Since I could not decide which one I liked less, I combined them.
DisHonorable Mentions
Brad Lidge
Lidge had a great career. But it ended on a down note in his final year in MLB with the Nationals in 2012. He pitched in 11 gams, 9.1 innings with an ERA of 9.64
Ryan Mattheus
Ryan was acquired as a minor leaguer from the Rockies at the deadline i 2009 along with Robinson Fabian in exchange for Joe Beimel. He made it to the majors in 2011 and had a couple of good years. He was a promising reliever until he broke his hand in 2014 after just 7 games (8.2 innings and an ERA or 104) by punching a locker in frustration. That ended his season.
Hunter Strickland
Hunter makes the DisHonorable list more for his tendency to hit batters who were likely to be walked taking advantage of of the flaw in the WHIP metrics that does not count hit by pitches. He hit Bryce Harper in 2017 when he was with the Giants and that started a bench clearly fight. That fight is also blamed for ending Michael Morse‘s career. Morse was a Giant and was hurt when trying to break up the fight. Harper got his revenge in 2019 when Harper was a Philthy and Strickland was with the Nationals by hitting a monster home run on September 24, 2019.
Agree or disagree this is my list. Looking forward to seeing the list of other TalkNats folks.
And it is pretty easy to come up with lots of alternative names for this list of least favorite relievers thanks to FanGraphs which includes 20 relievers with an ERA greater than 7. Two of the relievers I included above are on that list of relievers with an ERA greater than 7.
