The Nationals signed a right-hander. Jack Littell It was changed to a one-year major league contract with a mutual option for the 2027 season. The financial team behind the deal is not yet known. The deal will become official once Littell passes his physical and Washington takes corresponding action to make room on the 40-man roster, courtesy of CAA Sports.
Littell was ranked 35th on MLB Trade Rumors’ list of the top 50 offseason free agents and was expected to sign a two-year, $24 million contract. He’ll have to settle for just a one-year deal, and if the rebuilding Nationals move him at the trade deadline, the right-hander could be on the move again relatively soon.
Littell, 30, is a veteran of eight big league seasons, but has spent most of his time in a bullpen role. Over the first five seasons of his MLB career, Littell posted a 4.08 ERA (104 ERA+) with lackluster peripherals in 169 2/3 innings. Following the 2022 campaign, Littell rode the DFA and waiver claim carousel during the 2022-23 offseason. He eventually signed with the Red Sox to start the season, but made only two major league appearances before being drafted once again. That led him to the Rays, and with the Rays, he transformed from a peripheral member of the 40-man roster to a solid midback in the rotation arm.
Upon arriving in Tampa, Littell assumed a swing role for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. He posted a nearly identical 3.93 ERA and 3.99 FIP in 87 innings split between 14 starts and 12 relief appearances. Littell’s 19.8% strikeout rate wasn’t very exciting, but he made up for it with pinpoint command that allowed him to post a 2.5% walk rate and 8.2% barrel rate.
That style of control and command was enough to earn him a full-time rotation job ahead of the Rays’ 2024 season and rewarded the team with a career year. In 29 starts for the 2024 Rays, Littel has a 3.63 ERA (110 ERA+) with a 3.81 FIP while striking out 21.5% of the time, compared to 4.7%. His 156 2/3 innings of work made him just one of 71 pitchers to throw 150 or more innings that year, and only 15 of those pitchers gave up fewer runs than Littell.
Littell remained generally effective in terms of run prevention last year, posting a 3.81 ERA (111 ERA+) over a career-high 186 2/3 innings over 32 starts for the Rays and Reds. Unfortunately, these solid results haven’t been paired with similar peripherals. Looking under the hood, Littell’s strikeout rate plummeted to 17.1% while his barrel rate soared to 9.8% as he allowed the second-most home runs in all of baseball last season. Perhaps some of that can be explained by Littell playing his home games at hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field and Great American Ballpark, but the 4.88 FIP and 4.40 SIERA suggested that Littell was more of a back-end starter than his results would indicate.
As a result, there has been a soft free agent market for Littell this offseason, with little reported interest in his services. At one point, it seemed like a reunion with the Rays was being discussed, but Tampa Bay made a move to recruit him instead. Stephen Matz and Nick Martinez. No other club has been publicly linked to the right-hander’s services for most of the winter, although many teams in need of a pitcher, such as the Braves or Athletics, have fit the bill.
The Nationals were ultimately the ones who brought Littell into the fold, and it’s possible that some past connections helped get the deal done. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni previously worked in the Red Sox front office, new manager Blake Butera spent several years managing Tampa’s farm system, and new pitching coach Simon Matthews was the Reds’ assistant pitching coach in 2025, so all three are directly familiar with Littell’s work.
DC is unlikely to compete for a playoff spot this year as it resumes its rebuilding efforts under Toboni. Therefore, the team pursued short-term, relatively inexpensive veteran contracts like Littell. Miles MikolasAnother move has been made for the future of trade. Mackenzie Gore To the Rangers. With the Gore trade thinning out an already questionable Washington rotation, Littell will look to bolster a starting five that will likely include Mikolas and another new signing. poster griffin. The last two points of the rotation picture are moved by the following combination: Cade Cavalli, brad road, Josiah Gray, Jake Ervinand Mitchell Parker.
ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan were first to report an agreement between the two sides, while Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that Littell had signed an endorsement deal. The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka (multiple links) had details on a one-year contract with a mutual option, and Littell would have to pass a physical.
Inset photo courtesy of Joe Puetz — Imagn Images
