When strung together as a concept, the words “relief prospect” are complicated. It is no secret that many major league relievers are pitchers who couldn’t crack the rotation. Ask Andrew Chafin, the veteran left-hander who often wore a “Failed Starter” shirt while stretching for the Chicago Cubs in 2021. Chafin made his last start in 2016, a one-off with the Class AAA Reno Aces, and now has 409 major league relief appearances to his name. He’s far more rule than exception.
But young, up-and-coming relievers do still exist. Todd Peterson, for instance, is trying to cut it as one for the Washington Nationals. The 23-year-old, seventh-round draft pick in 2019 impressed coaches and the front office during spring training in March. During the season, he posted a 4.15 ERA in 30⅓ innings with the high Class A Wilmington Blue Rocks. He struck out 32 batters and walked 12, at times showing shaky command. He did enough to warrant a nod for the Arizona Fall League, then tested himself against some of the sport’s best prospects.
Pitching for the Surprise Saguaros, Peterson yielded three earned runs in 10⅓ innings. His focus there, as he detailed during an early November interview in Glendale, Ariz., was to find consistent movement with his slider. Coaches suggested he stop trying to manipulate the pitch from count to count.
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“I would adjust a little bit in certain situations, certain batters, try to get more movement on it or throw one harder at certain points,” Peterson said. “Now it’s just throw everything hard because when you throw it with the same intensity every time, the pitch is going to do the same thing. Once you got it, you can kind of just throw that same pitch to different spots instead of trying to make one be more loopy or another faster.”
Peterson’s third pitch is a rarely used change-up. He also has considered learning a splitter to throw against left-handed batters. But if he keeps climbing in the Nationals’ system, his fastball-slider combo will be the reason.
MLB Pipeline doesn’t consider Peterson among Washington’s top 30 prospects. That’s common across online rankings. Yet aside from No. 12 Matt Cronin, a 24-year-old lefty, no other reliever is around the same age and ahead of Peterson. Again, that doesn’t account for the starters who will slip to the bullpen (and a handful of them eventually will). The Nationals just don’t have any homegrown relievers on the doorstep of the majors.
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They admitted as much by selecting three right-handed relievers — Curtis Taylor, Matt Brill and Dakody Clemmer — in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. Earlier in the offseason, they claimed left-handed reliever Francisco Pérez off waivers from the Cleveland Guardians. And of the 16 pitchers who made 10 or more relief appearances for the Nationals in 2021, only Austin Voth (49), Wander Suero (45), Jefry Rodriguez (13) and Gabe Klobosits (11) were drafted or originally signed by the organization.
That doesn’t necessarily make Washington an outlier. A core tenet of constructing a bullpen is embracing constant turnover. But the Nationals are well into taking that to a new level.
Daniel Hudson and Brad Hand, two of the other 12 arms referenced above, were traded in July’s fire sale. Suero was non-tendered in December, ending a stretch with the Nationals that had spanned his entire career. So was Ryne Harper, a soft-tossing right-hander who logged 34 appearances, most of them mop-up innings. Rodriguez was released and signed back on a minor league contract. Voth, converted from starting to relieving before last season, should be in the mix with Kyle Finnegan, Tanner Rainey, Patrick Murphy, Sam Clay, Mason Thompson and Klobosits, among others, to crack the Opening Day bullpen. A rebuilding roster will both include held-over parts and offer plenty of opportunity.
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Peterson is likely to begin next year with the Class AA Harrisburg Senators. Cronin, who made 10 appearances for the Senators last summer, could be with the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings, one step away. A fourth-round pick out of Arkansas in 2019, Cronin hasn’t started a game since high school. Peterson, similarly, has been relieving since his days at LSU, where he started in just seven of his 75 appearances across three seasons.
To date, Peterson’s shining baseball moment came in his sophomore year of college. In an elimination game at the SEC tournament, he gave up a ninth-inning run to South Carolina that forced extras. But once he shut down the Gamecocks in the 10th and 11th, LSU’s coach, Paul Mainieri, kept Peterson in to hit for himself in the top of the 12th. The Tigers had pushed ahead 4-3. There were runners on the corners with two down. And once South Carolina made a pitching change, Mainieri asked Peterson whether he ever hit in high school.
“Yeah,” Peterson answered, later recounting the conversation in a postgame news conference. “I hit bombs.”
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The truth? He had zero at-bats for Lake Mary High in St. Petersburg, Fla. His first plate appearance since eighth grade would be his only one with LSU. So Peterson made the most of it, crushing a fastball off the wall in left for a two-run double. His swing, celebration and ensuing interviews went viral. Almost four years later, it’s still brought up all the time.
“The one thing is that most people will say, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who hit the home run!’ ” Peterson mimicked, eyes wide, through a laugh. “It was a double. But, hey, I’ll take it. Hopefully there are more highlights to come.”
“He’s really not afraid with his mid-90s fastball,” Mark Scialabba, an assistant general manager for the Nationals, said of Peterson in November. “He is up to 97. His slider continues to evolve. There are moments when he lands some that have a chance to be a plus pitch down the road.”
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