The Nationals announced Thursday that they’ve acquired left-hander Richard Lovelady from the Mets in exchange for cash. Fellow southpaw Ken Waldichuk, who was recently recommended for Tommy John surgery, moves to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The Mets designated Lovelady for assignment over the weekend.
Lovelady was with the Nats in spring training but wound up going back to the Mets for a fourth stint in the past year when New York scooped him off waivers a couple weeks before Opening Day. He wound up making the Mets’ roster and has since pitched 7 1/3 innings of relief, holding opponents to three earned runs (3.68 ERA) on eight hits and four walks with six punchouts.
The 30-year-old Lovelady has now pitched in parts of seven big league seasons. He’s shown glimpses of promise — most notably, his 2021 performance with Kansas City — but has yet to carve out a consistent role in a big league bullpen. The southpaw has a 5.25 ERA in 118 1/3 major league frames with a big 51.9% grounder rate and strikeout and walk rates only a hair worse than average (20.9% and 8.9%, respectively). In parts of seven Triple-A seasons, he has a 2.61 ERA, a 26.9% strikeout rate and a 7% walk rate.
Lack of consistency notwithstanding, Lovelady continues to intrigue major league clubs. Though he hasn’t had a lot of staying power, he’s spent the better part of the past four years shuffling on and off 40-man rosters around the league. That’s underscored by the fact that he has well over three years of big league service time — with a viable path to crossing the four-year mark at some point in 2026 — despite his modest innings count in the majors.
The Nats will be Lovelady’s seventh team in the majors. In addition to the previously mentioned Mets and Royals, he’s also pitched for the A’s, Rays, Cubs and Blue Jays. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll be added right to the major league roster when he reports to the team. Washington currently has three lefties in the ‘pen: Cionel Pérez, PJ Poulin and the recently recalled Mitchell Parker. Pérez, like Lovelady, is out of minor league options. Both Pérez (8.22 ERA in 7 2/3 innings) and Poulin (4.50 ERA, more walks than strikeouts in eight innings) have struggled this year.
