After Tuesday’s 15-6 drubbing of the Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Nationals made a surprise move. Washington has signed free agent pitcher Livan Hernandez, who was cut last week by the New York Mets.
Hernandez, 34, will always have a special place in D.C. baseball history. He was the man who threw the first pitch on April 14, 2005 when the Nats played their first game in the District after moving here from Montreal. He was the workhorse for that club (246.1 innings), which shocked Major League Baseball by competing for a playoff spot well into the summer. Hernandez had a 3.98 ERA in 2005. He didn’t fare as well in 2006 (5.34 ERA), but retained enough value for Washington to trade him to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Recommended Stories
This says far more about the state of the Nats starting rotation the last few years. But Hernandez remains the pitcher with the most wins (24) since the team returned to Washington five years ago. Only John Lannan has started more games than the 59 starts Hernandez made in a year-and-a-half with the club and nobody has surpassed his innings total (393).
Hernandez was 7-8 with a 5.47 ERA in 23 starts for the Mets this season. He is 154-147 with a 4.43 ERA in 405 games (404 starts) spanning 14 big league seasons. He is the only current big league pitcher to have started at least 30 games in 11 straight seasons. Hernandez replaces RHP Collin Balester in the rotation. The 23-year-old Balester (1-4, 6.82 ERA) returns to Triple-A Syracuse for at least one start before Major League baseball rosters expand on Sept. 1.
Ironically, one of the two prospects Hernandez was traded for – RHP Garrett Mock – was on the mound for the Nats in Chicago on Tuesday and earned his third win of the season. The other player in that deal was LHP Matt Chico, 26, who started 31 games for the Nats in 2007 as a rookie (4.63 ERA) but blew out his elbow in the first month of the 2008 season. He is now back pitching at Double-A Harrisburg with a 2-3 record and a 3.95 ERA.
