Washington Nationals acquire former Toronto Blue Jays left-hander

The Washington Nationals have acquired left-handed reliever Richard Lovelady in a trade with the New York Mets, as per Nationals PR.

During the offseason, the Mets signed Lovelady to a split contract that pays him $1MM when on an active roster, and $350K while in the minor leagues.

The Mets designated Lovelady for assignment over the weekend.

Lovelady was with the Nationals 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).

Lovelady’s career splits are pronounced enough that it is worth wondering if he came along in the wrong time — Lovelady made his MLB debut a season before the league instituted the three-batter rule, basically ending the era of the lefty specialist.

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