The Nationals announced today that left-hander PJ Poulin, recently claimed off waivers from the Tigers, has been added to the active roster. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. The club also recalled right-hander Clayton Beeter and optioned righties Zach Brzykcy and Ryan Loutos in corresponding moves. TalkNats reported the moves prior to the official announcement.
It’s been a long journey to the big leagues for the lefty Poulin, now 29 years old, who was drafted by the Rockies back in 2018. With that organization, he reached Triple-A in 2022 and pitched at that level in 2023 as well. However, his results weren’t great for the Isotopes. He had a 6.20 earned run average in 69 2/3 innings for Albuquerque over those two seasons.
In March of 2024, the Rockies flipped him to the Tigers for cash. He was sent to Double-A after that trade but worked his way back up to Triple-A by July of 2024. In the year-plus since that promotion, he has thrown 68 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.54 ERA, 31.9% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and grounders on about half the balls in play he’s allowed.
The Tigers selected him to their 40-man roster a month ago but immediately optioned him back to Triple-A Toledo. He had an upward mobility clause in his contract and the Tigers didn’t want him to get away. However, they made a number of additions to their roster ahead of the deadline, squeezing Poulin onto the waiver wire.
The Nats gave him a roster spot and could give him a significant big league audition as well. Ahead of the deadline, they sent out Kyle Finnegan, Luis García and Andrew Chafin, opening some bullpen spots. They also moved Brad Lord to the rotation a few weeks ago to replace the injured Trevor Williams. The trade of Michael Soroka opened another rotation spot.
In short, there are a lot of innings to cover down the stretch, so guys like Poulin and Beeter could earn roles on next year’s club by putting up some decent numbers before the offseason. Poulin becomes the fourth lefty in the big league bullpen alongside Jose A. Ferrer, Konnor Pilkington and Shinnosuke Ogasawara.
Photo courtesy of Dave Nelson, Imagn Images