Nationals Release Joe La Sorsa

Jan. 30: La Sorsa cleared release waivers and is now a free agent, the Nationals announced.

Jan. 29: The Nationals announced that they have requested unconditional release waivers on left-hander Joe La Sorsa. The lefty was already off the 40-man roster, as he was designated for assignment when the Nats signed Shinnosuke Ogasawara last week.

La Sorsa, 27 in April, has a previous career outright. The Nats passed him through waivers last offseason before eventually selecting him back to the roster in August. A player with a previous career outright has the right to reject another such assignment in favor of free agency. That’s likely why the Nats have placed him on release waivers instead of outright waivers.

The southpaw has 50 1/3 major league innings on his track record. Drafted by the Rays, he climbed to the majors with that club but was put on waivers after just two appearances. He was claimed by the Nats in June of 2023. As mentioned, he was off the roster for a portion of the 2024 season but most of his major league innings have come for the Nats. Overall, he has a 4.47 earned run average, 19.2% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 40.9% ground ball rate.

In the minors, he had really strong numbers in 2022 but has leveled off since then. He logged 73 1/3 innings on the farm in that 2022 season with a 2.33 ERA, 31.4% strikeout rate and 3.6% walk rate. Over the two most recent seasons, he’s thrown 92 2/3 minor league innings with a 2.82 ERA but with his 18% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate both moving in the wrong direction.

La Sorsa doesn’t throw hard, with his fastball averaging just 90.4 miles per hour in the majors last year, and has generally had subpar strikeout rates. But his small sample of big league work has had him avoid significant damage, with Statcast having his average exit velocity and hard hit rate both a bit better than average. He has a couple of options and less than a year of service time, which could add to his appeal as a depth option.