Left-hander Colin Poche has elected to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, as the Nats announced earlier tonight. Washington designated Poche for assignment earlier this week and he cleared waivers, but he had the ability to opt into free agency since he has more than five years of MLB service time.
Poche inked a minor league deal with the Nationals back in February and made the team’s Opening Day roster, but the results weren’t pretty. The southpaw had an 11.42 ERA over 13 games and 8 2/3 innings with D.C., with more walks (12) than strikeouts (10). With that rough month in the books, the Nats decided they’d seen enough, and DFA’ed Poche to make room for another veteran lefty reliever in Andrew Chafin.
While a small sample size, Poche’s struggles are a marked departure from the solid numbers he posted with the Rays from 2022-24. He had a 3.86 ERA over 37 1/3 innings in 2024, but Tampa Bay chose to non-tender Poche rather than pay him $3.4MM in a projected arbitration salary. While the Rays’ always-tight budget was certainly a factor in the decision, Poche’s strikeout rate has been on the decline (21.6% last year), and he spent time on the injured list with both shoulder and back problems in 2024.
The 31-year-old Poche will now search the market for a fresh start and another minor league contract. Despite his poor numbers this year, he seems likely to catch on somewhere given his still-recent success in Tampa, and the ever-present need around baseball for left-handed pitching.