The Nationals announced this morning that left-hander DJ Herz has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Herz had been optioned to Triple-A last Friday, but that option has been rescinded in favor of a major league IL placement, presumably after testing revealed an injury sustained in big league camp.
While the team hasn’t announced a formal timetable or treatment plan, it’s an ominous injury. The sprain, by definition, indicates some stretching/tearing of the ligament. The majority of UCL sprains result in Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure, either of which would wipe out Herz’s entire season. Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reports that Herz has experienced a dead arm throughout camp and saw his velocity drop this spring, which only further adds to the level of concern.
Herz, 24, came to the Nationals in the trade sending Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs back in 2023. He made his big league debut last summer and quickly showed that he has a place in the team’s long-term plans. After logging a 3.89 ERA in 10 Triple-A starts, Herz started 19 games and tallied 88 2/3 MLB frames, working to a solid 4.16 earned run average. The 2019 eighth-rounder fanned an impressive 27.7% of his opponents and also radically improved his command in the majors; Herz has walked more than 15% of his opponents throughout his minor league tenure, including a ghastly 19% in Triple-A last year, but he cut that to a 9.4% rate in the majors. That’s only one percentage point north of league-average and is plenty passable for someone who can miss bats at Herz’s levels.
Even without any knowledge of the dead arm, a cursory glance at Herz’s spring stats would’ve suggested something was amiss. After that strong output between Triple-A and the majors last year, he’s been rocked for nine runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and nine walks in Grapefruit League play. He’s fanned only four of the 49 batters he’s faced and yielded a pair of home runs.
Having been optioned to Triple-A Rochester already, Herz wasn’t in the Nationals’ immediate rotation plan. Now, the question is whether he’ll factor into their plan anytime before the 2026 season. With Herz sidelined for the short term at the very least, Washington’s rotation will feature MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and offseason signees Michael Soroka and Trevor Williams (the latter of whom re-signed with the Nats on a two-year deal after also spending the 2023-24 seasons there). The Nats optioned another free-agent addition, former NPB lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara, to Rochester to begin his career in North American ball. They also have righty Josiah Gray and former top prospect Cade Cavalli both on the comeback trail after undergoing Tommy John surgery to address their own UCL injuries.