Mitchell Parker knows the question is coming. Just go ahead and spit it out. He’s thinking about it, too.
What’s the biggest thing he wanted to work on this offseason?
“The big one, obviously,” Parker said.
Right. Pitch mix? No? Okay, mechanics? No? Well then, what?
“Obviously, need to be able to field my position,” Parker said. “I’m not going to be able to last in the games if you can’t do that.”
Oh, right. That. Before addressing the problem, a quick look at the positives. Parker was arguably the most unexpected success story of the Nationals’ 2024 season. The 25-year-old lefty, a fifth-round pick in 2020, arrived for Washington this past April and became the first Nationals pitcher to earn a win in his MLB debut since Stephen Strasburg. He remained in the rotation for the whole season, even though he had been called up because of injury. Parker finished with the most strikeouts (133) by a rookie in team history.
But Parker’s most glaring problem had nothing to do with the pitches he was throwing — it was his defense once the ball was in play. Parker finished with five errors, tied with four other pitchers for the most at the position. Everyone else with five errors fielded their position cleanly at least 19 times. Parker had eight combined putouts and assists.
Some of Parker’s errors cost him extra pitches in an outing. Some led to sequences that nearly proved to be the difference in the game.
“I mean, it’s horrible,” Parker said. “It’s something that we do 1,000 times here. It’s something that we’ve done countless times coming through the minor league system. So being able to mess it up that much was frustrating. … We’re working on it now and worked on it a bit this offseason. Just taking it one step at a time trying to improve however we can.”
Parker is looking to build upon a 2024 campaign that started as well as he could have hoped. He allowed three runs or less in his first 10 starts. Then, fatigue started to set in. After a 3.90 ERA in the first half, Parker had a 4.91 ERA in the second.
That wasn’t enough to earn a guaranteed spot in this year’s rotation. Trevor Williams, whom the Nationals re-signed this offseason, should have a leg up for a spot in the rotation behind MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Michael Soroka. So Parker is competing against DJ Herz and Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Herz overcame a rocky start to his rookie campaign to finish the year firing on all cylinders. Ogasawara is in the mix even as he adjusts to pitching in the States.
Parker didn’t enter spring training with new pitches. He just wanted to develop consistency with his fastball, curveball, splitter and slider, an offering designed to keep left-handed hitters off balance. Parker also said his struggles last season stemmed from not executing pitches when it mattered.
Pitching coach Jim Hickey said, to the naked eye, Parker’s delivery is more efficient with less movement than last year. After his bullpen session Thursday, Hickey remarked that Parker’s splitter has a mind of its own. Another coach who watched Parker walked off the field, took an exasperated breath as he shook his head and said, “He’s looked like the best pitcher in camp.”
As for fielding, Hickey said Parker has been taking extra groundballs on the back fields, with live batters laying down bunts so that Parker can get a more realistic game feel. The goal for Parker is simple: be more athletic on the mound and use proper footwork. The hardest part is not rushing. It’s realizing that he has enough time to make the play. It doesn’t have to be harder than it needs to be. But it’s one thing to say it. It’s another to execute it.
Just ask Irvin, who finished last season with six defensive runs saved according to FanGraphs. What’s the key to fielding your position successfully? Irvin says trusting your preparation. Put more simply: “Don’t think,” Irvin said before laughing.
Irvin has talked to Parker about fielding his position and compares it to guidance given to skiers, who are simply told to look at the path they’re going. If someone tells a skier not to look at the trees off to the side, they’re likely to look at the trees, Irvin said.
“Whatever you tell your mind to think about, that’s what’s going to happen,” Irvin said. “If he’s telling himself, ‘I don’t want to mess up these plays,’ the thought in his brain is that ‘I don’t want to mess up’ versus ‘I’m going to make these plays.’
“So now you change the focus. The focus isn’t ‘Don’t mess up,’ it’s ‘Make the play.’”
That was Irvin’s message on a recent day in West Palm Beach, as Parker struggled through a round of fielding practice.
On one grounder, the ball bounced off the inside of his glove. He repeated it again and got it right. On another, Parker went to cover first base on a chopper and missed the base. He repeated it again and got it right. Later, Parker tried to backhand a grounder and it clanked off his glove. Frustrated, he repeated it again. He got it right. Baby steps.
“We don’t make it like something that’s negative,” bench coach Miguel Cairo said. “He does a lot of stuff good. So we’re trying to see all of the good stuff. And there’s some little things that he needs to get better at. … It doesn’t happen overnight. Just one day at a time.”
