Armed with a sweeper, new plan, Irvin looks to evolve in '26

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Jake Irvin takes pride in bringing durability to the Nationals rotation. As a testament to that, last season he led the team in starts and innings pitched. This year, though, he has a different approach on how he can best help the Nats.

“One of the things that they've really hammered home at camp has been being a relentless competitor,” Irvin said. “And I think at times, I was a tireless competitor where I threw a lot of innings, but they weren't always quality.”

Since the start of the 2024 season, Irvin has thrown the eighth-most innings in baseball (367 2/3). He and Giants righty Logan Webb are the only pitchers to make at least 33 starts the last two seasons in a row.

Irvin, who turned 29 last week, is coming off a 2025 performance in which he went 9-13 in 180 frames across 33 outings. He recorded a league-high 5.70 ERA, up from 4.41 the previous year, and he also had the highest ERA in the first inning (9.82).

“We see a better athlete in there,” manager Blake Butera said. “We see a better arm in there. We see a better version of Jake Irvin. We don't want him to just feel like he's a guy that's going to go out there and just eat innings. We want him to go out there and dominate.”

This winter, Irvin worked with pitching coach Simon Mathews and assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle to develop a plan for this season. They emphasized intent behind every pitch.

Irvin added a sweeper to complement his repertoire. He threw a mix of four-seamer (32%), curveball (29.6%), sinker (22.2%), changeup (7.7%), slider (4.3%) and cutter (4.2%) last season.

With a focus on sequencing his arsenal, Irvin believes he can be more effective with runners on base and in high-leverage situations.

“There’s been an uptick of stuff in the bullpen,” Butera said. “We've told him, it's OK to kind of mess with some pitches right now and maybe take a slight step back here in February, knowing that if we do get that stuff to tick up a little bit more with what he's already able to do of being out there every day and pitching and having that experience. We think there's more there.”

Irvin applied that mindset in his Grapefruit League debut on Monday. He completed two scoreless innings against the Phillies with one hit, two walks and two strikeouts. Of his 43 pitches, Irvin threw mostly curveballs, changeups and fastballs.

“Right now, we’re working on so many different sequencing things that I’m throwing pitches that maybe later on aren’t necessarily the same,” Irvin said. “But I’m just trying to experiment a little bit, do a few different things to get comfortable being super uncomfortable right now.”

Irvin is taking this mentality into his fourth Major League season, and first with a new coaching staff.

“I hope we stay in what we worked on all offseason: helping me go pitch to pitch and stay in the process of helping us win ballgames, versus just throwing a lot of innings,” said Irvin. “My goal is always to be an ace, somebody that the team can rely on.”