Last spring the Manny Acta announced that John Patterson would be the Opening Day starter for the Nationals in 2007. It’s a pretty safe bet now that he will not be given the same honor in 2008. The Nationals released Patterson today as he has suffered injuries and been pretty ineffective this spring.
Patterson is 0-2 so far this spring with an ERA of 7.00. Despite his history of injuries it’s still a big surprising that the Nationals decided to release Patterson. The main reason it’s surprising is that the Nationals are just so starved for pitching. I suppose they just got tired of waiting on the guy to get healthy and decided it was simply time to move on.
My guess is that Patterson latches on with someone on a minor league deal as he tries to get himself healthy. He is still relatively young at 30 and could have a number of innings in that arm. The Nationals though, trying to keep costs down didn’t think it was worth it to pay someone who spent so much time on the disabled list.