Rosenthal feeling good, but struggles continue

NEW YORK -- Nationals reliever Trevor Rosenthal was summoned into the manager’s office for a meeting with Dave Martinez and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist prior to Sunday's 12-9 win over the Mets at Citi Field.

Rosenthal had not pitched in a game since Wednesday, with Martinez intentionally giving him a few days off after his disappointing start to the season, but the club wanted to present a clear message to Rosenthal -- “We need you.”

And yet, Rosenthal’s outing in Sunday’s victory only left the Nationals searching for answers once again. Rosenthal faced two batters in the eighth inning and didn't record an out, hitting Dominic Smith with a pitch and walking Luis Guillorme. Rosenthal uncorked two wild pitches and he threw seven pitches total, only one of which landed in the strike zone, before Martinez had seen enough. Rosenthal attempted to convince Martinez to let him continue to pitch in what was then a six-run Nationals lead, but to no avail.

Rosenthal has not retired a batter in any of his first four appearances this season. Of those nine batters, the first seven scored. His ERA is still infinity.

“I’ve never been through anything quite like this, so it's kind of tough,” Rosenthal said. “Physically, I feel so good and so strong, just the ball is not going exactly where I want it to. So I’m just pressing a little bit too much now to make a really good pitch, but I think it's something that I'm going to work out of. I'm going to get there, just hopefully it's sooner rather than later.”

Rosenthal has been trying to work through some mechanics issues. His fastball velocity has remained in the upper 90s even as he's struggled, with the same average velocity (98.4 mph) as his last appearances in the Majors in 2017, which leads the club to believe he is healthy. And his arm feels good. It feels good warming up in the bullpen and on the mound warming up. All until he steps on the mound and gets into game action.

“I’ve been super encouraged because of how good I feel, but that's what makes it more frustrating,” Rosenthal said. “Because I know it's there. I know my stuff's there, I feel better than ever really, but the results aren’t happening.”

Lilliquist, who was Rosenthal’s pitching coach during their previous stop with the Cardinals, has noticed some mechanical flaws that has Rosenthal being too quick on his front side with his motion, which has led to his spotty command. It’s something that would come up from time to time with St. Louis, and Lilliquist wants Rosenthal to get back to throwing his secondary pitches, which require less effort on his body, rather than a fastball near triple digits.

“Biggest thing is, he always had a secondary pitch, whether it was his changeup or his breaking ball, that would help him reset his mechanics and get back in the strike zone,” Lilliquist said. “So, that was essentially another message for him. You’ve got to use a secondary pitch, and that resets your whole mechanics, your body flow, everything. It’s just not a max effort pitch, it’s more of a flow pitch.”

The Nationals don’t think confidence is the issue either. Lilliquist believed Rosenthal still has a “closer's mentality” from his years in that role with the Cards, and he touted the reliever's ability to turn the page on poor outings.

But Rosenthal has not looked the part of a confident flame-thrower the Nats were seeking when they signed him to a free-agent deal in October and touted him as one of their biggest offseason additions to the bullpen.

“We have to come up with something,” Martinez said. “We have to figure something out for him. We tried to tweak something with his mechanics, but we’ve got to keep working on it. It’s tough, because up here, you’ve only got so many guys in the bullpen. You need everybody. I tried to give guys off today that have been pitching quite a bit. These guys have got to pitch. But we’re going to need Rosey. We really are. So we’ve got to get him right.”