The ill-conceived Jonathan Papelbon era as the Washington Nationals closer is unceremoniously over.
The Nats granted Papelbon (19 saves/22 chances, 4.37 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) his unconditional release on Saturday. Papelbon had requested the release after being demoted from the closer role following the trade in which Washington acquired All-Star closer Mark Melancon (32 saves/35 chances, 1.35 ERA, 0.88 WHIP) from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline two weeks ago.
Since Melancon was handed the closer role in DC, he has made five appearances, putting in five scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out seven.
Papelbon has been used twice since the Melancon trade, both in mop-up situations. In his last three outings as the Nats closer, he had two blown saves and a loss, giving eight runs, seven earned, in what amounted to an inning of work, allowing seven hits and walking four over that span.
Washington manager Dusty Baker replaced Papelbon mid-inning in his last appearance as closer, in a 4-2 Nationals win at San Francisco on July 28.
The Nats front office had indicated to Papelbon in recent days that it was intended to designate him for assignment, prompting him to request his outright release so that he could attempt to land a job with another team in the stretch drive of the pennant race.
Washington acquired Papelbon in a trade-deadline deal in July 2015 in a move that blew up the Nats bullpen and effectively the season. The team, at the time in first place in the NL East, demoted All-Star closer Drew Storen to the set-up role to make way for the addition of Papelbon, who did fine in the role (7 saves/9 chances, 3.04 ERA, 1.10 WHIP), but Storen struggled mightily (6.75 ERA in 18.2 innings before breaking his right thumb in a postgame tirade following a Sept. 9 loss to the New York Mets), and the Mets caught and passed the Nationals on their way to the division title and the National League pennant.
Washington is responsible for the remainder of Papelbon’s $11 million salary for 2016.