Cla Meredith to have Tommy John surgery

Downgrade the chances that Cla Meredith makes the bullpen this season from a C+ to an F. In a scene that's becoming far too common for Nats pitchers, Meredith will require Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament (cue Strasburg flashbacks) in his elbow.

In Meredith's first bullpen session of the spring, he had to stop after experiencing pain in his throwing elbow. Meredith was at the core of the San Diego Padres bullpen from 2006 until mid way through 2009, amassing 237.1 innings over those three and a half seasons.

The Nats weren't really relying on Meredith to be a key member of the bullpen this season, but it's just one less guy to compete for the incredibly limited roster spots at a Nats camp where very few jobs are guaranteed. Best of luck to Cla in his recovery.

One Local Product Leaves and Another Joins the Nats

Cla Meredith - Courtesy SI.com

Lost in the shuffle of the Justin Maxwell roster move yesterday is the Nats signing of the submarining reliever Cla Meredith. So when the Nats lost the local product and UMD grad in Maxwell, they picked up a another local player in Meredith, a VCU grad.

You may have caught Meredith, or "The Claw", most recently on the MASN family of networks as he spent the last one and a half seasons in the Orioles organization. Meredith sports a 3.62 ERA over his career, but he's coming off of the worst season yet. He put up a 5.40 ERA with the O's until June 22, when he was DFA'd by the organization.

In the Nats continued effort to shore up their pitching, The Claw earned a minor league deal and an invite to spring training with the organization, so we'll certainly keep an eye on him when Capitol Baseball is in Viera from March 9-12. We have to imagine he'll still be in camp at least that long.