Nationals' Jake Irvin: Working on slider

Irvin tossed a perfect inning in Saturday's Grapefruit League game against the Astros.

The 28-year-old right-hander needed only eight pitches to breeze through his first game action of the spring. Per Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports, one of those eight pitches was a slider, an offering Irvin is trying to add to his arsenal in an effort to get more whiffs. "I struggled a lot with getting in-zone swing and miss last year," Irvin said after Saturday's outing. "[The slider] is something that will kind of balance out the really slower curveball and the harder fastball. And then my cutter and changeup are both a little harder, too. I wanted something that's in that middle ground there." Irvin posted a 4.41 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 156:52 K:BB over a career-high 187.2 innings in 2024.