Davey Martinez talked after the Washington Nationals optioned Tanner Rainey to Triple-A Rochester this past weekend, about his plans for the club’s post-trade deadline bullpen, explaining that he told the hard-throwing right-hander he wanted him to get things sorted out quickly because he needed Rainey at the back end of the ‘pen after both Brad Hand and Daniel Hudson were traded.
“I spoke to him at length this morning,” Martinez explained. “I just want him to go down and just focus on just throwing strikes, getting his mechanics back. Instead of keeping him up here and just kind of trying to use him in high-leverage situations, I explained to him he’s going to go down there and pitch every other day, he was hurt, he’s been hurt throughout this year, and just get down there, because I explained to him — in the future, that him and [Kyle] Finnegan are going to close out games for us.