The Nationals made adjustments to their bullpen and their catching corps in advance of tonight’s series opener against the Marlins, activating Mason Thompson off the 60-day injured list, designating Sam Clay for assignment, calling up Tres Barrera from Triple-A and optioning Riley Adams to Rochester.

The bullpen moves bring Thompson back to the big leagues nearly three months after he went down with a right biceps strain only two appearances into the season. The right-hander recently began a rehab assignment and made six total appearances between the rookie Florida Complex League and Triple-A, allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings, striking out 11 without issuing any walks.

Thompson gives manager Davey Martinez another potential setup option to take some of the workload off Carl Edwards Jr. and Kyle Finnegan, who each made four appearances in six days over the last week and each was scored upon during Wednesday’s 8-7 loss to the Pirates.

Clay also pitched Wednesday, his first appearance since getting called back up from Rochester. The left-hander, though, issued a walk and then hit a batter, finally recording an out on a sacrifice bunt before he was pulled by Martinez.

Clay still had minor league options, but the Nationals elected to designate him for assignment, opening a necessary spot on the 40-man roster for Thompson’s return from the 60-day IL. Signed away from the Twins prior to the 2021 season, Clay wound up making 64 total appearances for the Nats, with a 6.02 ERA and 1.682 WHIP.

The Nationals returned from a five-game road trip and made a quick roster move before beginning a seven-game homestand tonight against the Pirates.

They recalled left-hander Sam Clay from Triple-A Rochester and optioned fellow southpaw Francisco Perez to Rochester, bringing in a fresh lefty arm for the bullpen. Perez’s demotion comes after he allowed three runs without recording an out in the ninth inning of yesterday’s finale against the Rangers, forcing manager Davey Martinez to call upon Tanner Rainey to close out the 6-4 win.

“Look, this game, as you know, we have to make tough decisions,” Martinez said of the move during his pregame session with the media. “But (Perez) had an outing yesterday, faced a couple of batters and got hit hard. So we just want him to go down and continue to get some work in. We brought Sam up, give him an opportunity. As you know, we're short on lefties in the bullpen. And we're always searching, we're always looking. So Sam has been pitching well down there. So we're gonna give him an opportunity to pitch up here. But that's not to say that we won't see Francisco again. He's gonna go down there and just continue to work.”

Clay went 1-2 with a 3.10 ERA, 20 strikeouts and seven walks in 21 relief appearances for Rochester. He tossed scoreless outings of relief in 17 of the 21 appearances with the Red Wings. The 29-year-old has given up five runs in four innings over five appearances with the Nats this season.

Perez, 24, posted a 7.27 ERA across 10 relief appearances for the Nats.

MIAMI – Needing to clear a spot on the active roster for Stephen Strasburg in advance of his return to the mound tonight, the Nationals optioned Sam Clay to Triple-A, sending the reliever back to Rochester only one day after he was called up.

Clay wound up not appearing in a game during this brief stint after pitching in five games in April during his previous time with the major league club.

The move leaves the Nationals without a left-hander in their bullpen, unless they intend to use Evan Lee in that role again. The rookie, who made his big league debut last week in New York with a 3 2/3-inning start, tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief during Tuesday night’s loss to the Marlins.

With Joan Adon demoted to Triple-A following a ragged outing Tuesday, the Nats will need a fifth starter Sunday against the Brewers. Lee appears to be the most likely candidate for that assignment, unless he’s needed in relief before then.

“We’ll see how the game goes,” manager Davey Martinez said. “If we need him today, he’s readily available. If we don’t and we can stay away from him, then we can do something else come that day we need a starter. But he’s here, we ask him every day how he’s doing, he says he feels great. … Today he’s going to go throw, we’ll see how he feels. If he’s available and we need him, he’ll pitch today. If we can stay away from him, then he’ll possibly start in the next few days.”

MIAMI – The Nationals gave Joan Adon two months to experience life pitching every fifth day in the big leagues, letting the rookie right-hander take his lumps while trying to emphasize the positives despite his unsightly overall numbers. By the time he was roughed up by the Marlins on Tuesday night, they decided a move was needed.

Adon was optioned to Triple-A Rochester today, a transaction that felt increasingly likely in recent weeks and came to a head during Tuesday’s 12-2 blowout loss. The Nats for now used the roster opening that demotion created to recall reliever Sam Clay from Rochester, though they already know they’ll need to make another move before Thursday’s series finale, in which Stephen Strasburg will come off the 60-day injured list to make his long-awaited season debut.

Adon heads back to the minors after going 1-10 with a major-league-worst 6.95 ERA in 12 starts, capped off by Tuesday’s outing, in which he allowed eight runs before recording an out in the fourth inning.

“At this point, we want him to understand and work on some things without the pressure of going out there every five days and competing up here,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We want him to go down and work on some things. We had a great conversation yesterday, all positive. This kid’s going to come back here. He’s going to help us win games. His stuff is electric. He’s just got to learn how to use it effectively.”

The Nationals knew the risk they were taking putting Adon in their opening day rotation. The 23-year-old made only three starts at Double-A and one at Triple-A before getting the call to make his major league debut in the final game of the 2021 season.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Nationals are off today, with an opportunity to relax in Denver and contemplate all the positive developments that occurred during their weekend series triumph over the Giants before they open a three-game series Tuesday with the Rockies.

Let’s take a moment to contemplate some things as well, with a particular emphasis on the bullpen …

* Following Sunday’s 11-5 victory, the Nationals optioned relievers Sam Clay and Francisco Pérez to Triple-A Rochester. All major league clubs were required to reduce their active rosters from 28 to 26 by the end of the day, and the Nats chose to drop two left-handers in the process.

The moves weren’t necessarily surprising. Neither Clay nor Pérez made the opening day roster. Both were summoned more recently when other relievers went down. And neither did a whole lot to distinguish himself and force his way onto the roster for a longer stint.

Clay allowed five runs in four innings, giving up a homer, walking two and even hitting three batters along the way. Pérez was charged with only one run allowed over 4 1/3 innings, but he walked a whopping six of the 22 total batters he faced across five appearances.

It’s a tough ask for any pitcher to come up to the big leagues and make a spot start. You’re usually facing an unfamiliar lineup and have done little preparation.

But Aaron Sanchez has been around the block a few times over his seven-year major league career. He had pitched in 159 games while making 103 starts with the Blue Jays, Astros and Giants before making his Nationals debut this afternoon.

And he’s familiar with his opponent, the Giants, who he pitched for last season, while also being on one extra day of rest from his last start with Triple-A Rochester on Sunday. So Nationals manager Davey Martinez liked the matchup for Sanchez to make a spot start.

Sanchez pitched admirably in this opportunity, but was done in by the bookends of his outing that only lasted 4 ⅓ innings en route to a 5-2 loss in front of 27,799 fans on a beautiful 73 degree day in the District.

"I thought I threw the ball well," Sanchez said in front of his new locker at Nationals Park after the game. "Early, they got a couple of hits that found holes. Mostly throughout most of the game, I felt like they found holes. Maybe two to three hard hit balls. But that's baseball. I felt like maybe in the fifth pitch selection could have been a little different now going back and looking at it. But I thought, for the most part, I threw the ball well."