Washington Nationals reportedly calling Cade Cavalli up to make MLB debut on Friday...

In 20 starts and 97 innings pitched at Triple-A Rochester this season, Cade Cavalli, 24, and the Washington Nationals’ 2020 1st Round pick and top-ranked pitching prospect, has put up 39 walks (3.62 BB/9), piled up 104 Ks (9.65 K/9), and held opposing hitters to a .215 BAA.

Cavalli tossed 15 ²⁄₃ innings in July without an earned run scoring, and through four starts and 21 IP this month, he’s allowed 16 hits and six earned runs in 21 IP (2.57 ERA).

According to multiple reports this afternoon, the Nationals plan to call Cavalli up to start in Friday night’s series opener with the Cincinnati Reds.

Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez talked over the weekend about what the next step would be for the right-hander, who was inching towards his first major league start.

“We’re going to wait and see what transpires here in the next — I know he threw a bunch of pitches today,” Martinez said on Saturday. “He struck out a lot of guys, but he threw 109 pitches I think it was, or something like that. So, we’ll wait and see. We’ll continue to monitor him. Like I said, I know his stuff is getting better. A lot of concerns about that, his pitch count gets up there, but we’ll see, I think he’s got one more start maybe here in the next five days, and then we’ll see how that goes and we’ll go from there.

“But that’s a decision that [GM Mike Rizzo] and those guys are going to make here if they deem that he’s ready, I mean, I’ve been keeping an eye on him, and like I said, he’s had some consistency as of late, which is kind of nice, and his stuff is actually really playing well, but we got to get that pitch count down. He’s got to be more efficient.”

“He’s getting better each and every start,” Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s Sports Junkies last week. “You’ve got a pitcher that’s got good stuff, he’s really starting to come on with his third pitch, which he’s put a lot of work in, into his changeup. That looks like it’s going to be a good pitch for him at the big league level, but you also got to remember he did have a great college career, but he didn’t pitch much.”

“He was a two-way player,” Rizzo explained, “... he’s really new to pitching, and he’s really learned fast and on the run, and when you talk about a guy who had a limited amount of innings in high school and college as he has, he’s made a meteoric rise through the minor league rankings, and I think he’s just scratching the surface. He’s going to be a good big league pitcher for us, I’m excited to see him when he gets here, and when the reports are that he’s ready to come to the big leagues, we certainly will not hesitate to bring him here.”

Apparently the reports said he was ready...