Julian Fernández has taken a winding road through professional baseball, but that road now runs through Rochester. Over the weekend, the Washington Nationals claimed the hard-throwing right-hander off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and assigned him to the Red Wings, giving local fans the chance to see one of the game’s hardest throwers up close.
Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic as a teenager in 2012, Fernández has spent more than a decade climbing bullpens and battling setbacks across multiple organizations. He’s appeared in the majors with both Colorado and Los Angeles and has also worn the uniforms of the Giants and Marlins along the way. Now, at age 29, he’s looking to carve out his next chapter in Washington’s system.
Rochester is getting him at the perfect time. Pitching for Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier this season, Fernández dominated hitters down the stretch. Across 14 outings and 15.1 innings, he piled up 22 strikeouts while issuing just five walks and surrendering only a single earned run. It was one of the sharpest stretches of his career, highlighted by the overwhelming velocity that has been his calling card since his teenage years.
That fastball once reached a jaw-dropping 105 mph in the minors, and when he debuted with the Rockies, he delivered the fastest pitch Statcast had ever tracked for Colorado at 102.4 mph. Though injuries—including Tommy John surgery in 2017—have tempered his top speeds, Fernández still lights up radar guns, regularly sitting in the upper 90s and occasionally touching triple digits. Scouts continue to marvel at his four-seamer, which averages 97 mph with late life and generates whiffs 15% of the time. His changeup, thrown in the mid-80s with heavy drop, has become an increasingly effective weapon, producing swings and misses at a remarkable 40% clip.
The challenge, as always, has been command. Fernández’s slider has largely fallen out of his repertoire this year, leaving him to rely primarily on his fastball and changeup. When he locates them, he can be overpowering; when not, he becomes hittable. But the strides he made in Oklahoma City this season were real. With a 3-0 record, 49 strikeouts against just 15 walks, and a WHIP of 1.26, he showed the consistency that had long eluded him—good enough to earn a brief call-up with the Dodgers before roster shuffling ended his stay.
Now, he gets a fresh chance in the Nationals organization, and Rochester gets the benefit of a pitcher still very much in his prime. For a Red Wings club always looking for bullpen arms who can change the game, Fernández arrives as a true wild card: low risk, high reward, and undeniably electric when everything clicks.
Fans won’t have to wait long to see him in action. Fernández is expected to make his Innovative Field debut this week as the Toledo Mud Hens roll into town for a six-game series starting Tuesday evening at 6:45. With his history of lighting up radar guns, Rochester may be about to witness one of the hardest throwers to ever wear the uniform.