Washington took Rutledge 17th overall out of San Jacinto Junior College back in 2019, betting on a 6-foot-8 righty who touched 99 mph and had just led all of NJCAA Division 1 in ERA. He was the kind of prospect scouts dream about — huge frame, easy velocity, the profile of a future top-of-rotation arm.
It never quite came together in the majors. Rutledge got cups of coffee across 4 different big league seasons but posted a 6.29 ERA and struck out just 19% of the batters he faced across 103 total innings. For a guy drafted to be a workhorse starter, that's a brutal line, and it's the kind of stat that ends organizational patience even for a former top-20 pick.
Now 27, Rutledge is doing what a growing number of stalled MLB prospects have done: heading overseas to reset his career. NPB has become a legitimate landing spot for talented arms who can't crack a 40-man roster stateside, offering real money, a full-time rotation spot, and a chance to rebuild trade value or leverage a big 2027 payday if the season goes well.
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks aren't a rebuilding club looking for a reclamation project on the cheap, either — they're one of NPB's flagship franchises, a perennial Pacific League contender with the resources to actually develop a pitcher who once looked like a first-round steal. If Rutledge finds his old velocity and any semblance of the strikeout stuff that got him drafted, this could end up being the best thing that happens to his career.
For Nationals fans, it's a quiet, slightly sad footnote to a draft class that hasn't given the organization much. Rutledge was supposed to be part of the next great Nats rotation; instead he's now chasing his big league dream from the other side of the world.