PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 24: Jackson Rutledge #79 of the Washington Nationals throws a pitch in the sixth inning during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on August 24, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 3-2. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) Getty
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 22: Jackson Rutledge #79 of the Washington Nationals pitches in the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on September 22, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Getty
In late July, the Philadelphia Phillies released pitcher Jackson Rutledge from their organization.
MLB.com wrote (on July 23): "Lehigh Valley IronPigs released RHP Jackson Rutledge."
He never pitched with the Phillies this season, but did log 1.1 innings with the Washington Nationals .
On Thursday, he inked a new deal with Nippon Professional Baseball, which is the baseball organization in Japan.
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GettyPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – AUGUST 24: Jackson Rutledge #79 of the Washington Nationals throws a pitch in the sixth inning during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on August 24, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 3-2. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
Per multiple reports, Jackson Rutledge has landed a deal with NPB's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan.
MLBTR.com's Steve Adams wrote (about Rutledge's MLB & baseball journey):
"Washington selected the now-27-year-old Rutledge in the first round of the 2019 draft. He spent several years ranked among the Natsâ most promising farmhands but never found his stride in the majors. Obviously, there wasnât a minor league season in 2020, which set back Rutledgeâs development. He then missed more than half the 2021 campaign due to shoulder troubles that limited him to 36 1/3 minor league frames. He spent another month on the 2022 injured list due to an undisclosed issue."
The results in MLB haven't been strong in his MLB opportunities, and NPB is a common landing ground for struggling big-leaguers to 'get right' if you will, in a league where the hitting is a little less prevailing than MLB.
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GettyATLANTA, GEORGIA – SEPTEMBER 22: Jackson Rutledge #79 of the Washington Nationals pitches in the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on September 22, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Across four MLB seasons, Rutledge has logged 103.1 innings.
In 2025, he pitched 73.1 innings with the Nationals, but posted an ERA of 5.77 with just 65 strikeouts.
This season, Rutledge has earned just 1.1 innings on a big-league mound, which I noted before. In that 1.1 IP, he surrendered seven earned runs.
As for the Phillies side of this, Philadelphia obviously took a flyer on Rutledge with a minors deal after he was let go from Washington, but that didn't work out great, either, so going overseas to work on some things is probably the right play for the 27-year-old.
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