Sean Doolittle, a quirky, beloved player who helped take the Nationals to the World Series, is returning to D.C., after playing last season for the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners.

Doolittle, a left-handed reliever, pitched for the Nationals from 2017 to 2020. During that time, he endeared himself to Washingtonians with his advocacy work in the region, his geeky love of Star Wars, his speaking out against racist and homophobic language by other players, and even his decision to decline President Trump’s invitation to the White House after the World Series.

Doolittle’s return to D.C. was first reported by Washington Post reporter Jesse Dougherty and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Monday. On Wednesday evening, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo confirmed that the team had agreed to terms for a one-year contract with Doolittle.

When Doolittle was first traded to Washington in 2017, he was reluctant to leave Oakland, Ca., where he had played for the Athletics.

“I’d been to D.C. a few times but my nerd ass never made it past the free museums,” Doolittle recalled in a 2020 farewell letter to D.C. “I’m well aware that I’m weird, a bit of an acquired taste — not for everyone. But you immediately welcomed my wife and me into your community.

“We immersed ourselves in the District. We fell in love with the city,” Doolittle wrote.

Doolittle, an avid reader, was known for his patronage of D.C.’s independent bookshops, music stores and restaurants, along with his wife Eireann Dolan. “We spend a lot of our free time in Shaw, Columbia Heights, and 14th and U,” Doolittle told the Washingtonian in 2018.

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Doolittle, with his bushy red beard and wire frame glasses, was even mistaken for Capitol Hill Books employee when he stopped by the store once in 2020. He has helped raise money for independent book stores and encouraged kids to read more, even appearing on a WAMU Kojo For Kids broadcast in 2020.

“I love to read,” Doolittle said on the show. “It’s my favorite thing to do when I’m not at the field, playing baseball. For me, it’s been something that kind of helps me focus on something other than baseball, so that I don’t get too consumed by it.”

Playing for the Nationals, Doolittle pitched in 142⅔ innings and had a 3.03 earned run average, or ERA. In 2019, he was instrumental in securing the Nationals a place in the World Series, and in beating the Houston Astros to take the championship.

But when the team was invited to the White House to celebrate, Doolittle was torn — he wanted to celebrate with his teammates, but he didn’t want to appear to support President Trump. “There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” Doolittle explained to the Washington Post at the time.

This story was updated to add the team’s confirmation of Doolittle’s return to D.C.