The Nationals announced that they designated Justin Maxwell for assignment (Twitter link). The 27-year-old outfielder has showed promise throughout his pro career, but has yet to enjoy sustained success in the major leagues. Back in September, Nats manager Jim Riggleman told Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post that he still had high hopes for Maxwell.
"Hopefully, it all comes together and he has a good spring for us and he's part of the ballclub next year," Riggleman said. "There's no reason to give up on him. I think it's all going to click. There's no last-chance situation."
Maxwell has a .201/.319/.379 line in 260 big league plate appearances and a .261/.357/.442 line in 1778 minor league plate appearances. He has shown speed on the basepaths and the ability to play all three outfield positions.
Especially with his college ball played at University of Maryland, I’d love to see Maxwell find his way into Baltimore’s organization. It is by no means the best fit for him with the crowded outfield, but I’d love to see the options that would arise if he played a full season at AAA Norfolk: Apply pressure on Reimold and Pie, and open more Trade opportunities for a team whose main strength is within their outfield…
For some reason, I feel like he’ll end up in Oakland or Minnesota or a similar team hoping to capitalize on his ceiling (which has lowered over the past year and a half or so)
People will say that he wasn’t given an opportunity to succeed, that he wasn’t given consistent enough at-bats, and that anyone would have failed in that situation. I don’t buy it. He has been given lots of shots by the Nats to prove that he can hit major league pitching and he never once took advantage of it (a few grand slams aside, which were for the record awesome). I loved J. Max, but if you get promoted you have to do something to justify your existence in the bigs. You don’t get a 650pa when you put up a 201/.319/.379 line and strike out as much as he did.
Good luck, Mr. Maxwell. You have the tools, now please find a way to put the ball in play and get some hits!
Exactly how I felt about Kory Casto. Great minor league player but couldn’t hit squat at the major league level.
Add them to the growing list of AAAA players.
His BABIP last year was a crazy awful .200. But even factoring in some incredible bad luck, I still doubt he’s a big league hitter.
This is exactly the type of the player the Braves need, hopefully they can pick him up… I’ve always thought Maxwell was going to be the next big thing, but he has obviously had his troubles adjusting. He would be a welcomed addition to the Braves for depth and perhaps a more important role off the bench.
Maxwell screams “Billy Beane.” 14.6 career BB%, good outfield defense, power potential
The Braves are looking for a right handed OF whow can play CF to be a back up to Nate Mclouth. If I’m Frank Wren I swoop up Maxwell in a second.
It wasn’t so long ago, Maxwell was 25 and ZIPS liked him for a .729 OPS with 24 steals and average CF defense. (2009, to be precise.) A team that has issues with OF depth might be well-advised to sign him and stash him at AAA as a Plan C. The White Sox, maybe?
Typical AAAA player…Has a pretty good glove, but just cannot hit at the Major league level.
I want the Phillies to take a chance on him badly.
I always liked this kid. Here is a big cat that can run, field, and hit (but has shown flashes of it). Even though the outfield is crowded right now, Sandy Alderson should pick up Maxwell whether as a depth move or for him to potentially win a spot on the team. I’d like to see him compete with Pagan for RF in Spring Training because I’m still not really sold on Pagan.
You could always use someone like him for depth especially with Beltran’s health issues but Pagan has put up better #s in the Majors than Maxwell has done in the Minors (except for one year Maxwell hit 27 hrs in AA). Pick him up as a 4th OFer but he is nowhere near Pagan.
I’ve seen him play in AAA and he is always one of the few guys on the field who looks like a major league baseball player. A lot of players are surprisingly small. Mike Morse is gigantic too.
I have to admit, for a team out there, he is worth a pick up because of the tools, but he has batted under 200 in the major leagues every year. Talent, yes, makeup, no.
The nationals are being pretty dumb with designating Martis and now Maxwell for assignment. They both are major league caliber players. I just hope they dont go to a team that the nats play alot, or the yankees
are you kidding? I liked Martis, but he had below average stuff. And Maxwell is absolutely terrible. Great athlete, terrible baseball player. If most of his outs were ground balls or fly outs where he got wood on the ball, then I would have supported us being more patient with him, but he was an automatic strikeout and didnt come close to touching the ball most times.
Jim Bowden, is that you?
Angels should offer Kaz and a PTBNL for Maxiel and Zimmerman
Maxwell is a 30 homerun guy
Maxwell could find a home somewhere else. I might see the braves going after him? he’s cheap and can play all positions.
Please. Any Nats fan looks at him and thinks ‘this guy looks like he should be good’ then you see him play and see he isn’t a MLB player. He may be a nice guy but he won’t help anyone. Martis, well, he never got a shot after he stopped challenging hitters after his promising start… for whatever reason, it seemed like he lost his confidence, not his arm.
It seems Maxwell is recovering from Tommy John surgery…