April 26: The Nats have formally announced the move. Righty Koda Glover was transferred from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
April 25, 5:59pm: Infielder Jake Noll is in the lineup for the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate tonight, indicating that he’ll be a corresponding 25-man roster move. The Nats will still need to clear a 40-man roster spot for Kieboom.
4:52pm: The Nationals will promote top infield prospect Carter Kieboom prior to Friday’s series opener against the Padres, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Kieboom, a top 50 league-wide prospect in the eyes of Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs and ESPN, is not on the Nationals’ 40-man roster. A corresponding move to fit him onto the roster will be necessary.
Kieboom, 21, was Washington’s top pick (No. 28 overall) in the 2016 draft. He’s hit at every level throughout his quick ascension to the big leagues, though the torrid start he’s enjoyed thus far in his first exposure to Triple-A pitching is his best work yet. Through 83 plate appearances, Kieboom has crushed opponents with a .379/.506/.636 batting line, three homers, six doubles and a triple. Since being drafted, Kieboom is a combined .286/.373/.471 hitter across all levels at which he’s played — despite the fact that he has consistently been hitting against older, more experienced pitchers.
The exact manner in which the Nationals will utilize Kieboom is not yet clear, but it stands to reason that if the Nats are calling him up this early, the plan is for him to get regular at-bats. Kieboom is a shortstop by trade but has split his time between both middle-infield positions this season. The Nats are without Trea Turner for what figures to be another couple of weeks and have been starting the light-hitting Wilmer Difo in his place, but third baseman Anthony Rendon has also been banged up and out of the lineup for a few days. Offseason signee Brian Dozier has yet to hit much, but he’ll presumably be given a longer leash to get things right.
Though the Nationals’ infield is crowded with veterans when at full strength, they’ve shown a willingness to promote prospects early in the past and carry them for the duration of the season — as was the case with Rookie of the Year runner-up Juan Soto last season. Kieboom has a long way to go before forcing the organization’s hand in that same manner, but if he’s up in the big leagues for good, the Nationals would be able to control him through the end of the 2025 season (though he’d be a slam dunk Super Two player in arbitration).
Kaboom
See ya Trevor Rosenthal
My first thought as well but that short hands our already horrible bullpen…I would think a reliever like Hoover if that was the case. I am puzzled.
They can DFA Rosenthal for the 40 man spot and then call up any other pitcher already on the 40.
Id say the [guarenteed] money might be on Noll (similar positions) or Rainey. (continued hittability and proneness to walks in AAA) Could be wrong though.
MLB.com’s ETA on him: 2020.
I don’t know why, but being conservative when it comes to prospects doesn’t seem to make any sense in 2019 and going forward.
This a estimate. Mlb tends to be subpar compared to ba, but hey, when push comes to shove and they need something better… why not?
I briefly thought to myself last season how much of a curiosity it would be to see Soto, Robles, and Kieboom win the ROY in successive season. Well, they could still have three top twos in two seasons.
Tatis Alonso and paddack say good luck
we’ll see how the former two adjust throughout the season, and what Paddack’s inning cap is. I won’t say the race is over yet, in fact, it’s quite far from it.
theoretically, kieboom could still qualify for ROY candidacy depending on how long he sticks in DC. christian walker still has his rookie status intact, and he debuted in the bigs way back in 2014…
It’s all over when Lux debuts shortly!
We’ll see how Robles adjusts is more like it. He has an unsustainable .396 BABIP with a 4% walk rate accompanied by a 31% K rate. I’d say the regression beast is most likely to hit him the hardest.
If I were to bet on a guy right now it’d be Pete Alonso. Chris Paddack is also a stud but he may not be able to pitch all year. Tatis is pretty great too though he has the high BABIP/K issue like Robles. Only not as drastic. Any of those guys I’d take over Robles easily in ROY voting
If Turner had not gotten hurt for such a long time, this would likely have been an accurate ETA.
whoa!
When I read his name I always hear Marvin Martian in my mind: “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!”
Marvin, wait for the bullpen door to open….
It’s convenient that he’s called up now, because they’ll own him through 2025, but he wouldn’t have made sense as an OD call-up, and he makes perfect sense for a call-up right now. So you certainly can’t fault the Nationals for the timing, even though it works perfectly for them (though Super 2 will probably happen if he’s any good).
Not everything needs to be about service time manipulation. The guy had never played AAA baseball and they signed Brian Dozier AND had a healthy Trea Turner starting up the middle. Not to mention this guy put up very pedestrian numbers in a 250 AB sample size in AA. Which is all the ABS in the upper minors he had before this year.
There was no room or reason for carter Kieboom. Especially since he’s just starting to make that transition to 2B. Fast forward to now, Dozier has been awful and Turner is hurt. There’s still no guarantee this lasts any longer than Turner’s injury as they have howie Kendrick and I don’t think they’re giving up on Dozier yet.
I know…I said he wasn’t ready. You just made a long post as though I disagreed with anything you would have said…
Yes!
Goodbye Dozier.
Lol.
Kieboom gets rewarded for playing well in AAA. Imagine that.
Blue Jays, take note (see Biggio, Cavan).
Good luck to Carter.
Thank goodness. So tired of Wilmer Difo. Nats should have done this on April 4th (the day they found out Turner’s finger was broken).
Will be interesting to see the corresponding roster move.
Glad to see Nats don’t wait around with any of these young guys—see need address it. Difo just not cutting it right now.
addition by subtraction. Trevor Rosenthal must free up his roster spot. however necessary. you can’t come in from the BP and have one of 3 results… hit the batter, walk the batter or let the batter get a hit
Will WAS 2B Brian Dozier and SDP 2B Ian Kinsler be traded mid season?