The Nationals announced they’ve optioned center fielder Víctor Robles to Triple-A Rochester. Fellow outfielder Andrew Stevenson has been recalled in his place.
It’s the culmination of back-to-back poor seasons for Robles, who finds himself in the minors for the first time since 2018. Robles has more or less been Washington’s everyday center fielder over the past three seasons, a role he’s been expected to hold for years. A one-time top prospect, Robles seized the center field job during the Nats’ World Series winning 2019 campaign. While he was a slightly below-average hitter that year, Robles rated as one of the league’s best baserunners and defensive outfielders. Only 22 years old, he looked to be a core piece who could emerge as an All-Star caliber player with just a bit of an improvement at the plate over the coming seasons.
Not only has Robles not taken another step offensively, he’s completely fallen flat at the plate. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, the right-handed hitter has posted a .209/.304/.302 line over 558 plate appearances. That translates to a 67 wRC+ that suggests Robles has been 33 percentage points worse than the league average hitter. Of the 181 hitters with 500+ plate appearances over the past two years, only four (Kevin Newman, Elvis Andrus, Gregory Polanco and Garrett Hampson) have been less productive at the plate.
Those struggles have cost Robles playing time in recent days, as he hadn’t started a game since Friday. Lane Thomas, acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, has started the past three games in center and is in the lineup there again tonight. With Robles relegated to fourth outfielder duty at the big league level, the Nationals have evidently determined it better to get him continued reps against minor league pitching.
The Nationals could bring Robles back up relatively shortly, as position players only need be on optional assignment for ten days before they’re eligible to be recalled. (They can be brought up within ten days if recalled to replace an injured player). However, the timing of the demotion could suggest they’re prepared to leave Robles in the minors for additional experience. Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players starting tomorrow, so the Nats weren’t under immediate pressure to make a move from a roster limit perspective. Instead, it seems the team has decided an optional assignment to be the more prudent course of action for Robles’ long-term development.
Even if Robles doesn’t return to the majors this season, the demotion shouldn’t have an effect on his service time outlook. He entered the season with 2.052 years of big league time and has already accrued around 152 days of service this season. That’s more than enough to push him beyond the three-year threshold as had been anticipated. He’ll qualify for arbitration for the first time this offseason and is still ticketed to reach free agency over the 2024-25 offseason — assuming he begins next year on Washington’s active roster.
I remember a few years ago, I was with my ex wife and met up with a group that she went to HS with back in the Dominican. One of them works for the Nationals and l was joking around and said they better not ever trade Robles he is the best prospect the Nats have. He looked at me and smiled, no we have another kid that Robles wish’s he was good as. I remember Robles ranked the highest and said to myself wonder who’s going to be correct in a few years? The ranking systems or the front office? We all know the answer to that now.
yikes a hard fall off for a guy who was a consensus top 30 prospect a couple of seasons ago.
Nice to see two Pirates in the ‘list of 4 players less effective than Robles’
Hoping Stevenson finally figured it out. Otherwise, he will end up as another AAAA guy. Great kid, hoping he can put it all together.
Imagine if he lived up to potential. Soto is already the best hitter in baseball imo. Parring him with a GG CF who hits would have been so scary.
Thankfully, as a Pirates fan, the Nats wouldn’t trade him for McCutchen and we got Reynolds instead.
I can’t imagine this trip to the minors would last long unless their AAA team is in the playoffs. Rosters expand tomorrow by two players.
This kid was consistently ranked ahead of Soto in many rankings… he was a sure lock can’t miss prospect … funny how time changes things
I never understood that and I am not just saying this because Soto is a star player. I looked at his batting average. A great deal of the difference between his batting average and on base percentage was due to the fact that he got hit so many times. He actually is walking a lot more this year but the lack of power coupled with the inability to hit for anything acceptable led to this. I would have sent him down about a month ago. Davey Martinez has given him every opportunity but he just hasn’t been able to put it together. Lane Thomas has done nothing but hit and drawn walks since he came up. I don’t know how long this will last but he deserves a chance to keep the job.
Using an option for the last week of the season is wasteful! If you are sending him a message for one week, grow up! You could have just benched him! He deserves the demotion ,but could have been done 2 months ago, so he had a chance to correct his errors…In a week The AA season ends!
He needs to be playing, not sitting. Being on the minors will help (perhaps) get him right.
this year the minor league season ends first week of October. Season started late due to covid.
Thank You! I stand corrected by you gang!
The Minor League schedule lasts until the end of September this year. That gives Robles another month’s worth of playing time.
Thank You! Shows you they train an old dog with new knowledge!
As a Pirate fan I just want to say….Being in the same category as Polanco and Newman is pretty bad.
Another example that young players do not always improve…but I’m sure people will continue to act like anyone who says that one of their team’s prospects might not become a good ML player within a couple years is insane and doesn’t understand how development works.
Who acts like that? I think your building a straw man there.
I live in Arizona, I said Victor Robles was better than Ronald Acuna after watching them in the Arizona Fall League, good call