The Nationals could soon be in line for a shakeup of their infield. Top shortstop prospect C.J. Abrams was arguably the centerpiece of the six-player return for Juan Soto and Josh Bell. The Nats immediately optioned Abrams to Triple-A Rochester, but Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post writes that the club is likely to soon recall the 21-year-old to the majors.
Once Abrams makes his way to Nationals Park, he’s likely to play everyday at shortstop. Dougherty indicates the organization views Abrams as their long-term franchise shortstop, which is hardly a surprise after the club made him a key piece of such a monumental trade. The former sixth overall pick only has a .232/.285/.320 line through his first 46 big league games, but he owns an impressive .311/.366/.503 mark in his first taste of Triple-A action. Baseball America rated him as the sport’s #11 overall prospect on their latest update.
The Nats have already been turning to a young player at shortstop. Luis García has been one of the organization’s more promising prospects for years, but he’s still just 22 years old. The 6’2″ infielder has drawn praise from evaluators for his pure hitting ability. He’s hit plenty of line drives in his limited big league time, but he’s also shown an extremely aggressive approach. García carried a .290 batting average into play tonight, but he’d reached base at just a .295 clip based on a microscopic 0.9% walk rate. (That’s gone up slightly, as he did draw a free pass in tonight’s game).
The jury may still be out on García’s offensive upside, but it’s apparent he’s miscast as a shortstop. Prospect evaluators were divided on his ability to stick at the position long-term, and the results in his big league time have been ghastly. In 568 2/3 career innings at shortstop, García has rated a staggering 19 runs below average by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has him at 17 plays below par. As Mike Petriello of MLB.com observed this afternoon (Twitter link), public defensive metrics have rated the Nationals’ shortstops as by far the worst collection of defenders in the majors this season. That’s not entirely on García — the since-released Dee Strange-Gordon and Alcides Escobar also struggled — but it’s clear the team could use a better defender to anchor the infield.
García won’t lose his spot in the starting lineup on a rebuilding team, though. Once Abrams is in the big leagues, García is likely to kick to the other side of the second base bag. He’s rated as a below-average but not quite so disastrous defender at the keystone. Still, there’s reason for Washington to challenge their young players in non-competitive seasons. That’s particularly true with the team rostering a couple of aging veterans who are playing out the final few months of one-year contracts.
Second baseman César Hernández and third baseman Maikel Franco have each played the majority of games this season, but neither has performed well. Hernández owns a .241/.305/.306 line through 476 plate appearances. The switch-hitting infielder has incredibly not connected on a single home run all season after popping a career-high 21 longballs last year. Franco has only a .228/.255/.337 showing in 373 trips to the plate. Among players with 300+ plate appearances, only Tigers second baseman Jonathan Schoop has a lower on-base percentage (.240) than Franco’s .255.
Clearly, neither player is going to be a key piece of the rebuild. The club’s hope of cashing either in for future value at the trade deadline has come and gone, with both struggling so badly there was no real interest from contenders. With that in mind, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com wonders whether Hernández and Franco will even hold their roster spots for the rest of the 2022 season. Zuckerman notes that Franco may be in better position to remain in the lineup. While Abrams’ arrival should push Hernández out of the starting lineup, journeyman Ildemaro Vargas stands as Franco’s biggest competitor for reps at the hot corner with Carter Kieboom out for the season.
Hernández and Franco aren’t the only struggling veterans on a club that’s 39 games under .500. Southpaw Patrick Corbin has been one of the sport’s least effective starters. After allowing six runs and failing to make it out of the first inning in a start against the Phillies on Saturday, Corbin carries a 7.02 ERA through 110 1/3 innings. That’s easily a personal worst, but Corbin has been well below-average for three straight years after an excellent first season in Washington. Since the beginning of 2020, he owns a 5.98 ERA through 65 starts.
Manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Andrew Golden of the Washington Post) that the club will take advantage of a team off-day on Thursday to skip Corbin’s next turn through the rotation. That’s a temporary measure designed to afford the left-hander more time to work with pitching coach Jim Hickey, and the club is apparently not considering permanently removing Corbin from the starting five. “I want to leave this year with a positive moving forward to next year because, regardless of what anyone thinks, he’s going to be one of our starters next year and the year after that,” Martinez said of Corbin.
The 33-year-old is under contract for two seasons beyond this one. He’s due around $24MM next season and will make a bit more than $35MM come 2024. Given Corbin’s struggles, it’s hard to envision the Nationals getting out from under any of that money. With Washington likely to be rebuilding over the next two seasons anyhow, the club can live with some struggles from Corbin as he picks up innings as part of an uncertain rotation.
Abrams looked overmatched earlier in the season, not quite ready for the bigs. If the Nats think he’s ready, all fine, but also no reason to rush. If he needs more development time, then give it to him. This is not about 2022.
I agree. Let him spend the rest of the season at AAA. They are losing twice as many as they are winning so what’s the point. The would like Corbin and Strasburg to retire.
I’m not sure I agree. It’s true that Abrams was overmatched in his first 20 or so games with the Pads. But he really turned things around and started barreling up, hitting about 280 in his last 20 games. He has advanced skills already and is evolving quickly.
AAA with the Nats is the MLB team at this point, so let him join the youngsters in DC and enjoy the progression..
In the last 20 games, he has a 10/0 K/W. A guy like him should be under 2/1.
@ JoeBrady. Agreed, his weak point is pitch selection/patience, which can be worked on at MLB level. The strongest justifcation I could see in keeping him in minors is to work on baserunning, particularly steals. With his elite speed he needs to develop SB skills.
Little harsh to me to say that Hernandez hasn’t performed well this season batting only .002 points below the league’s average batting average. Grow up buddy.
He’s hit zero HR and only has a .305 on base. Cesar is cooked/finished but he had a hell of a career. I’m not sure it’s harsh to call a duck a duck
Cesar is that you
He has 0 hr this year after hitting 21 last year yes he sucks
@Ham: Other than being hurt and not bothering to tell anyone, how does a veteran go from 21 HR’s to zero in successive seasons?!
“‘I want to leave this year with a positive moving forward to next year because, regardless of what anyone thinks, he’s going to be one of our starters next year and the year after that,” Martinez said of Corbin.”
That’s all well and good but it’s far from certain that Rizzo and Martinez will be with this team next year, after the team is sold.
Even if the current regime does get held over, they owe it to the rest of the team to remove Corbin from the rotation if he can’t turn things around. Nothing should be promised to him.
Rizzo and Martinez should’t be with this team this year much less next year! Martinez World Series win was a fluke! He inherited a winning team and proceeded to coach it into a loosing team (w 303 l 355) that was then dismantled by Rizzo instead of canning Martinez he traded the best players for very little in return! The entire (leadership) of this team is pathetic and that includes Mark Lerner! Hopefully This team will be sold soon to someone that can save this sinking ship!
His role as a manager is to get the best out of his players. Which means he has to show some level of confidence in him if he’s going to be there. The hope has to be that Corbin can turn it around. The manager cannot be dumping on the guy and counting days until his contract expires.
Corbin isn’t going anywhere. The best chance for that was attaching him to Soto and that ship has sailed. They’re likely going to give him a chance next year since they’re not contending and they’re paying him anyway. They’ll cut him in his last year of his contract either before the season a la Justin Upton, or shortly into it like Albert Pujols (with the Angels).
Once you realize this, you’ll see that Martinez’ statement isn’t any sort of delusion, it’s him doing his job.
Abrams wasn’t the centerpiece with his lack of power. Hassell was the top player moved to Washington
I LAUGH at you. Surely it was Gore, with Abrams being the second.. who knows yet about those other tricks 😉
It was definitely Gore. If Gore reaches his ceiling (which is always a crapshoot), the Soto trade will have paid tremendous dividends. Gore’s ceiling coming out of the draft was an eventual ace for wherever he landed. When you’re drafted among the top five picks in the draft, you’re considered elite talent with HOF upside. We can always dream as Nationals fans… the real icing on the cake would be the Padres contending for the WS for the next three seasons and then the Nationals signing Soto as a free agent in his walk year…
And James Wood has the highest ceiling of all of them
Wood might have highest ceiling of the hitters involved, but read up on Jarlin Susana. The Nats (and the Pads) had his ceiling higher than anyone else in the trade
Susana was only included to get Bell into the deal. Wasn’t part of the Soto package.
Gore has an argument. But hyping up Abrams with 7 career HRs in the minors is laughable. He flat out doesn’t have enough power
But hyping up Abrams with 7 career HRs in the minors is laughable. He flat out doesn’t have enough power
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The lack of math skills in this country distresses me. Abrams has 7 HRs in 140 AAA ABs. That projects to 30 HRs in 600 ABs. It’s the PCL, so you can discount that, but you also have to consider that he was one of the youngest players in AAA.
@ amk1920. Abrams has hardly had a minors career, so it’s goofy to quote his HR totals as indicative. At 6 ft 2.5″ 195 lbs and still growing, experts (not us) project Abrams to easily develop into a 15-20 HR guy in MLs. Not elite power but not bad for a SS either.
There’s actually a bit of a recent trend with middle IF prospects only developing power once they’re in the majors. Lindor, for example, was never a power hitter in the minors, topping out at 11 HRs in 2014. Then suddenly he was a 30+ HR guy.
Part of this is that literally these prospects are still growing. Lindor was a teenager for most of his minor league career, and we know that guys tend to put on some muscle/weight in their mid 20s. Probably helps that theyre also getting paid well and eating right instead of spending a tiny stipend at Taco Bell or whatever. Abrams is young enough that you can still think the power will come. It might not, but given his swing he’s got a good chance.
He suck
Corbin lucky he didn’t take the Yankees offer… he would have been the second coming of Ed whitson
Both Abrams AND Garcia belong in AAA. Garcia has a 48/3 K/W this year and Abrams has a 27/4. You can’t learn to hit against professional pitchers. There comes a time at age 24/25 where you have to throw them in to see if they can survive, but these guys are still young, and are still teachable. Garcia has blown thru 2 years of service time, and has contributed nothing.
Garcia has nothing left to prove in AAA at this point. No need to send him back.
Walks and being able to get on base seemingly do not matter in Baseball anymore. The “Moneyball” era is over, we are in the “go for broke” era now
19 years ago Mike Maroth became the first pitcher since Brian Kingman to lose at least 20 games in a season since 1980 (21). Corbin with at least 9 possible starts remaining is well on pace to top that, assuming Martinez keeps letting him start between now and the end of the season