Today’s game between the Nationals and the Orioles included a scary moment where Nats center fielder Jacob Young crashed into the outfield wall at full speed and went down, as noted by Spencer Nausbaum of the Washington Post. He eventually departed the game with a left shoulder injury and was replaced by Alex Call in the outfield. Fortunately, Nausbaum was among those to note after the game that x-rays on Young’s shoulder came back negative. The 25-year-old’s status remains uncertain ahead of further evaluation tomorrow, but it’s undeniably a good omen for the club on the heels of an exciting win over Baltimore.
Young, 25, hasn’t hit much in his second season as a regular fixture of the Nationals lineup. Across 124 plate appearances this season, he’s posted a meager slash line of just .215/.300/.252 with zero home runs and just four doubles. Despite that lackluster performance at the dish, however, Young has largely made up for it with elite defense and base running. Young has been in the 88th percentile when it comes to value on the basepaths this year according to Statcast even in spite of his league-leading four failed stolen base attempts. The defense has been nearly as good, as his +2 Outs Above Average leaves him tied for sixth among NL center fielders with other strong defenders like Brenton Doyle and Johan Rojas.
With James Wood and Dylan Crews in the outfield corners on a daily basis and Call posting a solid 114 wRC+ in part-time duty, Young may need to hit more in order to keep himself in the lineup on a regular basis in the long-term, particularly with prospect Robert Hassell III beginning to hit at the Triple-A level this year. For now, however, the Nationals will surely content themselves with a quick return to action for their center fielder, given that the loss of Young would likely force Crews to slide over to center field on a more regular basis. With Crews scuffling badly at the plate himself to this point in the year, the Nats would surely prefer to avoid putting additional responsibilities on his plate at this point.
More from around the NL East…
- The Mets optioned infielder Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A today after ending his rehab assignment at the Double-A level. As noted by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the move is largely procedural in nature given that Mauricio was already in the minors. Mauricio missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL during winter ball, and he’s appeared in just ten games in the minors so far this year as he works his way back up to speed with five games at Single-A and five games at Double-A. Now, Mauricio is set to finish getting back into form with the club’s Syracuse affiliate. Given he’s hitting just .125/.176/.188 with a 35.9% strikeout rate so far this year, it’s safe to say that Mauricio is still focused on recovery at this point and likely won’t be a realistic big league option for the Mets for some time yet.
- The Marlins, meanwhile, have been without shortstop Xavier Edwards in the lineup for two days now due to back soreness. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald relayed today that, according to manager Clayton McCullough, Edwards underwent imaging that “came out OK” and that Edwards was slated to resume baseball activities today. It’s unclear if Edwards is expected to return to the lineup tomorrow, but if a trip to the injured list is being considered that would be an ideal time to make a decision seeing as a hypothetical IL stint could be backdated due May 16 if it began tomorrow. Edwards was one of the club’s better hitters in 70 games last year but has hit just .263/.337/.292 to this point in the 2025 campaign. Javier Sanoja is filling in at shortstop while Edwards is out of commission.
People say baseball teams don’t draft for need but I bet the Nationals aren’t looking at outfielders this July. They have Daylen Lile too. Nice mix of lefties and righties.
I think they sign either holliday, Arquette or Arnold. Holliday is supposed to be better than Jackson but he is a high school player and swing and miss is part of his game.
Latest mock from Kiley McDaniel has them taking Holliday. Although he notes HS SS Eli Willitis (Broxton, OK) has some “industry buzz” at #1 while HS RHP Seth Hernandez (Corona, CA) is “a real option” too. I would prefer they draft Arnold or LHP Liam Doyle from Tennessee.
It seems CJ Abrams has his head on straight now, and looks like the long term answer at SS they expected when they traded for him. Ethan Holliday’s already 6’4 and may “grow” his way to 3B rather than SS. I’m not as concered about the swing and miss rap on Holliday, because that concern developed during the “showcase” circuit last summer, when opposing pitchers were trying to pitch around him. Holliday wanted to showcase his hitting, so he tried to do too much and ended up swinging at a lot of stuff out of the zone.
The reason I’d prefer they draft an SP is 3B Brady House is having a great season at AAA. He’s hitting .288/.347/.506. Although the 46 Ks and only 14 BB are a little concerning. House was Rizzo’s 1st round pick in 2021. He turns 22 next month.
Along with the Lerners being cheap, House is the reason Rizzo’s not signed a 3B to a long free agent contract. I saw House play at Delmarva a few years ago. Even the kid’s outs were loud. I really like him, and think he’ll be up in DC sometime this year.
I guess if they do draft Holliday and he progresses through the system like his brother did for the O’s, Davey could move House from 3B to 1B next season and Lowe to DH. The only legit 1B prospect in the entire system is Yohandy Morales. Who’s having a great season at AA Harrisburg. He’s hitting .304/.359/.522 4 HR 21 RBI. Like everybody else, he’s striking out too much, and not walking enough for me (31/10) but I seem to be in the minority of people who really care about that anymore.
I’m concerned about Crews, and the bullpen is a complete and utter disaster, but overall IMO the Nats future looks really bright. Now that the O’s gave them their broadcast rights, next season they’ll be free of the hated MASN and possibly new ownership more willing to spend in free agency.
You’re right about House. I’m not sure why they haven’t called him up yet.
Service time issue, among other things.
The Nats aren’t going anywhere this year, House’s 2024 was unimpressive, and so far he’s only been good in 176 AAA PA after being weak in both AA and AAA last season.
If the Nats were a .500 team with some upside and a serious hole at 3B, you could see a promotion, but not under these circumstances.
The Nats options at 3B are Jose Tena, Rosario and Nunez. Eventually, DeJong and Chaparro too whenever they get off the IL. None of those guys are anywhere near “the answer” at 3B or any other position.
They’re willing to live with Crews learning in the big leagues, and his time in the minors wasn’t all that impressive at all. Other than the fact Crews was the #2 pick and House was #11, I don’t see why they should be willing to live with one in the lineup and not the other. House was an above slot signing at $5 million, so he’s not exactly cheap.
They need to give him an opportunity sooner rather than later. If he’s not a future 3B/1B, that will give Rizzo a clearer picture of what he needs do in the draft, and free agency next offseason.
Most likely, since this draft is so clustered, they go to 3 or 4 guys, and whoever agrees to take the lowest, is who they take. Allows them to over-pay a high school player later in the draft.
@King. Of. Cards People say that because it’s broadly true, since players are typically far enough away from the bigs when drafted and since the failure rate is so high that unless it’s a coin flip between prospects you’ll want the better player regardless of position.
—Unless, of course, you’re the Angels.
The year they fired Billy Eppler, because he’d been so bad at finding and developing pitching, the Angels did something unprecedented. They trolled their former GM, drafting only pitchers and nothing but pitchers.
Never done, before or since.
It’s also the case that OFers are often CFers who can move to a corner, while IFers are often SS’s who can move to 2B or 3B, 1Bmen can also be DHs, and etc., while drafted pitchers are typically starters given it’s assumed if they fail as starters they may still succeed as relievers. All of this often makes the issue of specific position moot.
The Nationals don’t need outfielders anytime soon. They have more than enough and all of them are under team control for a very long time.
Reminder to MLBTR users:
“rachelmaddowishot” is an infamous known troll who keeps changing his name and profile to evade bans and mutes. His previous usernames are TheOpener, TrojanToss, TheFormerPlayer, Fan of the Umpires, VoiceofREASON, soulefh, and tikiagedola.
I know this because he uses the same schticks. Lately he’s been using controversial and irrelevant political references while also making the occasional “trade top 4 prospects” and the “10 teams are better than this team” thing going, hoping to start long-winding reply chains.
Just mute him and ignore him.
I’ll add cooperhill to that list too. Dude is a miserable troll as well. I will say some of his comebacks can be pretty funny in a pathetic way.
“Meanwhile” has to start the sentence, not come in the middle between commas.