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Juan Soto

Juan Soto Out With Elbow Soreness

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Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez is giving Juan Soto a couple of days off, per Jessica Camerato of MLB.com (via Twitter). Soto has been experiencing some elbow soreness. The Nationals’ young superstar underwent and MRI, but the results were good, so Martinez is just giving Soto a couple of days to rest and recover.

Though the Nationals have face-planted in their title defense season, there’s been no such hangover for the 21-year-old Soto. Soto is currently the major-league leader in slugging (.758) and OPS (1.211). He’s slashing .354/.453/.758 with 11 long balls in 117 plate appearances. Soto has more walks (17) than strikeouts (16) while registering in the top 1% for exit velocity (94.2 mph) and top 2 percent for hard hit percentage (55.4%).

Soto rested for both games of yesterday’s doubleheader against the Braves, and he figures to get another day or two to rest his elbow. Especially since the Nats are just one game ahead of the Pirates for the worst record in the National League, they are likely to value Soto’s long-term health over any benefit they’ll get from rushing him into action over the final few weeks of what’s bound to be a lost season. Washington sits 5 games out of a wild card spot, and while that deficit isn’t impossible to overcome, they would need to turn around their play drastically enough to leapfrog five other teams in the NL.

Soto missed the first couple of days of the season after testing positive for COVID-19, though he was asymptomatic.

Nationals Activate Juan Soto

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The Nationals have activated outfielder Juan Soto and right-hander Wander Suero from the injured list, the team announced. Outfielder Andrew Stevenson was optioned to the alternate training site to open one roster spot, while the team’s recent placement of Will Harris on the IL left them with an existing vacancy.

Soto isn’t in tonight’s lineup, manager Dave Martinez told reporters (Twitter thread via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com), but he’s available to pinch-hit. Soto himself told the club that he felt he needed at least another day to get up to speed for a full nine-inning game. The 21-year-old has yet to play this season since testing positive for Covid-19 on Opening Day and also missed much of the team’s Summer Camp, so he’s a bit behind. Recently signed utilityman Josh Harrison is getting the nod in left field in Soto’s place tonight.

The Nats have gone 3-4 in Soto’s absence. Their schedule has been partly interrupted by the Marlins’ Covid-19 outbreak, as the Nats were scheduled to face the Fish over the weekend but saw that series postponed due to ongoing health concerns with the Miami organization. In a way, the Nationals will benefit from that postponement, as they’ll now likely have Soto back in the fold for three games he’d have otherwise missed. For the time being, they’ll host the Mets for the first of a two-game set. Washington’s next dozen games will come against the Mets and the Orioles. Soto won’t be back in the everyday lineup right out of the gate, but he’ll be back in the heart of the order before long.

Juan Soto Cleared By MLB, Waiting For D.C. Approval

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Nationals superstar Juan Soto is making progress on the clearance process to rejoin the team. He has been cleared to resume action by Major League Baseball after receiving two negative coronavirus tests, manager Dave Martinez told reporters including Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of MLB Network had previously tweeted the news.

Trouble is, Soto still has one more hurdle to clear. He’s in need of approval from the Washington, D.C. Department of Health. The hope is that authorization can be obtained in time for Soto to suit up on August 1st.

While the Nats would have preferred not to go without Soto at all, this still rates as generally promising news. He ought to be able to participate in the bulk of the 2020 contests. Unfortunately, the club is already in a hole after a 1-4 start.

The Nats are also still waiting for co-ace Stephen Strasburg, who has experienced nerve irritation in his hand. He’ll skip another start tomorrow, with Erick Fedde taking the ball in his place. It does sound as if Stras is nearing readiness to ramp back up.

Juan Soto Receives Consecutive Negative Tests

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5:15pm: Nats manager Dave Martinez tells reporters that Soto has now received the required back-to-back negative test results from Major League Baseball’s approved labs (Twitter link via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). The team is simply awaiting league/city clearance for Soto’s return at this point.

11:15am: Nationals star Juan Soto is currently out due to a positive COVID-19 test, meaning he needs consecutive negatives before he’ll be allowed to return to action. It seems he’s currently registering mixed results in testing, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter.

Per the report, Soto has registered six negative tests — three from official league tests and three from team-administered tests. He has yet to string together two negatives that qualify to clear him for activation. Putting aside the phenom’s own situation, it’s yet another reminder that testing for the virus is anything but a foolproof means of ascertaining an infection.

For the Nationals, the first concern is obviously with Soto’s own well-being. From a pure competitive perspective, he’s obviously also of critical importance to the team’s hopes of pulling off a repeat title run. The charismatic 21-year-old carries a .287/.403/.535 batting line through his first 266 MLB games and was every bit as good during the team’s 2019 postseason run.

Juan Soto Tests Positive For COVID-19

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6:37pm: The team tested Soto on multiple occasions Thursday, and the results came back negative, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets. But in order to return, Soto will still need two negative lab tests 24 hours apart.

1:35pm: General manager Mike Rizzo confirmed to reporters that Soto has tested positive, though thankfully, Soto is asymptomatic (Twitter link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). The left fielder tested negative consistently in recent weeks but was positive on his most recent test, per the GM.

1:25pm: Nationals star Juan Soto has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss tonight’s season opener against the Yankees, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). The team announced its roster shortly after the report, and Soto indeed is not listed with the club’s outfielders.

Soto, still just 21, missed the early portion of Summer Camp while quarantining after being exposed to someone who’d tested positive, but he was cleared to return to Nats camp a week ago today. It’s not known when the positive test occurred or whether he is symptomatic, but Soto will need a pair of negative tests before he is able to return to the Nationals’ roster.

The Nationals’ roster listed Victor Robles, Adam Eaton, Michael A. Taylor, Andrew Stevenson and Emilio Bonifacio as its five outfield options. Robles and Eaton will line up in center and right field, respectively, on the regular, so it seems that some combination of Taylor, Stevenson and Bonifacio will shoulder the bulk of the load in left field during Soto’s absence.

The obvious hope here is that Soto, one of baseball’s most exciting young stars, will remain asymptomatic and return as expeditiously as possible. But the positive test serves as a reminder that this sort of storyline will likely continue throughout the season. Players aren’t being tested daily, and we’ve already seen multiple instances of erratic and inconsistent positive/negative results that have delayed some in getting back to the field.

Health Notes: Nationals, deGrom, Tanaka, Quintana, Pads

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Outfielder Juan Soto, infielder Howie Kendrick and infield prospect Luis Garcia all returned to the Nationals on Thursday after quarantining for two weeks, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com was among those to report. It’s up in the air whether the Nationals will be able to pencil Soto or Kendrick into their lineup when their season opens next Thursday, but it’s encouraging to see those two and Garcia cleared. Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any change in center fielder Victor Robles’ status, manager Dave Martinez said (via Zuckerman, on Twitter). Robles has been in isolation during Summer Camp.

  • After an MRI on Mets ace Jacob deGrom’s back returned good results Thursday, he had a throwing session and told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and other reporters that he plans to start Opening Day. However, the Mets aren’t ready to say whether that will happen. Manager Luis Rojas stated the club’s taking “a day-to-day approach” with the back-to-back NL Cy Young winner, who probably won’t be able to go as long as expected if he does take the mound for their opener. He’d originally been slated for around 100 pitches, but 85 seems to be a more realistic ceiling now. In the meantime, deGrom will throw 65 pitches in an exhibition game against the Yankees on Sunday.
  • Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka returned to the mound Thursday for the first time since suffering a concussion on July 5. Tanaka threw a 30-pitch bullpen session that was “higher intensity” than the team expected and “very crisp,” pitching coach Matt Blake told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News). Tanaka will throw another bullpen session Sunday. The Yankees haven’t ruled out Tanaka from being part of the first turn through their rotation, but it seems likely he’ll miss at least one start, per Ackert. In the meantime, considering the team has an off-day in the first week of the season, it could start with a four-man rotation of Gerrit Cole, James Paxton, J.A. Happ, Jordan Montgomery and then plug in Tanaka.
  • Cubs southpaw Jose Quintana, two weeks removed from left thumb surgery, played catch from 60 feet Thursday, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score relays. Quintana “felt fine,” according to manager David Ross. Still, Levine writes that Quintana will start the season on the injured list, which will be the first IL stint of his career. The Cubs aren’t putting a timetable on exactly how long they’ll go without Quintana, with Ross saying, “Today was a nice positive, but one thing I know from my time in baseball — a lot of twists and turns, so it’s wait and see for me.”
  • Padres righty Trey Wingenter is seeking a second opinion on his ailing pitching elbow, manager Jayce Tingler said Thursday (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). The team previously shut down Wingenter last week because of inflammation. The 26-year-old was among the Padres’ most-utilized relievers last season, throwing 51 innings. Wingenter only managed a 5.65 ERA, and he walked 4.94 batters per nine, but he also put up a 12.71 K/9, posted a 3.61 FIP and averaged 96 mph on his fastball.

Health Notes: W. Calhoun, Nats, Tanaka, Giants, Royals

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The Rangers are awaiting MRI results on outfielder Willie Calhoun, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Calhoun left the team’s practice Tuesday with tightness in his right hip flexor, leading the Rangers to fear he has a strain that could shelve him for Opening Day, Wilson writes. That would be a blow to the Rangers’ offense, which benefited from Calhoun’s .269/.323/.524 line and 21 home runs last season, as well as the second notable injury he has dealt with in recent months. The first one was much scarier, though, as Calhoun suffered a fractured jaw on a hit by pitch during spring training.

Here’s more health news from around the league…

  • Nationals outfielders Juan Soto and Victor Robles have been isolated since last week because of coronavirus protocols, but fortunately, it appears the two are nearing a return to the field. Soto and Robles may be in line to rejoin the team Wednesday or Thursday, according to Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic.
  • In a frightening scene back on July 5, Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka suffered a mild concussion when he took a line drive off the bat of teammate Giancarlo Stanton. Tanaka offered a positive update Tuesday, however, saying through an interpreter (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com): “Right now, I have no symptoms at all. I’m able to get back in all the training, so I think I feel very fortunate in a very unfortunate event.” Tanaka does still seem likely to start the season on the 10-day injured list, Hoch reports, but he shouldn’t miss much time if he continues progressing.
  • Giants left-hander Jarlin Garcia is expected to be a participant in camp Wednesday, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tweets. Garcia has been on the IL for undisclosed medical reasons since last Thursday.
  • The Royals won’t have infielder Kelvin Gutierrez when the season opens. He’s dealing with a Grade 2 UCL sprain and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star reports. A fairly well-regarded prospect, the 25-year-old Gutierrez made his major league debut last season with a .260/.304/.356 line in 79 plate appearances.
  • Nationals batting practice pitcher Ali Modami has opted out of the season, manager Dave Martinez announced Tuesday (via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). While Modami isn’t in a high-profile position, he has been a popular figure in the Nationals’ clubhouse since he got the job in 2011, as Dougherty and Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown detailed last season. “He is great,” former Nat Jayson Werth said to Brown. “Just a gem.” First baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who has also opted out of the season, told Brown, “That guy probably throws more baseballs than anybody I’ve ever known.”

Juan Soto, Victor Robles Isolating Under Coronavirus Protocol

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10:54am: It appears the same is true of fellow young outfielder Victor Robles, according to a report on Twitter from the Talk Nats blog.

10:19am: Star Nationals outfielder Juan Soto is not presently participating in Summer Camp, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (via Twitter). He is isolating after having contact with a teammate that tested positive for COVID-19.

There’s no indication to this point that Soto has contracted the disease. Hopefully, he’ll ultimately prove not to have an infection. Establishing that will require multiple rounds of testing after a period of isolation.

Specifics on the timeline are impossible to pin down without knowing more about the date of the contact and the specific plan for assessing Soto. As Aaron Nola of the Phillies recently explained, even potential exposure may require an absence of a week or more under the protocols that teams are utilizing to prevent the spread of the virus.

It is not presently known which Nationals players have tested positive for COVID-19. The team revealed that it had documented two cases, but those individuals have not identified themselves to this point.

Soto has been an excellent performer since sprinting up the farm system and reaching the majors as a teenager. The gregarious 21-year-old established himself as one of the game brightest stars as he helped lead the Nats to a 2019 World Series title.

Health is obviously far and away the primary concern here. But the protocols in place will also have many logistical impacts. After a delay in intake testing prevented the Nationals from working out yesterday, the club is back on the field today. But Soto and several others are obviously not present with just over two weeks to go until the start of the 2020 season.

A Battle Of NL East Superstars

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We’ve seen two of the brightest young offensive stars in baseball emerge in the National League East over the past couple years. The Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. and the Nationals’ Juan Soto have been enormously successful since they made their debuts in 2018, and the outfielders have played important roles in helping lead their clubs to prominence. The Braves have taken the division in each of Acuna’s two seasons, while Soto was among the reasons the Nationals won their first-ever World Series last fall. The two look as if they’ll be franchise cornerstones for the long haul, but if you can only have one, which player would you pick?

Going by production, there hasn’t been a huge difference in their careers so far. The 22-year-old Acuna’s a 9.3-fWAR player through his first 1,202 plate appearances and a .285/.365/.532 hitter with 67 home runs, 53 stolen bases and an excellent wRC+ of 133. The righty masher fell just shy of a 40/40 effort in 2019, when he smacked 41 dingers and swiped an NL-high 37 bags. Furthermore, Acuna has fared respectably as a defender thus far – including as the Braves’ primary center fielder last year – with 16 DRS and a minus-0.6 UZR to this point.

By measure of wRC+, Soto has been an even more effective hitter than Acuna. Soto, who only became old enough to legally drink as last year’s World Series was going on, owns a jaw-dropping 143 mark in that category. The lefty swinger’s a .287/.403/.535 batter with 56 homers and 8.5 fWAR through 1,153 PA, though he doesn’t come close to Acuna in terms of stolen bases (17). Acuna’s overall defensive output has also been better, but Soto did make strides in that area last season. After putting up minus-6 DRS and minus-4.2 UZR as a rookie in left field, he improved to zero and minus-0.7 in those categories as a sophomore.

The overall numbers Acuna and Soto have managed at such young ages have been astounding. But you can’t just consider production when comparing the two. One of the key facts about Acuna is that his team has already locked him up for the foreseeable future, as the Braves extended him to an eight-year, $100MM guarantee after his first season. With $17MM club options for 2027 and ’28, the deal could keep Acuna in place for almost the whole decade. That’s a lengthy commitment and a lot of money, but it has nonetheless always come off as a no-brainer move from Atlanta’s perspective.

The Nationals would surely love to sign Soto to a similar pact, but it’s hard to believe they’ll get him on such a team-friendly deal. At the very least, though, they do still have the right to control the Scott Boras client for the next half-decade, including one more pre-arbitration year if a season does take place in 2020.

The bottom line is that you can’t lose with either of these players, no doubt two of the greatest assets in the sport. But you’re only allowed to build around one of them, so take your pick…

(Poll link for app users)

Giving The Sixth Man Of The Year Award To Howie Kendrick

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For those in the Mid-Atlantic, the Nationals and Astros road warrior World Series is airing on MASN this week. For the rest of us, the 7-game battle has hardly disappeared from memory, as it remains the most recent non-exhibition game played in Major League Baseball. Still, when a player steps up his game on the biggest stage and raises his profile like Howie Kendrick did last fall, it’s hard not to look back early and often to re-live the heroics.

Strictly by definition, Kendrick wasn’t even an “everyday player” for the Nationals last season. Coming off an achilles injury and playing in his age-35 season, manager Dave Martinez was rigid about giving Kendrick enough rest to keep him fresh throughout the season. No matter the volume of clamor from Nationals fans, Martinez refused to deploy Kendrick indiscriminately, starting him in only 70 of the team’s 162 games (with liberal usage off the bench). Kendrick was the designated hitter of choice for Martinez in 7 of 10 interleague road games, and he also called upon Kendrick 41 times as a pinch-hitter.

While Kendrick found himself on the bench more often than not, he still added value as a versatile defender. Of the games he did start, 35 came at first base, 18 at second, and 10 at third. Unlike years past, Kendrick wasn’t utilized in the outfield, but it’s hard to know if that was a strategic decision made to shelter Kendrick. The Nats simply had no need to deploy him in the grass having gotten uncharacteristically stable play from their trio of outfielders. Juan Soto started 147 games in left, Victor Robles made 147 starts between center and right, and even the previously-fragile Adam Eaton made 143 outfield starts in 2019 (his most since 2016).

Whatever the reason, it’s hard to knock the Nationals’ prudent use of Kendrick. Not only did he stay healthy, but he came through time and time again, finishing with an otherworldly slash line of .344/.395/.572 across 370 plate appearances. If baseball had a sixth man award, it would be intended to spotlight a season exactly like Kendrick’s 2019. He was Lou Williams: high-energy, low-maintenance, instant offense off the bench.

And like Williams, Truck could close. Without a true sixth man award, Kendrick took the postseason as his opportunity to shine. It’s hard to imagine a player of Kendrick’s pedigree seizing quite so many opportunities for heroics in a single postseason (I see your hand, David Freese, but I’m not calling on you). As in his career on the whole, Kendrick wasn’t perfect. He made a couple of errors, looked foolish on the bases at times and finished the postseason with a slash line (.286/.328/.444) that one could easily overlook.

But in terms of peak value, Kendrick made his hits count. First, there was the series-winning, 10th-inning grand slam in the winner-take-all game five to vanquish the Dodgers. Considering this was just the Nationals second win in a winner-take-all-game in their history (coming a week after their first), Kendrick’s grand slam was, at the time, no doubt the biggest hit in Nationals’ team history. No longer could the Nats be shrugged aside as a franchise without a postseason series win (Mets fans on Twitter will have to find something new). With a history as long and storied as baseball’s, it’s rare these days to have the opportunity to watch in-real-time as moments exists in a self-actualized vacuum wherein each big hit instantly supplants its prior as the biggest in team history – but that was the case for the Nats this postseason, and Kendrick was the guy who kept outbidding himself with greater and greater moments.

Kendrick didn’t get that scene-stealing moment in the NLCS, but he did capture MVP honors by hitting .333/.412/.600 with four doubles. Kendrick was great against the Cardinals, but let’s be clear, he was not the most valuable piece of the Nats’ NLCS puzzle. That would be the starting pitchers, who didn’t allow an earned run until game four, yielding just 7 hits across those three games while striking out 28. When everyone is an ace, no one is an ace, so Kendrick took home the hardware for continuing to put together quality at-bats and driving home important runs.

But there’s no such thing as a transcendent playoff performance that doesn’t include the World Series. Pitching again took centerstage for the Nats, especially as the bats went ice-cold at home. The Nats scored just one run apiece in each of their home games, taking the L in all three. Kendrick went one-for-eight at home while only starting in games four and five. He had a good game two in Houston, but it was a relatively punchless series for Kendrick by the time he came to the dish in the top of the seventh inning of game 7, his club trailing by one. Kendrick’s biggest moment of the postseason – of his career – gave the Nats their fifth come-from-behind victory of the playoffs – the most ever – and it solidified his place in the baseball canon.

What made Kendrick’s postseason play so impressive, really, was how late it came it a good-but-not-great career. The bulk of Howie’s career took place on good-but-not-great Angels teams that, like Kendrick himself, were often quite good, but failed to make a lasting impact on the baseball landscape.

Kendrick himself went from productive regular to bench contributor for the Dodgers and Phillies before making his way to Washington. Now, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an announcer in the game who hasn’t referred to Kendrick as a “professional hitter.” To their collective credit, they’re not wrong. Kendrick is a career .294 batter who consistently puts the bat on the ball, never striking out in more than 20.4% of his plate appearances. Most seasons his strikeout rate hovers around 16-17%, though in 2019 he was even better, striking out a career-low 13.2% of the time.

Kendrick can hit, but that’s far and away his best skill. His 9.2% walk rate in 2016 with the Dodgers was easily a career-high. His career rate is 5.4%. He runs okay, but not great, notching double-digit stolen bases in 8 different seasons, but never more than 14, a high he reached four times. Generally speaking, he’s about a 14-stolen-bases level defender as well, sure-handed as a second baseman, but never threatening as a top shelf defender. Power-wise, his career .137 ISO leaves a lot to be desired, but he hit for just enough power to leverage the rest of his skillset. He was an All-Star once (2011) when he finished with 4.6 bWAR, and his “best season” earned him an 18-spot in MVP voting. That came in 2014, his last with the Angels, when he put up 6.1 bWAR/4.6 fWAR, which is impressive considering it was one of his worst power outputs, finishing .293/.347/.397 with just 7 home runs.

But in 2019 everything clicked for Kendrick. He managed 17 home runs while easily notching career highs in many rate metrics (ie, .228 ISO, 146 wRC+). Before last season, he’d never been more than 23% better than league average. But achilles surgery clearly agrees with Kendrick, because at age-35, not only was he 46% better than average, but he put a bow on his career year with the final game-winning hit of the season. More than any award, that’s the type of thing baseball remembers.

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