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Rockies Promote Brendan Rodgers

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TODAY: The move is official, with Colorado also activating lefty Jake McGee from the injured list. Righty DJ Johnson and infielder Pat Valaika were optioned down to create active roster space.

YESTERDAY: The Rockies are expected to promote top prospect Brendan Rodgers, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Corresponding moves remain to be seen, but a recent injury to shortstop Trevor Story is said to have played a role in the decision.

The 22-year-old Rodgers has been considered an elite prospect ever since he went to the Colorado organization with the third overall pick in the 2015 draft. He has steadily marched up the club’s farm system, briefly reaching Triple-A late last year. Rodgers entered the current season with consensus top-thirty leaguewide prospect billing; MLB.com was most bullish, grading him the tenth-best prospect in the game.

Rodgers has shown himself more than ready for a MLB opportunity early in the 2019 campaign. He’s slashing .356/.421/.644 with nine home runs over 152 plate appearances thus far at Albuquerque — impressive numbers even in an offensively robust league with a launching pad for a home park.

The Rockies could certainly stand to receive a boost. They enter play today at two games under .500 and 7.5 back of the Dodgers in the NL West. Whether Rodgers can perform at a top-end level out of the gates remains to be seen. But it’s a shot worth taking for a club that has received little with the bat from its other options at second base — where he’ll presumably line up except when he plays short in relief of Story.

There’s no reason to believe that Story’s injury will sideline him for long, or even that he’ll require a trip to the injured list. But the middle-infield duo has lacked punch even with the established slugger at full health. Story has held up his end of the bargain, but Garrett Hampson, Ryan McMahon, and Pat Valaika have not. The Rox offensive output at second base has easily been the worst in baseball this year. Hampson was already optioned down recently; another of those players could be pushed out to make way for Rodgers. (Both can still be optioned.)

Harding indicates that the promotion will likely occur on Friday. If that indeed comes to pass, then Rodgers can record as many as 136 days of MLB service this season. That would set him up for potential Super Two qualification in the future, so long as he’s able to keep his roster spot.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves To Promote Austin Riley

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The Braves will promote top position-player prospect Austin Riley to the majors, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic (subscription link). Ender Inciarte is expected to be placed on the injured list with back tightness; the corresponding 40-man move isn’t yet known.

With the move, the Braves are adding a player who entered the season graded as a consensus top-fifty prospect. Riley was listed as high as 22nd overall, by Baseball America. He has moved up the boards since with an impressive offensive onslaught.

The 22-year-old Riley has turned in 162 plate appearances of .299/.377/.681 hitting with 15 home runs thus far at Triple-A. He has also drawn 18 walks to go with 31 strikeouts, representing a notable improvement for a player who has shown some swing and miss in the past.

While Riley’s long-term fit is probably at third base, he began seeing time in the corner outfield recently. That clearly set the stage for a call-up, though it came a bit sooner than might have been anticipated.

Joining the majors today will mean that Riley can earn as many as 138 days of MLB service this season. That could set him up for eventual Super Two qualification, if he’s able to hang onto his roster spot permanently.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Braves manage things once they’re at full health. There could be some roster and playing time crunches. If so, the club will no doubt consider it a good problem to have.

Now that he’s in the majors, Riley will have the chance to drive the decisionmaking. Inciarte might return in a reduced role. Matt Joyce could be bumped from the roster, though he’s performing quite well in a limited capacity. Utilityman Johan Camargo can be optioned. Josh Donaldson will remain entrenched at third base this year and remains a qualifying-offer candidate at season’s end, but Riley could spell the veteran at times.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Brewers Promote Keston Hiura

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12:34pm: Hiura’s promotion is official, along with the corresponding moves to open roster space.

9:33am: The Brewers will promote exciting second base prospect Keston Hiura, according to Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Precise timing and corresponding roster moves aren’t yet clear.

Hiura, 22, entered the present season as a consensus top-twenty prospect leaguewide. Baseball Prospectus was particularly bullish, ranking him sixth. If the promotion occurs in advance of today’s game, Hiura can accrue as many as 139 days of service this year, setting him up for potential future Super Two qualification.

The ninth overall pick of the 2017 draft, Hiura has done nothing but hit since becoming a professional. That’s more or less what was expected out of the UC-Irvine product, who was seen as a highly advanced college batter. But he has perhaps exceeded expectations with a breakout start to the 2019 season.

Through 147 plate appearances this year at the highest level of the minors, Hiura carries a hefty .333/.408/.698 slash line with 11 long balls. It’s not entirely surprising to see the power emerging, though this is certainly whole new level of pop for a player who tallied 13 homers in 535 total plate appearances last year. That power surge comes as part of a PCL-wide jump, though Hiura still owns an impressive 164 wRC+.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any concerns at all.  Hiura has boosted his walk rate a bit, topping ten percent for the first time, but doesn’t draw a notable number of free passes. And he’s carrying a 27.2% strikeout rate this year, a significant step up from his prior levels and a potential area of concern as he adapts to MLB pitching.

Hiura isn’t seen as a particularly impressive defender, and does have a history of elbow woes, though he’s generally expected to provide solid-enough glovework at second base. Just how the Brewers will allocate playing time will be interesting to observe. Mike Moustakas will presumably continue to see more time at third base, creating added uncertainty for the struggling Travis Shaw.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Astros To Shift Collin McHugh To Bullpen, Promote Corbin Martin

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The Astros are moving right-hander Collin McHugh to their bullpen for at least “a few outings,” manager A.J. Hinch told Mark Berman of Fox 26 and other reporters Saturday. They’ll likely promote righty Corbin Martin from Triple-A Round Rock to start in McHugh’s place against Texas on Sunday, Hinch added. Martin’s not on the Astros’ 40-man roster, but because the team has two openings, it won’t need to create room for him.

McHugh’s demotion comes in response to a four-start slump in which his ERA shot from a season-best 1.96 on April 16 to 6.37. In his most recent performance, a 12-2 loss to the Royals on May 7, McHugh yielded eight earned runs on seven hits, including two homers, with three walks and three strikeouts in three innings. The long ball has haunted McHugh for a few weeks, as he gave up eight in his four-start slide after surrendering just one in his first three outings of 2019.

Until this season, home runs hadn’t been a problem for McHugh since the Astros added him off waivers entering the 2014 campaign. He was a quality rotation piece with the club from 2014-17, a 606 1/3-inning, 102-start stretch in which McHugh pitched to a 3.70 ERA/3.60 FIP with a 10 percent home run-to-fly ball rate. McHugh then shifted to the Astros’ bullpen last year, when he was somewhat quietly among the majors’ most effective relievers and where he experienced an uptick in velocity. Despite that, the Astros moved McHugh back to their rotation entering this season because of the departures of Charlie Morton and the still-unsigned Dallas Keuchel to free agency and the Tommy John surgery Lance McCullers Jr. underwent.

As an impending free agent, another good season as a starter could have put the soon-to-be 32-year-old McHugh in line for a respectable payday during the upcoming winter. While there’s still time for McHugh to rebound as a starter or reliever in advance of the offseason, he hasn’t done himself any favors with his bloated HR-fly ball rate (21.6), a sub-40 groundball percentage or a 6.37 ERA/5.17 FIP in 41 innings. To his credit, though, he has registered 9.22 K/9 against 3.07 BB/9.

McHugh’s struggles will create a big league opportunity for the 23-year-old Martin, a native of the Lone Star State and former Texas A&M Aggie whom the Astros chose in the second round of the 2017 draft. That pick, No. 56, was one of the two selections the Astros received from the Cardinals stemming from a hacking scandal.

Martin has held his own at all levels of the minors since he turned pro, especially during 2018 in Double-A, where he posted a 2.97 ERA/3.29 FIP with 8.39 K/9, 2.45 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent groundball rate in 103 innings. That performance earned Martin a promotion to Triple-A to begin this season, and he hasn’t fallen short there either, evidenced by a 1.48 ERA/3.35 FIP with 10.36 K/9, 4.07 BB/9 and another 47 percent-plus grounder mark over 24 1/3 frames.

Thanks in part to Martin’s minor league excellence, both FanGraphs (No. 50) and MLB.com (No. 73) regard the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder as one of baseball’s 75 best prospects. Entering the season, FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen wrote that “Martin sits in the mid-90s, mixes in a plus slider, with an above average changeup and average command,” though they expressed some disappointment in his strikeout numbers. Martin’s now in line to join a Houston staff that, aside from Wade Miley, hasn’t had much difficulty punching out opposing hitters this season.

Reds Promote Nick Senzel

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of Nick Senzel, making the promotion of one of baseball’s premier prospects official. Senzel will join the active roster in place of right-hander Matthew Bowman, who has been optioned to Triple-A Louisville. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Cincinnati transferred Scooter Gennett from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Senzel is in today’s lineup, batting second.

Nick Senzel | Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

There’s been a sense that this move was coming since earlier in the week when MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported the possibility, which has built a steady sense of anticipation among Reds fans in recent days. Senzel, the No. 2 overall pick in 2016, entered the season ranked as one of the top 10 overall prospects in baseball and has sufficiently recovered from the late-March ankle injury that sidelined him. He’s not off to a blistering start in Triple-A by any means, hitting .257/.316/.371, but he’s generally been viewed as an MLB-ready bat despite that tiny eight-game sample.

Drafted as an infielder, he’s moved to the outfield in order to fast-track his arrival on the MLB roster, and he should step directly into the Reds’ everyday center field role, hopefully jump-starting what has been a stagnant offensive unit of outfielders. Scouting reports on Senzel laud his potential for above-average tool across the board, including a 65- or even 70-grade hit tool. He’s walked at a solid clip throughout his minor league career and has never had a major issue with strikeouts over a large sample, suggesting that he has the discipline to complement that hit tool and serve as a middle-of-the-order bat for years to come.

A career .312/.388/.508 hitter with 28 homers and 40 steals in 239 minor league games, Senzel should provide an upgrade over Scott Schebler in center, as the 28-year-old Schebler has slumped to a woeful .127/.258/.228 slash to open the season. There will be some growing pains on the defensive side of things, as Senzel only began playing the outfield in game settings this spring and has been sidelined for a bit this year. He was originally slated to get his feet wet in center field during the Arizona Fall League last year, but he instead required surgery to remove a pair of bone spurs from his left (non-throwing) elbow. That capped off a frustrating, injury-filled year for Senzel, who also missed time due to vertigo symptoms and a fractured finger.

The Reds has already reassigned Senzel to minor league camp when he incurred the aforementioned ankle injury, meaning he was destined for Triple-A to start the year. However, the ankle issue sidelined him long enough that there was never any question about whether he’d accrue enough service time in 2019 to reach free agency as quickly as possible. Senzel can’t earn more than 151 days of MLB service in 2019, meaning the Reds effectively control him for seven years rather than six. Assuming he’s in the big leagues for good, Senzel will be arbitration-eligible as a Super Two player following the 2021 season and won’t be a free agent until the 2025-26 offseason.

It remains to be seen just how the Senzel promotion will impact playing time for the rest of the Reds’ outfielders. Jesse Winker is the only one of the incumbent bunch who has been at all productive to this point in the season (.224/.315/.490), while each of Schebler, Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig has struggled. Puig still figures to see the lion’s share of at-bats in right field, given his age and track record, which could largely relegate Kemp and Schebler to pinch-hitting and occasional starts based on platoon matchups.

Padres Promote Cal Quantrill

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TODAY: Quantrill’s contract has been selected. Reliever Phil Maton was optioned down, while righty Miguel Diaz was shifted to the 60-day injured list to create 40-man space.

YESTERDAY: The Padres will promote pitching prospect Cal Quantrill to the majors this Wednesday, according to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. He’s expected to start the club’s game that day in Atlanta.

Quantrill, 24, was the eighth overall pick in the 2016 draft and commanded top-100 leaguewide prospect billing entering the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. His rise up the rankings stalled out after a suboptimal ’18 effort, though there’s still plenty of reason to hope he’ll be a quality MLB hurler.

This promotion represents a continuation of the Friars’ strategy for managing their bevy of unproven young talent and designs on contention. Quantrill may only be up briefly to begin — the five members of the existing rotation are expected to continue working in a starting capacity — but could be called upon several times throughout the year to help spread innings around. It’s certainly also possible that he could command more opportunities in the majors based upon his own showing.

Quantrill has still yet to master the upper minors, which is likely why he was bypassed when the San Diego organization brought up a series of other young pitchers this year. He’s now carrying a 4.68 ERA in 25 innings over five starts on the year at Triple-A, though that comes with a solid combination of 8.6 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 along with a 48.6% groundball rate. Quantrill should be ready for a full workload after reaching 148 innings in 2018.

In the event that Quantrill is able to command an active roster spot for the rest of the season, he could accrue as many as 152 days of service. That’d be enough to set him up for future Super Two qualification but not enough to reach a full year of service (which requires 172 days). The club will need to add Quantrill to the 40-man roster before activating him.

Rays Promote Nate Lowe

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11:34am: The Rays have announced the promotion, though they’ve yet to reveal the corresponding roster moves. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (via Twitter) that Christian Arroyo will be optioned to Durham, thus opening a 25-man spot, but there’s still the matter of a 40-man move to be addressed.

11:20am: The Rays are set to promote top first base prospect Nate Lowe to the big leagues, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Lowe, who ranks as the game’s No. 90 overall prospect at Baseball America and the No. 3 first base prospect in the game per MLB.com, is not on Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster. A corresponding 40-man move will be necessary.

Nate Lowe | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

While he’s not related to recently extended second baseman Brandon Lowe, Nate Lowe is viewed by the Rays as a similarly vital young piece of the club. The 23-year-old is off to a terrific start with Triple-A Durham, where he has slashed .300/.444/.543 with three homers, eight doubles and nearly as many walks (17) as strikeouts (19) through 90 plate appearances.

MLB.com’s scouting report on Lowe lauds his plus-plus raw power — a trait he was finally able to tap into in game settings a season ago when he raked at a .330/.416/.568 clip across three minor league levels (topping out at Durham). In 2018, Lowe slugged 27 homers, 32 doubles and a triple with a 12.3 percent walk rate against just a 16.2 percent strikeout rate. He’s a below-average runner and limited to first base on the defensive spectrum, but last year’s .313/.395/.484 slash against lefties and .338/.425/.608 slash against righties suggests that he has the potential to be a true everyday option for the Rays at first base and/or designated hitter (as opposed to a platoon slugger).

It’s unlikely that the Rays would call up Lowe if they didn’t feel they had everyday at-bats available to the former 13th-round pick. But, with Ji-Man Choi and Yandy Diaz both performing quite well at first base and designated hitter, neither would appears to be in jeopardy of losing any playing time (barring a yet-unrevealed injury, of course). It’s possible, though, that Diaz could slide across the diamond to third base in place of the struggling Daniel Robertson, opening at-bats at first and DH to be shared among Lowe, Choi and others.

The maximum amount of service time that Lowe would be able to accrue this season is now 155 days, meaning he’ll fall shy of the requisite 172 days to notch a full season. Because of that, he’ll be controllable through the end of the 2025 campaign if he’s in the big leagues for good, and he’s also in line to be a surefire Super Two player after the 2021 season. That said, it’s still possible that he’ll be optioned back to the minors at some point and alter those trajectories.

Angels To Promote Griffin Canning

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The Angels are set to promote top pitching prospect Griffin Canning, the team informed reporters including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). He’s expected to start on Tuesday.

Canning will debut just before turning 23 in early May. A 2017 second-rounder out of UCLA, the righty was tabbed as a consensus top-100 leaguewide prospect entering the current season following a strong showing last year.

After working hard in his final collegiate campaign, Canning slipped a bit in the draft and then waited to make his debut. The patience has paid off thus far, as he ran through the Halos system in his first year as a pro.

Though his results took a step back upon reaching Triple-A, the overall effort was impressive. Canning threw 113 1/3 frames of 3.65 ERA ball with 9.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9, with all but 8 2/3 of those innings coming in the upper minors.

Canning isn’t necessarily seen as a budding ace so much as a polished, highly capable hurler with a deep arsenal who is as good a bet as anyone to become a quality MLB starter. The Angels obviously didn’t need to see more after watching him allow just one earned run and post a 17:2 K/BB ratio in 16 innings over three starts to open the year back at Salt Lake City.

Of course, the Angels are also responding to need at the MLB level. The club is in last place in the AL West and is still waiting for a variety of injured players to filter back to the roster. If there’s to be a postseason run this year, it may take some inspired showings from players that opened the year on the farm.

Blue Jays Promote Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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April 26: The Blue Jays have made Guerrero’s promotion official. His contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Buffalo, per a team announcement. Infielder Richard Urena was optioned to Triple-A to open a spot on the active roster.

April 24: It’s celebration time in Toronto. Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo announced to reporters following today’s game that the organization will promote uber-prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the Major Leagues on Friday (Twitter link via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). He’ll make his Major League debut in Friday’ series opener against the visiting Athletics.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The promotion for Guerrero comes after nearly a year of anticipation. Outcry for the organization to promote the vaunted young slugger began last year when he was utterly laying waste to Double-A pitching as a 19-year-old. Guerrero logged a laughable .402/.449/.671 slash in 266 plate appearances at the Double-A level before moving up to Triple-A where he posted a similarly ridiculous .336/.414/.564 slash. That otherworldly performance, at such a young age, unsurprisingly made Guerrero the No. 1 overall prospect on the rankings of Baseball America, MLBPipeline.com, Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus.

Toronto, however, has been determined to push back Guerrero’s free agency as far as is reasonably possible. For Guerrero, that meant being passed over for a September call-up despite a dominant season in the upper minors, and it surely would have meant he’d open the season at Triple-A even were it not for an oblique injury that serendipitously gave the Jays an actual reason to keep him off the Opening Day roster.

Along the way, Jays leadership made the standard-issue vague claims about how Guerrero needed to work on his defense, his baserunning and learning to be the “best possible teammate” he could be while dodging persistent questions about manipulating Guerrero’s service time. It wasn’t even two months ago that general manager Ross Atkins made the questionable claim that he simply did “not see him as a Major League player” yet. (Guerrero, it seems, learned a lot in the 11 minor league contests he played this year.)

To be clear, the Blue Jays aren’t doing anything nefarious or against the rules; they’re exploiting a system that encourages them to make just this type of business-driven move in a year they’re not expecting to compete. The Cubs took this route with Kris Bryant, the Braves did so with Ronald Acuna Jr., and numerous other young stars have seen their arrival in the big leagues pushed back for similar reasons. It’s not a universal tactic, as evidenced by Eloy Jimenez, Pete Alonso and Fernando Tatis Jr., but it’s certainly a common one. Such service time machinations will continue to be a storyline so long as the current service time/arbitration system remains in place, though it’s possible that the league and the MLBPA will explore alterations as they work toward a new collective bargaining agreement beginning prior to the 2022 season.

Service time considerations aside, the promotion of Guerrero marks the beginning of a new era in Toronto. The majority of the core that brought the Jays to the ALCS in both 2015 and 2016 has since departed. Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, David Price, Kevin Pillar, R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ have all landed elsewhere, and it’s likely that the Jays will look into moving each of Justin Smoak, Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez this summer.

However, Guerrero is a potential cornerstone piece for the organization — one who’ll eventually be followed by the likes of Bo Bichette, Nate Pearson, Cavan Biggio and others as Toronto looks to lay a new foundation in the ever-competitive AL East. Other potential pieces of that puzzle have already begun to get a taste of the Majors, with Rowdy Tellez, Danny Jansen and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. all receiving some experience at the game’s highest level.

The position played by Guerrero in the long term is far from set in stone. While the claim that Guerrero’s need for defensive improvement was the reason for keeping him in the minors was never legitimate, questions about his glovework are valid. Scouting reports have long pegged him as a sub-par option at third base, and it’s possible he’ll have to slide across the diamond to first base or even settle in as a primary designated hitter at some point in his early or mid 20s. The Jays surely hope that his defense can improve with some help from the big league coaching staff and continued reps in the Majors, but the 6’2″, 250-pound Guerrero may simply not be a long-term option at his natural position. Regardless of his defensive upside (or lack thereof), though, Guerrero’s prodigious bat should quickly establish him as one of the game’s brightest young stars.

Given the timing of his promotion, Guerrero will be under control for the Blue Jays through at least the 2025 season, although it’s possible that the Jays will explore the same type of early-career extension the White Sox were able to achieve with Jimenez (if they haven’t already begun to do so). Guerrero will be a slam-dunk Super Two player, assuming he’s not optioned back to the minors at any point, as he’ll finish out the 2019 campaign with 158 days of service.

Nationals Promote Carter Kieboom

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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.

Carter Kieboom | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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).

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