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Yasel Antuna

Nationals Outright Yasel Antuna, Josh Palacios

By Darragh McDonald | December 1, 2022 at 3:01pm CDT

The Nationals announced they have outrighted outfielders Yasel Antuna and Josh Palacios. Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post reported Antuna’s outright prior to the official announcement. There had been no public indication that the players had been designated for assignment, but the club evidently passed them through waivers in recent days. Their 40-man roster count is now 38.

Antuna, 23, was selected to the club’s 40-man roster two years ago, in order to protect him from being selected in the 2020 Rule 5 draft. Unfortunately, his development has slowed in recent years. Last year, he played 106 games at High-A and hit just .227/.307/.385, wRC+ of 88. This year, splitting his time between High-A and Double-A, he walked in an incredible 17% of his plate appearances but still produced a tepid batting line of .215/.352/.338, 97 wRC+. He did steal 27 bases on the year but also got caught eight times. Previously a shortstop, he transitioned to a corner outfield role this year, which increases the pressure on him to provide value with the bat. He’ll stick in the organization as depth but without taking up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Palacios, 27, was a Blue Jays draftee who made his MLB debut with them last year but came to the Nats on a waiver claim at the start of 2022. Between the two clubs, he’s gotten into 42 big league games with a meager .207/.267/.232 batting line so far. In 82 Triple-A games in 2022, he fared much better with a batting line of .294/.379/.439, 121 wRC+.

As noted by Dougherty, the Nationals have the first pick in next week’s Rule 5 draft, due to having the worst record in baseball in 2022. They had recently filled up their 40-man roster by signing Jeimer Candelario and Stone Garrett. It seems that they feel they can find better players than Antuna and Palacios in the draft, since they took the risk of placing them on waivers in order to free up some roster spots.

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Nationals Select Yasel Antuna, Joan Adon

By Steve Adams | November 20, 2020 at 2:03pm CDT

The Nationals announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of infielder Yasel Antuna and right-hander Joan Adon. Both are now on the 40-man roster and shielded from selection in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.

Antuna and Adon rank 12th and 16th among Nats farmhands at MLB.com at the moment, though Baseball America placed Antuna as high as fourth in the system. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked the 21-year-old Antuna 13th among Nats farmhands, noting that Tommy John surgery derailed his 2019 season. It’d have been aggressive for any club to select Antuna in next month’s draft, given that he’s only played 87 games above Rookie ball, but the Nats clearly feel that the switch-hitter has the potential to grow into power and emerge as a coveted prospect. Antuna spent the season in the Nats’ player pool, so they got a look at him over the course of the summer.

Adon, 22, spent the 2019 season in the Nationals’ Class-A rotation and worked to a 3.86 ERA with 7.7 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate. He runs his heater up to 96 mph and repeats his delivery well, per MLB.com’s report on him, but he still has some work to do on his secondary offerings. Like Antuna, he was in the Nats’ player pool this summer, and the organization clearly liked what it saw from him there.

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Nationals Release Fernando Abad, Add Yasel Antuna To Player Pool

By Connor Byrne | July 17, 2020 at 9:39am CDT

The Nationals announced that they have released veteran left-handed reliever Fernando Abad. The club also added infield prospect Yasel Antuna to its 60-man pool, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com tweets. Washington now has 57 players in that group.

The Nationals signed Abad to a minor league contract in December, but he didn’t participate in their Summer Camp for an undisclosed reason. It turns out that Abad tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived at camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Fortunately, Abad was asymptomatic and has just finished his 14-day quarantine.

The 34-year-old Abad last appeared in the majors a season ago, when he threw 13 innings of 4.15 ERA ball and notched 6.23 K/9 and 2.08 BB/9 as a member of the Giants. He was far better at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 3.07 ERA and logged a tremendous strikeout-walk ratio (10.0 K/9, 0.8 BB/9) in 44 frames.

While Abad hasn’t pitched much in the majors over the past couple seasons (he didn’t at all in 2018), he has been successful with a few teams – including the Nationals in 2013. He’s the owner of a lifetime 3.67 ERA with 7.62 K/9 and 3.16 BB/9 across 330 2/3 innings.

Antuna, now 20 years old, left the Dominican Republic in 2016 to sign with the Nationals for a hefty bonus of $3.9MM. He has since split his time between rookie and Single-A ball. Although he missed all but three games last year because of Tommy John surgery and lower body injuries, Antuna’s still regarded as one of the Nationals’ most promising prospects. Baseball America (No. 9), FanGraphs (12) and MLB.com (12) each place him near the top of Washington’s system.

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