The Nationals are in a brand new period. Their stalled rebuild led possession to fireside president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and supervisor Dave Martinez. Paul Toboni is now main a entrance workplace for the primary time, whereas the membership introduced in a rookie supervisor in 33-year-old Blake Butera. It is easy to think about Toboni making a pair vital trades so as to add a wanted inflow of expertise to the farm system.
“We’re within the enterprise proper now of simply bringing in as a lot worth as we are able to to the group,” the brand new baseball operations president mentioned from the GM Conferences (hyperlink by way of Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Publish). “Nonetheless that will look, we’ll keep disciplined to that.” The obvious place can be to entertain conversations on left-hander MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams. Gore is down to 2 years of arbitration management and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $4.7MM wage. Abrams’ $5.6MM projection is just a little larger, however he has three years of remaining management.
This feels just like the opportune time to maneuver Gore. Any workforce in a short-term competition window might be . He is at the very least a mid-rotation arm with the upside of a #2 starter. The Nationals might hear from two-thirds of the league about his availability.
Whether or not to commerce Abrams is a more durable name. The Nats presumably count on to compete for a playoff spot inside three years. There’s much less damage threat with a place participant than there may be with a pitcher. The Nationals might view the 25-year-old shortstop because the type of core piece whom they’re kind of unwilling to commerce. On the identical time, Abrams has been maddeningly inconsistent over the previous couple seasons. He is a gifted athlete who’s however liable to defensive miscues. This may occasionally simply rely upon how a Toboni-led entrance workplace that did not purchase Abrams views the participant.
Abrams is coming off a .257/.315/.433 line with 19 dwelling runs by way of 635 plate appearances. He has hit between 18-20 longballs in every of the previous three seasons. Abrams has stolen 31 bases in consecutive seasons and ranks sixth in MLB with 109 steals for the reason that begin of 2023. He will not stroll a lot, however he places the ball in play with middle-of-the-road exit velocities. At his finest, he seems to be the a part of a top-of-the-order spark plug. He is coming off a second straight season wherein he was solely at that degree for just a few months. Abrams was a star-level performer within the first half of every of the previous two years, however he slumped after the All-Star Break each occasions.
He is not a lot simpler to pin down defensively. Abrams actually has the body and athleticism of a shortstop. He has been far too mistake-prone, nonetheless, with solely Elly De La Cruz committing extra errors over the previous few seasons. Most of them have been associated to poor accuracy. Abrams was charged with 18 throwing errors this 12 months, three greater than anybody else. He has dedicated 38 throwing errors over the previous three seasons. As one would possibly count on given all the simple misses, Statcast has graded Abrams as by far the game’s worst defensive shortstop in that point.
Different groups might have differing views on Abrams’ defensive projection. There are presumably some who really feel he is non-viable at shortstop and would solely contemplate him at second base or as a possible middle subject conversion. Others might really feel the throwing points will be cleaned up with mechanical tweaks. They may be motivated out of some quantity of desperation contemplating the shortage of options. Bo Bichette might command upwards of $200MM and faces his personal defensive questions. Just one workforce can signal Ha-Seong Kim, and he does not have wherever close to the identical offensive ceiling that Abrams has flashed. There aren’t many clear choices on the commerce entrance.
If the Nationals have been to commerce Abrams, which golf equipment ought to make the most important push? Let’s break up them into just a few teams. Groups are listed alphabetically inside every tier.
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