But as the Nationals play out their penultimate homestand of 2022, the cumulative result’s this: The franchise has one thing it didn’t two months in the past, and that’s their shortstop for the subsequent half-dozen years — or longer if they might lengthen him. (I do know, I do know. Touchy topic round right here.)
It sounds hyperbolic. But the glimpses Abrams has proven in his 25 video games with the Nationals reveal sufficient: He has an opportunity to be a really, excellent participant for a really, very very long time.
At 21, Abrams could make each play that ought to be made and a few that only a few do. Eventually, he’ll hit. As vital in the last weeks of 2022: He’s a purpose to come back to the ballpark or flip on the TV. He’s a purpose to hold some heat emotions into the winter. And his presence could remedy two positions for the Nationals for years to come back as a result of Luis García is so a lot better suited to second base.
“I love everything he’s doing right now,” Manager Dave Martinez mentioned Tuesday earlier than Abrams went 1 for 4 with a double and sparkled once more defensively in a 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
“I take pride in my defense, getting outs,” Abrams mentioned. “Anything to help a pitcher, help him get W’s.”
Already, the pitchers admire it.
“It makes pitching a little bit easier,” reliever Hunter Harvey mentioned. “When you’ve got a guy behind you that can make plays as a pitcher, the mentality just changes. Why try to strike everybody out?”
Look, the commerce deadline was so onerous for therefore many in the clubhouse, the entrance workplace and the stands. Watching Juan Soto in the postseason for the San Diego Padres — and possibly for three postseasons — wouldn’t ease the sting. It’s vital, then, that some of the haul that got here again — six gamers — reveals that swallowing onerous and making the deal would possibly have been price it.
Abrams is doing that proper now, making a play an evening that at the least raises eyebrows and would possibly drop jaws.
“I’m watching him making plays that I haven’t seen made in quite a while,” Martinez mentioned.
It’s harmful to get caught up in highlights, certain. But Abrams’s highlights counsel there’s not a play he can’t make. On Tuesday, he backhanded one in the gap to make a drive at second and ran down a pop fly in foul territory which may have eluded common shortstops. It’s changing into the norm.
Take the weekend in Philadelphia as extra proof. On Friday evening, Alec Bohm hit a pointy grounder to Abrams’s proper that had veteran MASN play-by-play man Bob Carpenter saying, “That’s a base hit — I believe.”
It wasn’t. Range to the gap and the arm to transform these balls into outs? Check and verify.
In the first inning an evening later, with the bases loaded and one out, Abrams went behind the bag at second to snare Jean Segura’s grounder, someway twisted himself to increase his left leg to get the drive at second and nonetheless was in place to make the throw that accomplished a wait-show-that-again double play.
“Not a lot of players make that play,” mentioned Gary DiSarcina, who coaches the Nationals’ infielders and performed 1,069 main league video games at shortstop. “That’s him playing the game and just freewheeling it, and it’s awesome.”
Awareness and athleticism? Check and verify.
DiSarcina mentioned Abrams reminds him of an elite shortstop he performed in opposition to, five-time all-star Tony Fernández, and one he helped coach with the Los Angeles Angels, Andrelton Simmons. Those gamers gained 4 Gold Gloves apiece.
“When he first got over here, you look at him, and he seems kind of bored,” DiSarcina mentioned. “He’d just kind of mill around before pitches. Tony was like that. Andrelton was like that. But then he gets in his spot, and he’s ready. He pays attention. He knows when breaking balls and change-ups are coming, and he gets in position.”
Offensively, no matter you’re seeing proper now — together with Tuesday evening’s double to the opposite-field hole — maintain the following in thoughts: Abrams is just not near a completed product. The Padres’ first-round decide — sixth general — in 2019, he received zero skilled plate appearances in 2020, when the pandemic worn out the minor league schedule. His 2021 was minimize brief when he suffered a damaged tibia and a sprained medial collateral ligament in a collision at second base.
All instructed, he had 534 plate appearances in the minors — possibly half of what’s essential to make an evaluation and construct a base. When he began his tenure with the Nationals by hitting .136 with no extra-base hits in his first dozen video games, it wasn’t simply the shock of being with a brand new workforce in a brand new metropolis. It was the indisputable fact that he wants extra reps and extra maturation — mentally and bodily.
“Once he gets stronger, I think you’re going to see those doubles and those homers come,” Martinez mentioned. “Right now, it’s just about staying in the middle of the field, hitting line drives, getting on base. When he gets on base, he’s electric.”
It’s coming. In his subsequent dozen video games main into Tuesday, he hit .349 with two doubles, a triple and an on-base-plus-slugging proportion of .820.
Remember when Ian Desmond got here up at the finish of the 2009 season — which featured 103 losses — and performed the last 21 video games, hitting .280 with 4 homers, seven doubles and two triples? Come on. Some of you do. Headed into that offseason, the Nats had a bazillion holes to fill. Shortstop wasn’t one of them.
There are holes now and work to be finished to fill them. Consider shortstop stuffed — possibly in pencil however stuffed. One extra play to display why: With one out, runners on second and third and the sport tied Sunday, the Nats had the infield in. Harvey jammed Bryson Stott, who squibbed a grounder to the left facet.
“It’s a routine groundball if nobody’s on,” Harvey mentioned. “But in that situation, with the infield in, it was almost placed perfectly to be a hit and possibly two runs.”
Except right here got here Abrams, three steps to his proper in a blink, a dive to corral the ball, immediately on his toes to stare Bryce Harper again to 3rd — and a throw across the diamond for an easy out.
“Him laying out and making that play,” Harvey mentioned, “it’s game-changing.”
Abrams being right here, exhibiting each uncooked capability and polished preparation — that simply could be franchise-changing.