The kids are coming sooner or later to the Nationals…and honestly, some of them may be sooner given their performances this spring.
When manager Dave Martinez joined Grant & Danny this week live in West Palm Beach, well, it was pretty obvious that maybe the top of that list was James Wood, who is hitting .475 this spring.
“He’s been incredible. His whole persona, not just the player but the person…he’s quiet and goes about his business, but he works hard and interacts with everyone,” Martinez said. “He’s one of the guys I’ve been talking to about his two-strike approach; we know he has power, but the best way to hit with two strikes is don’t miss the fastball early. Defensively, I’ve put him everywhere, and he can play all three positions and he doesn’t look like he’s running out there. I tell him the last guy I saw his size run like that was Dave Winfield. It’s unbelievable.”
And then, there’s Robert Hassell III, who may have lost a little prospect shine but is impressing as well.
“He’s made some adjustments, and I told him to think of himself as a gap-to-gap 40-double guy instead of trying to pull everything for power,” Martinez said. “When you start hitting and not try to hit it out, you’ll be an unbelievable hitter. He has good bat-to-ball skills, and he’s getting to balls now he didn’t think he could get to. I told him, ‘get yourself ready to hit on time and get on top of the ball, and you can hit to all fields.’ He’s done well and can run really well, too.”
He’s also been impressed with Dylan Crews, who has “handled himself well,” but the biggest thing for Davey is seeing them do it against premium competition.
“I want these guys to play and face big-league pitchers, and Crews has done well, is seeing a lot of pitches,” Martinez said. “The future is bright, that’s for sure, and we’re going to see some of these guys real soon.”
One that we may see usurp sooner, though? Jacob Young, who impressed last year in center when Victor Robles was hurt, and is in a ‘straight-up competition’ with the former World Series hero for the job.
“That’s really like a competition there; Jacob did well for us last year, and Vic maybe has a little bit of the upper hand, but right now they’re both in the mix,” Martinez said. “Last year, before he got hurt, Vic was doing well; we changed some things with his hitting and he was doing all the little things right, so I think a lot of it had to do with his back. But he’s doing well, and it’s good to see him healthy.”