CJ Abrams stepped into the box at Yankee Stadium with the Washington Nationals up one in the seventh after Alex Call's two-out, two-run homer against New York reliever Tommy Kahnle last Thursday. And after working a full count, Abrams got a changeup in the middle of the zone and smacked a towering fly to right field. A homer the young shortstop stood at the plate, admired it and turned to the Nats' dugout and tossed his bat in that direction before jogging around the bases, much to Kahnle's apparent chagrin.
When asked how he felt about Abrams' conduct, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said he didn't see much wrong with it during his weekly appearance Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
"I'm beyond that stuff nowadays," Rizzo said when asked if he liked Abrams' admiring his homer. "The game has changed a 180 since 10 years ago when that was frowned upon. I like the young players to have fun and to be fired up, and that type of thing. Just remember the situation and where you're at. [Manager Dave Martinez is] gonna teach the players to play the right way.
"And I think that you'll see CJ is gonna play the game at 100 miles per hour, with his hair on fire and that's just the way we like it, that's the way I like it, at least."
Abrams arrived in D.C. in the trade that sent Juan Soto, another young talent known for batter's box behavior that some older folks get upset about, to San Diego.
Abrams, who struggled at times this season offensively and defensively at shortstop, has shown good improvement and had a terrific month of July, with a .327 average and .891 OPS over 98 at-bats with four doubles, two triples and three home runs. And his 16 steals that month and 13 in August dwarf the nine he had from April through June.
Overall, Abrams has a slashline of .253/.303/.411 with a .714 OPS and 97 OPS+ (just below average) along with his 22 doubles, 14 home runs and 49 RBI. The Junkies Jason Bishop says Abrams could be a 20 homer, 50 steals type of player.
"Yeah, we always identified him as a guy that was a premium position, premium player, tools-y player," Rizzo said. "We had no doubts that he was gonna put his tools together and even early in the season, this is a guy who's made 17 errors this year, and as a rookie playing shortstop in the big leagues, I was expecting 25 to 30 because that's what these young rookie shortstops do at the big leagues early in their career. So he's exceeded my expectations of being an everyday defender at shortstop.
"We always saw the pop, we thought the pop was evident when we scouted him before the trade. But what I think the difference is now is ... to teach him what is his happy zone. And what. is the zone that he should stay away from swinging at. They used to get him out with four-seemers up and then breaking balls down. And I think you can see a little bit of an adjustment there over the season where he's now kinda laying off the pitches that he can't handle as well and kinda looking for pitches in certain counts that he can drive.
"And I don't think it's an accident that he's hitting some first-pitch changeups he's hitting out of the park in big situations because he's a stud here, he's a video guy, and he's a guy that takes instruction well from [hitting coach] Darnell Coles and Davey Martinez. He's got a bright future at 22... Just starting to put his mark on what his career could look like."
Down on the farm, top draft pick Dylan Crews was taken out of Double-A Harrisburg's game on Tuesday night after he was hit in the back of the helmet by a breaking pitch as a precaution, Rizzo said. The Nats' top draft pick will be further evaluated on Wednesday but the general manager said he hopes he will be back playing again soon.
Since he was promoted to Double-A, Crews has struggled to find his footing in his first seven games with just three hits in 21 at-bats, but with four walks he has a respectable .321 on-base percentage. Rizzo added that the numbers aren't important to him right now it is more about seeing the prospect adjust and hit the team's internal benchmarks for progress. Rizzo added that Crews has already taken a leadership role with Harrisburg and seemed pleased with his progression so far.
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