There has been scuttlebutt about a potential trade of CJ Abrams all season, but about a week after the trade deadline, the Nationals announced a different move for their All-Star: he is going to start learning second base, with the idea being he will get a taste of the position late this year before a permanent switch in 2027.
There are many reasons speculated as the genesis of this – from Abrams’ defensive metrics (he’s a -11 DRS over the last two seasons and leads all MLB SS with 19 errors this year) to the future (former first-round pick Seaver King has a .885 OPS in Triple-A this year), but it all boils down to this being something the team has put a lot of thought behind on many levels.
“This has been a series of conversations over the course of the last few weeks, and what Blake (Butera) and I talk a lot about is like, we always wanna do what's best for the organization,” Nats POBO Paul Toboni told The Junkies on Wednesday. “But, we also don't want to be one of these organizations that does it without care and empathy for the player. CJ has been a shortstop his whole life, it’s a huge part of his identity as a baseball player, but we like to think it makes us a better team right now – but that doesn’t mean we just decide to roll with it and shove it down his throat. We obviously wanna have conversations about it over time.”
Abrams hasn’t seemed to keen on the idea, and too comfortable with the move, so far according to most on the outside looking in, but that may not be as big of a deal as it seems?
“CJ has been freaking awesome. Like, when we had those meetings, he's been great. He’s asked great questions, and I think he's understood everything,” Toboni said. “But yeah, th’re's a part of this that, when this move is made, it upsets you a little bit, because it’s a huge part of who he is. But, how he's handled being upset has been great. He’s said it to us that he’s not thrilled, but at the same time, he gets it; it’s about the team.”
A move to second base, even if his defense doesn’t pick up, could help both the Nats and Abrams going forward – that latter maybe even if, as speculated, the Nats look to deal Abrams, as the middle infield class of free agents is light and he and his two years of team control could be what teams desire (and the Nats would obviously use to help continue to build for the future).
That worked in theory with Luis Garcia, who had a career year offensively and was traded to the Yankees at the deadline – but for now, this one is simple: swapping Abrams and Nasim Nunez, who has been the primary 2B this year, could make the Nats better on defense now as they still potentially chase a Wild Card spot.
“He has made strides, but a lot of it is throwing; CJ is so darn athletic, he gets to balls at the outer edges of his range, it’s just about syncing up his top and bottom half, and delivering throws on target,” Toboni said. “We think that playing second base will ease that burden for him, but at the same time, you’ve seen Nasim play the infield, and being able to play him at shortstop with CJ at second whenever it ends up being, the combination of those two guys at those two positions, I think will lead us to a better position than how we're currently constructed.”
