Washington Nationals Need Young Shortstop to Become Breakout Star
The Washington Nationals are looking forward to taking a step forward in 2025 after two straight seasons with 71 wins.
So far, it hasn’t been the busiest offseason just yet for the Nationals. Despite coming into the winter with some needs, Washington has been fairly quiet in both free agency and the trade market.
The Nationals' two biggest moves to this point have been to sign pitcher Michael Soroka to a one-year deal to become a starter for the rotation and trading reliever Robert Garcia to the Texas Rangers for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
While the team certainly has some needs still for 2025, they do have one of the top young cores in baseball. Even though winning 71 games wasn’t ideal last season, a lot of their top prospects were able to come up and make an impact.
Since the team is full of young players, there are certainly going to be plenty of growing pains. However, they have seen players like CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. become All-Star caliber players.
David Schoenfield of ESPN.com recently wrote about one number for each National League team. For the Nationals, it was the number 20, which was the number of home runs that CJ Abrams hit in 2024. He highlights this number putting the young shortstop in some elite company.
“CJ Abrams hit 20 home runs at age 23. That's pretty elite company: In the divisional era (since 1969), only 18 shortstops have hit at least 20 home runs in their age-23 season," he wrote.
One of the main piece in the trade for Juan Soto in 2022, it was excellent to see Abrams make his first All-Star team in 2024. In the first half of the season, the now 24-year-old was outstanding.
Before the All-Star break, he totaled a .268 batting average, 15 home runs, 48 RBIs, and 15 stolen bases. It looked like the young shortstop had finally figured it out and was getting ready to become a star for Washington. However, a poor second half of the season really cooled that talk quickly.
With some maturity issues off the field to go with the poor play, it was a frustrating end to the season for Abrams.
Now, as the team gets ready for 2025, they will be hoping that their talented young shortstop is able to perform like he did in the first half of the season for a complete year. At the plate, he has all the tools to be a star in the National League, but his defense certainly needs work.
The Nationals hit the second fewest home runs in baseball last season. Lowe will help Washington change that. But a significant leap in the power department by Abrams will be just as helpful.
If the Nationals are going to take a step forward, they will need their young shortstop to become a star.
