Watch: Washington Nationals’ Five Top Catches of Last Season
The Washington Nationals didn’t have a Gold Glove winner last season, but that doesn’t mean their young stars didn’t do great work in the field.
Actually, in this case, center fielder Jacob Young did most of the heavy lifting.
Statcast recently compiled the five best catches from the 2024 season and put together a short video as part of MLB.com’s year-in-review package. Young had four of them.
On Sept. 7 at PNC Park, Young fielded a sharp line drive that, per Statcast, required him to run 51 feet to make a catch in which he had just 3.3 seconds to get to the baseball. It also had a catch probability of 15%.
On June 23 at Coors Field, Young ran 97 feet to dive to make a catch in which he had 4.8 seconds of opportunity time to track it down. It also had a catch probability of 15%.
Then, on July 12 at American Family Field, Young ran into right field 78 feet to make another diving catch with an opportunity time of 4.1 seconds. That catch also had a probability of 15%.
On Aug. 2 at Nationals Park, Young ran in and made a back-handed diving catch that required him to run 51 feet into left-center field and had an opportunity time of 3.2 seconds. That one had a catch probability of 5%.
But, it was rookie Dylan Crews who had the best catch of the year on Sept. 12 at Nationals Park. He ran deep into the gap in right-center field and made a sliding catch with a back-handed grab on the warning track. Crews ran 95 feet to make the grab, with an opportunity time of 4.5 seconds. That also had a catch probability of 5%.
The Nationals won 71 games in 2024, marking the second straight season they finished with 71 victories. It also marked Washington's fifth straight losing season since it won the 2019 World Series, which was the first championship in franchise history.
Since that victory, the Nationals have built from within while attempting to shed large pitching contracts with Max Scherzer (trade), Stephen Strasburg (retired) and Patrick Corbin (now a free agent).
Washington now has one of the best young rosters in baseball, one it hopes gets the team over .500 in 2025.
Several of the players that the Nationals received in the Juan Soto trade in 2022 are in the Majors, including outfielder James Wood. Crews is expected to be the opening-day right fielder after making his debut last year.
The Nationals also have budding young stars in outfielder Jacob Young, shortstop C.J. Abrams and second baseman Luis Garcia Jr., along with catcher Keibert Ruiz. The expected starting rotation is led by young pitchers like MacKenzie Gore and D.J. Herz.
