The Washington Nationals are starting to fall out of the wild card race, sitting five games back of a wild card spot on Friday.
They are not buried yet, but they need to play much better baseball down the stretch. Even if they miss the postseason, they seem to have two elite stars to build around or use as trade chips and land major assets. CJ Abrams and James Wood are both All-Stars who have the makeup to lead the Nationals to where they want to go. However, the Nationals are making a big change with Abrams for the last six weeks of the season.
According to The Athletic's Spencer Nusbaum, the Nationals are moving Abrams over to second base. Nasim Nuñez would presumably move over to shortstop. He has made 68 appearances there in his career.
Abrams is an elite hitter and was a hot name at the trade deadline. With years of control, it would take a haul to get him, and clearly nobody wanted to pay the price. The Nationals are trying to maximize what he can do for their team, and improving his value on defense is a start.
He has a minus-17 outs above average this season, ranking in the 1st percentile. To say he is not a good defender would be an understatement. He has made a league-leading 19 errors, and moving to second base may eliminate some of his throwing miscues.
He will still need to put in work and improve his defense, but second base is easier than shortstop and should mask some of his defensive shortcomings. The move to second base could also open the door for the Nationals No. 4 prospect Seaver King to be the starting shortstop next year, or potentially as a September call-up.
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