Why the Nats need to use the rest of the season to begin Abrams transition away from shortstop
We’re 9 days away from the 2025 MLB trade deadline, and we can expect the Nationals roster to look pretty different after it passes, as all expiring deals are on the trade block, as well as some players with control still, such as Nathaniel Lowe. With lots of players coming off the roster and spots to be filled, I believe it would be the perfect time for the Nationals coaching staff to look towards the future and try something new, and that would be trying out CJ Abrams at second base for the final 2 months of the year.
CJ Abrams’ defensive struggles have been well documented up to this point. He is in his 4th big league season and is tracking to finish bottom 3 percentile in OAA (Outs Above Average) for the 4th consecutive season. His arm strength is not blowing anyone away either, usually hovering around league average and registering at the 37th percentile this season. Abrams has flashed real potential at the position, making some incredibly flashy plays at times, but still struggles to consistently make the more routine plays.
If the Nationals are serious about winning more baseball games sometime soon, they cannot continue to have the worst defense at a premium position in baseball (This applies to catcher and Keibert Ruiz, but that’s a story for another day). Abrams likely will need to move off shortstop at some point in his career, and the earlier he does, the more time he has to adapt to his new position. That is why I am proposing that after the deadline, once other roster spots open up from trades, such as Josh Bell being gone opening up DH, the Nats experiment a little by moving Luis Garcia Jr. to DH, CJ Abrams to 2B, and letting anyone play SS to end the year (call up Nasim Nunez, Paul Dejong if you aren’t able to trade him).
I still think Garcia Jr. could get back to his 2024 defensive levels with a new coaching staff to coach him up, but for now, he’s a nightmare out there and could use the reset to just focus on his bat for a little while. As for Abrams, he gets 2 months in a lost season to go out there and just learn everything he possibly can about the position.
All errors and miscues can be largely forgotten about because the only thing that matters is how strong his understanding of the position is heading into 2026. Abrams’ learning second base allows the Nationals to at least be more flexible when constructing their roster this winter, whether that be a free agent signing, trade, or aggressive minor league call up of a shortstop. This won’t be the first time he has played the position either, as he played 66 innings at second base back in 2022 for the Padres, where he graded out roughly average.
I’m not ruling out giving Abrams one more chance at shortstop in 2026 with a new coaching regime in town. It is clear that the current coaching staff has practically no grasp on how to coach up fielders, as almost no young defenders have taken leaps forward in their careers, and some veterans, such as Nathaniel Lowe, actually regressing once they came to DC. He certainly is athletic to be at least an average defender at short, but he will need to seriously work on his jumps and his defensive actions before he can be considered anywhere near a plus at the position defensively.
The alternative to trying out Abrams at second base is to try him out in center field, and I think there is some merit to this argument. While going from shortstop to second base can be seen as a demotion and possibly hurt your chances at an Abrams extension, shortstop to center field is more of a lateral move. Abrams has 75th percentile speed, clearly quick enough to play out there, and maybe the arm can play above where it is at now, with him being able to let it eat more often out there.
The problem with this move is that it squeezes a few guys like Daylen Lile and Jacob Young out of starting roles with Abrams out there and Dylan Crews coming off the IL soon. The rebuild is still at the point where we need to know for sure who all our young guys are, and as far as at least Daylen Lile, the jury is still out on him as a big league hitter, so taking reps away is not something you want to do. Now, maybe you consider a trade of a youngster like Lile for more controllable pitching in the winter to unclog the outfield jam and boost a weak spot on the team, but again, that is a discussion for another day.
To conclude, I believe it is critical in these next 2 months that the Nationals prepare for the future the best they can, and to me, that means getting as creative as possible on the defensive side of the ball. The Nationals consistently are one of the worst fielding teams in the sport, and it’s doing their already lackluster pitching staff no favors. Moving Abrams to 2B, Garcia Jr. to DH, and signing or trading for a SS heading into 2026 creates a ripple effect of improvements defensively that will result in more favorable results for the pitching as a whole.