Washington Nationals news & notes: CJ Abrams in 2024 + more…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ 23-year-old shortstop…

Part of the appeal of joining the Nationals, Nick Senzel explained after he signed on to a 1-year/$2M free agent deal with the club, was getting to play alongside lifelong friend Lane Thomas in Washington, but the 28-year-old, five-year veteran also talked about playing on the left side of the infield with shortstop CJ Abrams.

“He’s a super-talented player, athletic, really good at shortstop,” Senzel said. “Just excited to be around him, learn from him, try to mentor him in any way I can, be there for him. But just watching him from the other side, I saw him in his first year in San Diego, and even the way he’s grown, he’s just still so young, and even the way he’s grown in the last couple years it’s almost exponential. Last year, you really started to see him come into his own and just with the more at-bats and just the more games he’s playing, just really excited to be on that left side with him.”

Abrams, 23, finished his first full season in the majors with a .245/.300/.412 line, 28 doubles, six triples, and 18 home runs in 151 games and 614 plate appearances, over which he was worth + 2.1 fWAR.

The 18 home runs were four more than he’d hit in three pro seasons’ worth of at-bats before last year.

Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images

“He’s giving himself a chance to hit every pitch hard,” manager Davey Martinez said towards the end of the 2023 campaign.

“I always said, when he really learns how to shrink the strike zone, he’s going to be an All-Star.”

“He’s going to be something else.”

Acquired from San Diego as one of five prospects (and six players total) in the deal which sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the Padres at the deadline in ‘22, Abrams played 90 total games that season, 44 in D.C., and just about all the games in 2023, with GM Mike Rizzo attributing his improvement at the plate to the work he did with both Martinez and hitting coach Darnell Coles.

“What I think the difference is now is what Darnell and Davey have really done well with him: is to teach him what is his happy zone, and what is his zone that he should stay away from swinging. They used to get him with four-seamers up and then breaking balls down, and I think you can see a little bit of an adjustment there over the season where he’s now kind of laying off the pitches that he can’t handle as well, and kind of looking for pitches in certain counts that he can drive.”

“He’s a studier, he’s a video guy, and he’s a guy that takes instruction well from Darnell Coles and Davey Martinez. He’s got a bright future at [23].

“I said it at the draft, there’s about 1,000 players that were older than him in this year’s draft, and this guy has already got a year under his belt in the big leagues.

Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images

“So, bright future, great kid, energy guy, speed guy, athletic, tools, and just starting to put his mark on what his career could look like.”

Martinez said early this spring he saw a different Abrams in Spring Training.

Abrams, he told reporters, is learning how to lead as well.

“He leads by example. For me it’s going to happen in a way where, I’m watching him take ground balls now, and it’s a lot different than last Spring Training. He’s got confidence.

“He knows what he wants to do … he brought a lot of energy.”

“We’re trying to lessen his chase, and really try to stay in the middle of the field. I think he sometimes gets a little pull-happy, so if he can stay in the middle of the field, we still want him to be aggressive, but aggressive in the strike zone. I’m watching him. I’m watching him work. He’s doing everything right right now.”

Washington Post writer Andrew Golden noted Abrams enjoyed success late in the season, while pulling the ball and hitting it in the air, and asked what the balance was there given the results.

“He knows they’re going to try to pitch him in. Last year, that was part of it. Hey, you get the ball middle-in, make sure it’s not in-in, but if it’s strike in, go ahead and pull the trigger, and he did really well with that. And then there were times where they started pitching him away and throwing off-speed stuff. The off-speed stuff is what we really got to get him not to chase, and if he does, get it up. We’ve been working on it this spring with all of them. If you see breaking balls, just make sure you get it up in the zone.”