{"id":778808,"date":"2026-08-14T21:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/778808\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:21:14","slug":"nationals-make-c-j-abrams-decision-immediately-before-mets-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/778808\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals make C.J. Abrams decision immediately before Mets series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Less than a month after he was the starting shortstop for the National League at the MLB All-Star Game, C.J. Abrams is no longer a shortstop. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Washington Nationals made the decision to swap Abrams and second baseman Nasim Nu\u00f1ez for the remainder of the 2026 season. Manager Blake Butera <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/K_Williamsmedia\/status\/2088368997750149602\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">told reporters<\/a> Friday, Aug. 14 that the team wanted to give Abrams more time at shortstop, but that moving him to second and Nu\u00f1ez to shortstop gives them a better chance to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abrams, 25, has been one of the NL\u2019s best hitters amid a surprising season in D.C. Through Aug. 13, he\u2019s slashing .284\/.357\/.541 with 29 home runs and a major league-best 91 RBIs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/nationals-miles-mikolas-dfa-jackson-kent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Two-time All-Star might have thrown final pitch for Nationals<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An All-Star for the second time in the last three seasons, Abrams wasn\u2019t voted to start on the strength of his glove.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/leaderboard\/outs_above_average?type=Fielder&amp;startYear=2026&amp;endYear=2026&amp;split=yes&amp;team=&amp;range=year&amp;min=q&amp;pos=6&amp;roles=&amp;viz=hide&amp;sort=5&amp;sortDir=asc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">According to Statcast\u2019s Outs Above Average metric<\/a>, Abrams is the worst defensive shortstop in baseball (-17 OAA). By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fieldingbible.com\/drs-leaderboard\/players?position=6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Defensive Runs Saved<\/a>, Abrams\u2019s -5 is better than only five other shortstops this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nu\u00f1ez, 25, has been a below-average hitter by every metric. But he\u2019s made up for it with an MLB-leading 40 stolen bases and better glovework at second base (+9 OAA, +13 DRS) than all but a handful of big league regulars at the position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/yankees-nationals-trade-prospects-luis-garcia-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Yankees make trade, acquire 23-home run hitter from Nationals<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nationals (60-63) begin a three-game NL East series against the New York Mets (53-69) later Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The position switch is as much an endorsement of the Nationals\u2019 belief in Nu\u00f1ez as it is about Abrams. Shortstop is the most challenging defensive position on the infield. Most hitters bat right-handed, and they tend to pull the ball with more power to the left side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nu\u00f1ez, a former second-round pick by the Miami Marlins who joined the Nats in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, is slashing .230\/.315\/.267 with only eight extra-base hits in 400 plate appearances. But if he can hold his own at shortstop, he might earn a chance to be a longer-term fixture at the position as the team emerges from its decade-long rebuild.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Enjoy free coverage of the top news &amp; trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter <\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a month after he was the starting shortstop for the National League at the MLB All-Star&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,18832,4,415,61,414,71,4222],"class_list":["post-778808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-c-j-abrams","tag-mlb","tag-nationals","tag-new-york-mets","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117095961954480217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}