{"id":91903,"date":"2025-06-09T22:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/91903\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T22:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:31:09","slug":"nationals-notes-nunez-chapparo-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/91903\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Notes: Nu\u00f1ez, Chapparo, Williams,"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nationals announced last night that infielder Nasim Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> was optioned to Triple-A Rochester after the game. A corresponding move wasn\u2019t announced, but the Washington Post\u2019s Andrew Golden reported<\/a> not long after the Nu\u00f1ez move that fellow infielder Andr\u00e9s Chaparro<\/a> is being called up for the first his first big league look of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez has had a bizarre tenure with the Nats so far. Washington originally selected him out of the Marlins organization in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, scooping him up primarily due to his defensive prowess at shortstop. Nu\u00f1ez stuck on the roster all season in 2024, appearing in only 51 games and taking only 78 plate appearances, during which he batted .246\/.370\/.262 with no home runs. A double was his lone extra-base hit on the season. It\u2019s rare that a team can roster a player all season with such limited usage, but the Nats were firmly in rebuild mode last year and thus could make it work.<\/p>\n

The 2025 season has played out similarly. Nu\u00f1ez, now 24, has appeared in only 23 of the Nationals\u2019 53 games since his recall from Rochester in early April. He\u2019s averaged less than one plate appearance per game in that time, taking 49 turns at the plate and hitting .186\/.271\/.233. Nu\u00f1ez has one year and 58 days (1.058) of MLB service time dating back to Opening Day 2024 but still has only 127 major league plate appearances despite never landing on the injured list.<\/p>\n

For a player who\u2019d never played in Triple-A at the time of his selection in the Rule 5 Draft, that lack of reps feels particularly problematic \u2014 at least from a developmental standpoint. Nu\u00f1ez hadn\u2019t even hit well in two seasons of Double-A ball.<\/p>\n

Virtually no scouting report on\u00a0Nu\u00f1ez has suggested he comes with substantial upside at the plate, but being limited to a total of 158 plate appearances between the majors and (briefly, earlier this season) his first taste of Triple-A work doesn\u2019t give Nu\u00f1ez much of a chance. He\u2019s gone 15-for-18 in stolen base attempts (many as a pinch-runner) and indeed graded out as a plus defensive shortstop.<\/p>\n

The Nationals have effectively been carrying Nu\u00f1ez as a designated pinch-runner\/late-inning defensive upgrade for more than a year. He was on the active roster for the entire month of May and received all of eight plate appearances. Seldom do players in today\u2019s game find themselves used with this level of infrequency. The move back down to Triple-A should give Nu\u00f1ez some much-needed reps in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

In his place, the Nats will summon the 26-year-old Chaparro, whom they acquired from the D-backs last summer in exchange for veteran reliever Dylan Floro<\/a>. Chaparro opened the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain but has been hot since his activation in early May. The righty-swinging slugger has played in 20 games and totaled 82 plate appearances with Rochester this year, slashing .296\/.390\/.606 with six homers, four doubles, a 12.2% walk rate and a 24.4% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

Chaparro made a brief big league debut last year, getting into 33 MLB games and slashing .215\/.280\/.413 with four home runs. He played third base previously in both the D-backs and Yankees systems, but the Nats have used him exclusively at first base and designated hitter in both Triple-A and the big leagues.<\/p>\n

There should be opportunity at both spots in the majors. Designated hitter Josh Bell<\/a> has at least posted passable numbers as a left-handed hitter in 2025, but the veteran switch-hitter has posted a disastrous .051\/.178\/.103 batting line in 45 plate appearances when swinging from the right side of the dish. Nathaniel Lowe<\/a>\u2019s splits at first base aren\u2019t quite that pronounced, but he\u2019s still hit very poorly in lefty-versus-lefty situations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s feasible that Chaparro could find himself with a bigger role sooner than later. Bell has been a disappointment after signing a one-year deal in free agency and will be a DFA candidate before long if he can\u2019t improve his overall .179\/.274\/.342 line on the season. Lowe is a trade candidate, though the fact that his bat has tanked after a strong April showing doesn\u2019t do his market any favors.<\/p>\n

One other area where many Nats fans might hope to see some change would be in the rotation, where righty Trevor Williams<\/a> has struggled, but it doesn\u2019t sound as though there\u2019s anything planned on that front just yet. Asked about the security of Williams\u2019 spot in the rotation after another rough start yesterday, manager Davey Martinez told the Nats beat: \u201cYeah, he\u2019s in our rotation\u201d (link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com<\/a>). Martinez cited Williams\u2019 pitch count as a reason that he was hooked after 4 1\/3 innings, but he\u2019d also allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old Williams, who signed a two-year deal worth a guaranteed $14MM over the winter, has averaged fewer than five innings per start in 2025. He\u2019s only completed six innings twice in 13 starts this year. He\u2019s currently sitting on an ugly 5.91 earned run average, and over his past eight starts, Williams has been torched for a 6.41 ERA with just a 16.3% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 5.91 ERA is nearly three times the 2.03 mark he posted last year in nearly the same sample of work (66 2\/3 innings in 2024; 64 innings in 2025). He never seemed likely to sustain last year\u2019s success, which was buoyed by an 80% strand rate, career-low 4.2% homer-to-fly-ball ratio, and a .267 average on balls in play (second-lowest mark of his career, behind 2018\u2019s .261). The extent to which he\u2019s regressed has been a surprise, however. The fluke pendulum has swung the other direction on Williams\u2019 strand rate, going from abnormally high to abnormally low \u2014 just 60.4% in 2025. That\u2019s more than 12 points below both the league average and Williams\u2019 career mark.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all bad luck, though. Williams didn\u2019t have much margin for error with an 88.9 mph average fastball last year, but he\u2019s on even thinner ice now with a \u201cheater\u201d that\u2019s sitting 87.6 mph on the year. An already poor 9.4% swinging-strike rate has fallen to 8.4%. Williams is giving up more contact, particularly within the strike zone, and opponents have seen notable upticks in their average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit rate against the veteran righty.<\/p>\n

Unless Williams can turn things around, it\u2019s hard to see how he can hang onto that rotation spot long-term. MacKenzie Gore<\/a> is finally breaking out as one of the sport\u2019s premier arms, and rotationmates Mitchell Parker<\/a>, Jake Irvin<\/a> and Michael Soroka<\/a> have all been at least serviceable, albeit unspectacular.<\/p>\n

Williams is aided by the fact that there\u2019s very little depth that\u2019s pushing for his spot. Lefty DJ Herz<\/a> is already out for the season due to Tommy John surgery. Josiah Gray<\/a> won\u2019t be back from his own UCL repair until late in the season, at best. Shinnosuke Ogasawara<\/a> is on the minor league injured list, as is top prospect Jarlin Susana<\/a>. Other depth arms like Andry Lara<\/a> and journeyman Adrian Sampson<\/a> have struggled this year as well.<\/p>\n

Former top prospect Cade Cavalli<\/a> is a notable exception, as he\u2019s in a tear in Triple-A during his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Cavalli has a 1.52 ERA and 30-to-6 K\/BB ratio over his past 23 2\/3 innings. The longer the now-26-year-old Cavalli continues to excel, the tougher it\u2019ll be to maintain the status quo at the back of the staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nationals announced last night that infielder Nasim Nu\u00f1ez was optioned to Triple-A Rochester after the game. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3574,5,3573,3541,4,11193,495,4718],"class_list":{"0":"post-91903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-andres-chaparro","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cade-cavalli","11":"tag-josh-bell","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-nasim-nunez","14":"tag-nathaniel-lowe","15":"tag-trevor-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114655781806784048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91903","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=91903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}