Nationals manager Blake Butera announced to the media today that CJ Abrams will be gradually moving from shortstop to second base. He will still play shortstop on occasion but Nasim Nuñez will be the regular and Abrams will be a regular second baseman once he gets comfortable there. Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post, Kyle Williams of The Baltimore Banner and Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal relayed the skipper’s news.
It’s a notable move but not necessarily a surprising one. Abrams is a very talented baseball player but he has often looked overmatched as a shortstop defender. He has 5,297 innings at that spot in his career thus far. He has been credited with minus-11 Defensive Runs Saved, including minus-5 this year. The Outs Above Average metric has given him an eye-popping minus-63 grade in his career, worst in the majors for the 2022-26 span, regardless of position. That included minus-17 this season, again the worst tally in the majors regardless of position.
Throughout the baseball industry, including here at MLBTR, people have wondered when he might be moved to second base, third base or center field. Now it seems the Nats are going to try him on the other side of the second base bag.
That reduces his value in a sense, as a premium shortstop is generally worth more to teams than a strong second baseman, but he clearly wasn’t going to stick at short for the long term. Regardless of where he lines up on defense, he will be a valuable player since he is one of the best offensive performers in the league. He has 29 home runs and 23 stolen bases already this year. His .284/.357/.541 line translates to a 143 wRC+, indicating he has been 43% better than league average at the plate overall. That’s a top-ten mark among qualified hitters this year.
It’s interesting timing for Abrams and the Nats. The club has been in rebuilding mode for a while and clearly isn’t prioritizing the near future. MacKenzie Gore was traded in the most recent offseason when he still had two seasons of club control remaining. Washington flirted with contention this year but still acted as sellers at the deadline. They traded away impending free agent Foster Griffin but also Luis García Jr., who isn’t slated for free agency until after 2027, and Curtis Mead, who is controlled through 2030.
Abrams is slated for free agency after 2028, meaning the Nats still have him for the rest of this season and two further campaigns. He has already been in trade rumors for a while but remains with Washington. Perhaps that is related to some questions in his profile. In both 2024 and 2025, he hit great in the first half but faded down the stretch. Time will tell whether 2026 will be a similar story. He was great through July but has a .235/.278/.373 line so far in August. On top of that, his future positional home has been an ongoing question.
Going forward, the Nats will have to make some choices on Abrams. If he is a part of the club’s future, then perhaps they could look to extend him. If not, then it makes sense to put him on the trade block while his value is still quite high. As his window of club control shrinks and his arbitration salary rises, his value will go down. Similarly, as he approaches free agency, his asking price in extension talks will go up.
Those upcoming decisions may hover over the coming offseason. Before the long, cold winter arrives, the Nats will get some looks at Abrams at second and see how it goes. Other clubs will surely be watching with interest as well.
More to come.
