The Nationals are, by design, a very young team. You have people like C.J. Abrams, James Wood, Jacob Young, Luis Garcia, Mitchell Parker, D.J. Herz, now Jose Tena, all guys who are under 25 and providing crucial support to this team. Yet at the same time, this is a Nats regime that has allowed for a story like Joey Meneses, who took the league by storm as a 30-year-old rookie in 2022, a year after 33-year-old Yadiel Hernandez broke through in a similar manner. The rookies and breakthrough players don't need to be young, 'future of the team' guys in order to truly make a difference.
Case in point: as people were being dealt at the end of July, the Nats called up Alex Call, who seemed like he'd be here to stay after a strong 2023 but was blocked at multiple positions to start the season. Call is in his third season of MLB play, but he's 29 years old. He's at the benchmark where most players strive for free agency numbers, rather than still struggling to make one's mark. There's a whole conversation about how players take longer to progress through the minors now, and start their MLB careers at 25 or 26 rather than in their early 20s, and while that is the safer course of action it does rob us of a lot of long, 20 year careers. The myth of Dave Winfield, the guy who walked right out of the draft and onto the Padres' roster, seems to have passed through.
Yet someone like Call can still be a great service to a Nats team that is just trying to end the season with some shred of dignity. In 24 major league games this year, Call is hitting .367 with 12 RBIs and 29 hits. The man just keeps finding new and exciting ways to get on base, and with Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker gone, there's outfield room for him to play everyday and stay at this pace. To be honest, the Nats could go with a Young-Wood-Call outfield for a little while. Young blossomed this year, he's a really versatile OF piece, and Wood is slowly coming along hitting .289 in 40 games.
And that's the cool part. You're seeing both short term and long term solutions in Washington. Juan Yepez is the short term 1B solution, his power numbers have been fantastic, while Andres Chaparro seems like the longer term 1B solution, just as his own power bat improves. MacKenzie Gore is seeming more like a short-term starter, as his all-K/no nuance stuff works until the homegrown guys like Irvin, Parker and Herz can really take over. Ildemaro Vargas is a sharp short term solution at third, while Jose Tena smooths out the wrinkles now so he can take over eventually.
The Nats are still a few more years away, so they need guys like Alex Call to keep things moving now so that when they can compete, everybody's ready and they can start tacking on more strategic contract pieces as supplemental additions. The Nats seem closer to putting together a working core than tearing it all down again, and hopefully they have enough at the end of this season to bring with them to 2025.
Coming Tonight: A useful infielder for a team that...somehow silenced mine yesterday.
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