Blake Butera just dropped a bomb in his pre-game press conference this afternoon. He announced that star shortstop CJ Abrams is going to move to second base moving forward. In some ways the decision is shocking, but it also makes a lot of sense.
CJ Abrams was the starting shortstop in the All-Star game for the Nationals League. Moving a player of that caliber off his position in the middle of August is quite the move. However, when you look at what Abrams can do defensively, the move is only logical.
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Abrams has been a negative defender at short throughout his career. The 25 year old has compiled a fielding run value of -7 or worse every season as a big leaguer. Sometimes defensive metrics can be finicky, but when they say the same thing every season, you have to listen.
While Abrams’ offensive production has skyrocketed this season under new coaching, the defense has not taken the same step. Abrams has -13 FRV, the worst of any shortstop this season. He has also been making more errors than ever, with the lowest fielding percentage of his career.
In Spring Training and in the beginning of the season, the coaching staff sounded optimistic about Abrams’ defense. They talked about how great of an athlete he was and how there was a lot of untapped potential on both sides of the ball. However, as the year went on, we stopped hearing as much about his defense.
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Now, they are making the big move to switch his position. In some ways, I think the move to second will be very helpful for Abrams. It puts less pressure on his arm, which was light for the shortstop position. Second base also does not require quite as much range.
However, it will not fix everything. His hands still need a lot of work and it feels like he can lose concentration at times. Learning a new position on the fly also has its challenges. In the long run, I think this move makes a lot of sense for the player and the team though.
It will not happen right away though. Tonight, Abrams is playing his usual shortstop position. He will start playing second in a few days once he is up to speed. With this move, Nasim Nunez will be sliding over to shortstop. It is worth noting that Abrams will continue to play some short, only just once or twice a week.
I wonder what this could mean for Abrams’ future in DC as well. You can look at it in a couple different ways. Moving him off short gives him a long term home and the Nats can build a team with the idea of Abrams being at second for years to come. A more cynical person could look at this as the Nats showcasing that Abrams can play second to other teams.
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We will have to wait until the offseason to see what happens though. For now, the Nats have made a bold and intriguing move. Personally, I am very interested to see how Abrams looks at his new home down the stretch.
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