Opinion: Nats should've waited until offseason to make Abrams switch
It's long been known CJ Abrams wouldn't stick at shortstop forever, but the Nationals may have committed an unforced error moving him now
The notion of CJ Abrams moving to second base is hardly new. On the day the Nationals acquired him in the Juan Soto blockbuster deal four years ago, there already were questions about his viability as a shortstop in the long-term. So the team’s recent decision to make the switch didn’t exactly come out of, well, left field.
What did catch a lot of people by surprise was the timing of the decision. The Nats front office and coaching staff elected to take this bold step roughly three-quarters of the way through a season that was competitive as recently as three weeks ago but has since morphed back into what it was supposed to be all along: a chance to focus on the future.
In some ways, that makes the timing of the Abrams move make perfect sense. The Nationals aren’t contending in 2026 anymore, but they hope to in 2027. Why not find out now if one of the team’s best players can smoothly make the transition to the opposite side of the infield?
Then again, in-season position switches of this magnitude aren’t all that common. And they’re usually necessitated by the acquisition of another player whose arrival forces others to move around. Think Rafael Devers leaving third base after the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman, or Bryce Harper moving to right field after the Phillies traded for Luis Arraez.
There was none of that in this particular case. The Nats didn’t just recently acquire a better shortstop. They simply decided Abrams isn’t best-suited to play that premium position anymore, and that the team would benefit from swapping him and second baseman Nasim Nuñez.
