Nats Hook Marlins, 14-7
Highlighted by a two-run HR by Robert Hassell and two-run single by Brady House, the Nats broke open a 6-5 game with a six-run 6th as they downed the Marlins, 14-7 on Tuesday afternoon.
Trevor Williams was the first starter to pitch multiple innings and “worked on some things” to the tune of a two-run HR in the 1st. He walked one and struck out one. Rule 5 pick Evan Reifert was the first man out of the ‘pen and struck out the side on 16 pitches.
Dylan Crews once again started, led off, and played RF. Washington’s #1 pick in 2023 singled, walked, scored twice, and stole base.
Here’s how the rest of the watchlist players fared:
- Hassell also flew out and struck out looking as the second CF, going 1-for-3 overall.
- Andrew Pinckney took over RF for Crews and went 1-fore-3 with stolen base and a run scored.
- Darren Baker subbed for José Tena at 2B and reached base twice on a single and a walk and scored twice.
- House also walked (!) and tapped back to the mound to finish 1-for-2 with a run scored as the substitute for Paul DeJong.
- Yoyo Morales flipped back over to 1B but was 0-for-3 with strikeout.
- Zach Brzykcy threw 13 of 29 pitches for strikes, one of which was deposited over the wall in CF and the other went for a double. He walked two and caught one batter looking.
- Andry Lara worked around a leadoff double in the 9th by striking out the next two batters and rolling 4-3 groundout to end the game.
The Nationals return to West Palm Beach on Wednesday to play the home team against the Astros. DJ Herz is expected to make the start.
Hassell has a funny knack for starting extremely hot.
Last season in AA, he was hitting .329/.430/.480 through his first month.
In the AFL, he was hitting .400 with a 1.233 OPS through the first two weeks.
The problem is he’s been unable to sustain it. After that hot start to 2024, he hit .215/.284/.283 the remainder of the regular season. And in the AFL, hit average dropped to “only” .281 and a .877 OPS by the end of the mini-season.
If Hassell can find a way to maintain these hot starts, maybe he just might resurrect his career. But remember, this good start is coming against really low quality pitching, not major leaguers. His HR came off Justin King, a 27 year old UDFA, who posted a 6.08 ERA in AA last year (and his 2B the day before came off TJ Shook another (nearly) 27 year old UDFA with extremely mediocre AA numbers).
Hassell should make it quite deep into ST as the rosters get whittled down, and arms like the above get sent to the minor league portion. I’ll be interested to see how Hassell fares against better oppositon.
Speaking of hot starts, Jacob Young also went deep and has a 1.500 OPS so far. There’s been reports Young bulked up this winter. If he can add even like .050 points to his SLG (basically 5 or 6 flyouts turning into HRs), we’re looking at a 4ish WAR in CF for the next half decade.
Agree completely about Hassell and Young. They’re competing for the CF position.
Unless he gets hurt in Spring Training, Jacob Young will be the Nats’ starting CF.
The question is whether the Nats will allow Hassell to play himself into the 4th OF spot on the roster or whether they will go with a retread non-prospect like Alex Call.
I don’t think there should be any scenario where Hassell’s ST performance plays him into a big league role. Yes, it can have an impact on his eventual major league debut date, and move it forward a bit, but we must not forget that Hassell just hit .125/.188/.156 in AAA over a month to end 2024. Hassell’s career minor league line is .260/.350/.385 (highly inflated by his pre-Nats time). While retread Alex Call has a career line of .250/.377/.444 in AAA (228 games), and even a major league slash of .231/.332/.364, which isn’t far off Hassell’s career in the minors.
The OF decision should be Alex Call or Stone Garrett to break camp. Then if Hassell can maintain an OPS somewhere above the IL’s league average .763 for at least half a season, and Young’s defense collapses or Wood or Crews get injured, give him a shot mid-season.
I’m open to a Hassell renaissance, but I still see his only pathway to the majors is via a trade to another team. Wood and Crews are just too good, Young is so good defensively, his bat basically doesn’t matter. And Call and Garrett, while they’re nothing particularly special, have shown a long track record of being able to hit upper level minor league pitching, something Hassell has yet to prove.
But if the storyline of 2025 could be for the hitters what 2024’s storyline was for the pitchers, that would be absolutely massive for the Nats’ shaky rebuild. We desperately need guys like Hassell and Morales to be this year’s equivalent of Susana and Lara, Dickerson or King to be Sykora, and some completely unexpected guy like Sam Petersen or Brenner Cox to do his best Brad Lord impersonation.
Hassell really needs to play every day — and hit — at AAA. I do think it’s possible that he has a higher ceiling than Young if he can show some power, but he HAS to show consistency, which he’s yet to do since the trade.
Nevertheless, a strong start is much preferable to the alternative.
I feel like Young is what Rizzo should have been seeking in a CF all along. Great defense and a bat that is just good enough to stay in the bigs. Then you can get a pair of sluggardly sluggers in the corners.
Top-level defense like MAT used to provide was good, and if he were willing to just put a few more balls in play when he had 2 strikes, and try to run his way on base rather than hit it out, I think he’d have been a perfectly decent-hitting CF, and his glove would have kept him in the lineup for years.
By signing Finnegan, the Nats will need to make corresponding roster move to add KF to the 40 man roster. The Nats have already placed Mason Thompson and Josiah Gray on the 60 day IL. So, there is no obvious player to be DFA’d or placed on the IL. If it’s not Cade Cavalli to the 60 day IL (and he has been touted as essentially ready), going to be interesting to see gets moved.
Cole Henry may not be on the Watchlist, having gotten “DFA’d” from the MASH unit for being MIA for too long (although he’s pitched more than Cavalli), but what he did yesterday was quite encouraging — four Ks in six batters faced while throwing 95. I really wasn’t sure he’d make it back. Kudos to him for fighting through his long and painful journey. The last time he was healthy, which was at Harrisburg in 2022, he was truly dominant (0.76 ERA, 1.9 hits per 9). There’s definitely an opportunity with this team if he can stay healthy as I don’t trust half of the projected bullpen arms for the big club.