Why Gomes? Why no Kendrick?

Two things have become clear over the course of this season.  Yan Gomes can't hit anymore.  Howie Kendrick wasn't done in by his injury and can still hit.  Yet four games into the 2nd half and the Nats line-up have been a lot like they were leading into the All-Star Break.  We've seen Gomes twice and Suzuki twice as they have pretty much split time and Kendrick hasn't managed to start a game yet (though I'd suspect we'll see him tonight). While it could be written off as "resting the guys for later" I think these are two unique situations.

The Gomes situation is hard to read because catching is hard to read. It's a unique position that's difficult to evaluate defensively and a lot of the reason some guys play is because starting pitchers like them. This has been my conceit with Gomes. If he's putting up a 53 OPS+ and playing about 50% of the time, the starters must like him. If you are curious I think I went over it in a comment or tweet but the catching match-ups work like this right now

Sanchez goes with Suzuki
Corbin goes with Gomes
Max used to go with Gomes, but now goes with Suzuki
Stras and the 5th starter mix it up with a little more reliance on Gomes than Suzuki.

I mean there's rest for Suzuki, but every third game should be sufficient. Or even 60%. Other than the pitcher preference I'm not sure what would spur on this split we're seeing. And assuming it's that - I think it's fair to say "OK we can cover for this one position that doesn't hit a few games a week". Starter comfort is nothing to be messed with. This isn't ideal but the ideal situation would be "Gomes hits a lot better" or "Pitchers love Suzuki". Neither of those are reality so the Nats are working with what they got. I think it's fine for now, as long as we see more Kurt during a run coming up. He did play back to back games twice in the ARI PHI ATL stretch in June (Gomes had them after that). If that happens again now during ATL COL LA ATL then great. I think they got something right here.


The Kendrick situation is unfortunate.  He can't really play OF anymore. If you were to play him - you'd want him in left, but left is where Soto plays and frankly Soto, as we've discussed, is no good. You don't want to shift him over to right every few games when you are hoping something catches on with him in left. I suppose Kendrick plays left when Soto sits, but how often do you really want Soto sitting? In fact Kendrick hasn't played OF all year. So don't expect this.

So if the OF is out - that's fine Kendrick can play 1B and muddle through 2B and 3B. With 3B well - that's like taking Soto out. You might rest Rendon a game every month, maybe. He hasn't had a day off yet since returning and I don't see any reason to make him take one. So consider 3B pretty much out except for a couple of random starts between here and season's end. Like two.

Once Rendon was back Kendrick appeared in games by playing against LHP at first and coming in occasionally at 2B.  He'd probably only play say every other game like that but toss in a few DH stints and it felt like just enough. But then Zimm came back and he needed the time against LHP at first. If you want Zimm back into the swing of things you simply can't give him more than a random day off for a while and in fact he's played against every LHP and some RHP so far, basically splitting time with Adams.  All that's left right now for Kendrick is 2B. The Nats like what they have with Dozier. He holds down 2B well especially since neither Zimm or Adams are particularly good fielders at 1B. He's also been hitting just well enough to keep playing. So Kendrick is effectively squeezed out.

I suspect that once we see Zimm get comfortable - maybe in a week or two - we'll see a more set rotation for Kendrick. Something like over the course of 10 games he'll play 1B once and 2B twice. But beyond that he's an extra piece. If you want to look at it from a positive angle, that's a good problem to have. "Oh where do we play this good hitter who can't field" It's a problem good teams SHOULD have.

Now if the offense begins to struggle against the upcoming decent team stretch, will I be annoyed if Kendrick still isn't playing? Yes. But the Nats are winning and as long as they keep doing that it gives them the cover to do what they want. Which includes sitting the better hitting Kendrick so the better fielding Dozier can play and Zimm can get his recovery at bats.