Lest you thought it was going to be a quiet off-season the Nats have brought in two players!
Lucius Fox was a very highly touted international free agent (Bahamas( signed by the Giants for a ton of money... then dealt after a single season to Tampa. He hit well in A-ball at 18 and 19 and in High A at 20 showing good average and patience and made a Top 100 prospect list and the Futures game after that. But Lucius also had a decent amount of Ks and not the corresponding power to go with it, and 2019 he couldn't get it going in AA. He was traded to KC and after the 2020 break last year showed a lot of the same stats. More interested in protecting other guys from the Rule V draft the Royals dropped him from the roster. The O's picked him up, tried to sneak him off the roster into the minors, but the Nats grabbed him.
He's interesting. From all I read he's got a decent bat, good eye, and good speed, but he's not a particularly good fielder and like said above has no power. At 24 he's not too old to turn it around but this would presumably be his last shot.
Cesar Hernandez, the long time former Phillie middle IF has bounced around a couple of teams the past couple of years maintaining his decent fielding, and average-minus bat. It's not a terrible gamble that he keeps that up another year. He's no longer young (he'll be 32 most of next season) his swinging and missing is trending in the wrong direction. But he's also fast and had some bad luck with balls in play last year and has shown an uptick in power over time. You can see him hitting .270 with 15 homers by the trade deadline and be a piece that gets you something back, or you can see him hitting and empty .240 and getting you nothing. Similar to Alcides he fills a role.
4 comments:
Woohoo! The Nats are back!
I'm wondering what the Hernandez signing does to the infield. Unlike Escobar, he's a genuine "fill out a MLB lineup" guy, the definition of average veteran, so he'd be expected to play (Steamer projects him to be be better than all of Garcia, Kieboom, and Escobar, and I'd certainly agree that he's better than Kieboom and Escobar). But he's a second baseman, and Garcia, the one infielder that management should want to keep on the field playing ball, is also a 2B. Does this mean they think Garcia can move to short or third?
SM - Where my second ring?
DP - Early talk is yes - maybe the Nats are aiming to try Garcia at SS (where he'd be most valuable) Could also just be Kieboom insurance in that they either aren't going to bother trying him, try to trade him, or assume he'll crash and burn very quickly
It seems to me like pushing Garcia to short would be pretty ambitious. I mean, I get it in the abstract -- maximum value. But there is not much room for error here.
He has been a bad defender in the majors, and I don't remember hearing any raves about his defense back when we was a prospect. It was always just fine.
I suppose his arm strength plays at short, and the hope is that his shortcomings have been mental and he'll work through them with more gametime reps?
But this could also go very badly.
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