Call it? Or Stone Cold?

 Robles is coming back soon and he continues to hit better in his rehab. He's going to return sooner rather than later and someone has to go to replace him. The Nats have 4 OF right now. Thomas is actually a good player despite some shakiness in the field*. He's set. Dickerson has slowed way down since coming back and probably stinks but he's kind of in mid April form so he needs more time. Besides someone has to be DFA's for Wood. 

This leaves Alex Call or Stone Garrett to take the fall. The Post's Andrew "Living his life like it's" Golden goes over the crux of it here. He breaks it into Call can field, Stone can hit (maybe).  Some background

Stone is over a year younger. He showed right before the pandemic where his future may lie - hitting homers, by slugging 14 in 120 games. Post pandemic he upped that to 25 in 105 in AA and 28 in 103 in AAA and that did carry into a major league trial in 2022. He hit 4 homers and 8 doubles in 27 games.  His bugaboo, as Golden notes, is a big K rate getting up over 30%.

Call had less time in the minors though as he was a college player. He never showed much until 2021 in AA where he hit for average with doubles power and increased patience. 2022 showed similar trends in AAA. Both these seasons were abbreviated and call-ups to the next level each year didn't work out. But after grabbing him in 2022 the Nats played Call a decent amount (35g) and saw the better power and patience, if not the average.

Both guys are what you expect from late 20s "prospects". They have some things working for them but more against and something would have to change to see them become a major league player.

Is Call good in the field and inept at the plate? Well his patience is real but the power seems more fluke than growth. As a guy that never hit for good average you are going to get very little from him other than the ability to see some pitches. His defense is good in the aspect of getting outs above average but it's not backed up by a better than average range. I'm trying to find the stats to match my reading but my takeaway would be - he catches the balls he can get to much better than the average player, but he can get fewer balls. That's still a plus defender but not someone that's going to, if the breaks happen, become an outstanding one.

Is Stone a lummox in the field and if so is there any hope of him being better at the plate? Well no, he's not a lummox. He's perfectly average in the easiest defensive position LF. His arm isn't good so he can't move to RF and he can't try it in CF but if you don't move him he's ok. At the plate the power drop does seem odd. I mean we know why it's happening - he's not hitting balls in the air. But we don't know why he's not hitting balls in the air, or at least I don't. There's no change in pitch type. I imagine lower pitches would do it. But maybe he's not lucking into as many mistakes or he's just missed them somehow

I don't know which to pick honestly. I guess if I flip a coin I'd keep Garrett. Slightly younger, slightly more success in the majors, platoons, and I can't exactly pinpoint why he can't hit for power right now. Where as I think Call's good offense was a mirage and his D is of the "sure hands" rather than "cover ground" variety, so I think the Nats are losing less than you might think there. But I wouldn't peg Garrett for any long term success.  Yes it leaves the Nats with no good CF option when Robles sits but they aren't lighting it up with their D now.

*He clearly isn't a CF but isn't being asked to play CF this year unlike the last two. So it's kind of curious why it hasn't shown in his D numbers getting better.  Perhaps it's the vagaries of defensive stats. Or maybe he's getting old?