Lane Thomas went to the IL and there was some hope James Wood would get the call. Sorry. Trey Lipscomb is back!
Why? Why replace an OF with an IF? Well from biggest reason to smallest...
1) Trey is already on the 40-man. So to bring him up you don't have to make room. You would if bringing up nearly anyone else as the rest of the 40-man is basically injured guys and pitchers. Except...
2) The OF on the 40-man is Alex Call. They gave Alex a good long trial last year. He can sure field, but he can't hit. He's currently hitting .212 / .312 in AAA (though with 6 homers?!?!) We don't need to see him again
3) James Wood slowed down a bunch after his start. In his first 10 games James Wood was a house on fire : .432 / .563 / .757 with just as importantly 8 Ks in 48 PAs. In his last 9 games James Wood is the ashes : .180 / .256 / .205 with just as importantly 14 Ks in 43 PAs almost double the rate. If you wanted an excuse to keep him down he's given you a good one.
4) As we discussed before, if Wood stays down long enough, he can qualify as a Top 100 prospect the Nats can bring up to start NEXT season and get various rewards if he does well.
So really I think it's just a roster thing. Rizzo has historically been a guy who will lean toward not forcing roster changes even if the talent being used is sub-optimal. He's not bringing up Wood until he keeps him up forever and he's not doing that now, while Wood is in a slump.
Oh well.
5 comments:
If I didn't know better I'd think Harper largely understands (and maybe even *agrees with*) the Nationals logic trail here.
Nah. Couldn't be. ;)
If you didn't think Wood was ready a week ago (for either devious service time reasons or benevolent developmental reasons or both), Lane's injury doesn't change anything. If we were trying to make the playoffs, they'd have to consider rushing him up despite their misgivings but we're not, so they don't.
Once it's not Wood, it hardly matters.
My question for Harper is: does Alu get claimed? The projection systems still think he's alright, even after his disastrous third of a season last year. Do any teams need non-SS utility depth? I might have dropped Call before Alu, but really they've both had enough of a shot that I'm alright seeing them go.
I also would have kept Call over Alu. Call is a plus defender with speed, some patience, and occasional pop. Alu showed nothing last year despite being Fangraphs' super ZIPS boi for some reason. Also Alu has a .537 OPS at AAA and has become expendable with Trey Lipscomb's ascendance.
Who among us predicted a Winker-Rosario-Gallo OF in January?
Mike - From a team standpoint what the Nats do usually makes boring sense. I prefer wild swings from a team heading into a half-decade of missed playoffs trying to figure out this year how to move forward. So I don't know if I agree with it but definitely understand.
Anon - No. He's older with one third of a season that sparks real interest. He reads as a AAA utility player. Yeah he could probably be the last guy on some benches but that won't make someone claim him.
ocw5000 - Same Call has value as a 5th OF if your team can carry such a thing. Very good D, pinch runner. Nats though don't really have that option.
They've got fans yearning for Stone Garrett's return.
I don't know. If Call isn't getting playing time with Garrett, Robles and Thomas all down with short-ish term injuries, he's not getting playing time.
FWFIW, the projections like Call alright too. Both him and Alu have way better numbers than Lipscomb, or Senzel for that matter.
(And, before we get too ahead of ourselves, Lipscomb's ascendence is basically the same offensive player as Alu's disaster. At 23 and only in his 2nd full professional season, it's not unreasonable to hope that he could get better. And being able to cover a little SS in a pinch is nice. So absolutely, drop Alu for Lipscomb, and don't look back. But there could be a lot less daylight between the two than folks are thinking.)
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