The Washington Nationals received news that one of their outfielders is going to need surgery and will miss a few months of action. Will they explore other outfield options to ensure they have a sufficient Opening Day starter at the position?
According to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, outfielder Jayson Werth will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder on Friday and his recovery is expected to take 2-3 months. He specifically adds the surgery will be on the AC shoulder joint, which kept him out of action for a week in August. The Nats have some depth in the outfield with Nate McClouth as well as prospect Michael Taylor, who could start the season in the majors, but is that sufficient enough if Werth has to start the year on the disabled list?
The Nationals have been said to be one of four teams in pursuit of Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist. We say 'second baseman' because that's where he has played a majority of his games over the past few seasons, but the 33-year-old can play shortstop and all of the outfield positions, which make his value even greater to the Nationals. Although it wasn't explicitly acknowledged, the Nats are likely pursuing him because of their vacancy at second base. They're apparently not satisfied with Danny Espinosa or Kevin Frandsen as the Opening Day starter.
However, this current situation will not ramp up the team's efforts to acquire Zobrist, according to Rosenthal, because they believe the Rays' asking price for the veteran is too high. The two teams already struck a deal earlier in the offseason in a three-team trade when Washington acquired prospects Joe Ross and Trea Turner from the San Diego Padres and sent Steven Souza Jr. and prospect pitcher Travis Ott to Tampa Bay. It appears they won't build off that relationship.
This gives the Nationals two solid options with McClouth and Taylor. McClouth is a 10-year veteran and possesses a great defensive glove in the outfield with a .991 fielding percentage. However, the vacancy is in right field, which is where McClouth holds his lowest fielding percentage (.939) of all the outfield positions. They obviously could shake up the spots and move Bryce Harper to right and put McClouth in left, but this looks like a golden opportunity for the team to give Taylor ample time at the major league level.
The 23-year-old played in 17 games with the Nationals in 2014 when Werth and Souza Jr. were out with injuries in August. He slashed .205/.279/.359 with five runs scored, one home run and five RBIs. He has only played 12 games at the Triple-A level, but dominated last season at Double-A Harrisburg with a .313/.396/.539 stat line to go along with 22 home runs, 61 RBIs and 34 stolen bases in 98 games. When asked if the promotion from Double-A to the majors was a big transition, he replied:
"It's definitely a jump, but I don't think it was too big an adjustment. I think the biggest adjustment was just trying to be comfortable. The game is the same. It's a different stage and you get hit with a couple of things you don't see at the minor league level. So you make that adjustment," via this MASN Sports article.
However, Taylor's performance at Double-A last season was the only eye-opening campaign of his career. His numbers at Advanced Class-A Potomac, Class-A Hagerstown and the Gulf Coast Rookie League weren't comparable to his time at Harrisburg, so he could spend some more time developing in the minors. But Nationals' director of player development, Mark Scialabba, had good things to say about Taylor earlier in the offseason, and if the youngster performs well in spring training he may get a shot to start the season with the team if Werth has an extended absence.
"He's learning to command the strike zone, who he is as a hitter, and what he needs to do to succeed against better pitching," Scialabba said in this Washington Post article. "That's going to be his biggest hurdle I think, putting in a full day of consecutive at-bats where he's grinding and taking pitches on the outer edges, learning how to be more disciplined as a hitter."