In a surprising move, the Nationals optioned shortstop CJ Abrams to Triple-A Rochester, the Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via X). Infielder Trey Lipscomb is being called up in the corresponding move, as per The Washington Post’s Andrew Golden (X link).
It was just over two months that Abrams was representing the Nationals in the All-Star Game, as the 23-year-old was named to the NL squad as a reward for his outstanding first half. Abrams hit .268/.343/.489 with 15 home runs in 398 plate appearances prior to the All-Star break, and looked all the world like a breakout player in his age-23 season. As the sixth overall pick of the 2019 draft and the centerpiece of the trade package Washington received from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade, Abrams has long been seen as a future star, and the early returns of his 2024 season looked like a big step forward from his respectable performance in 2023, his first full MLB campaign.
Since the Midsummer Classic, however, Abrams’ production has tailed off. The shortstop has hit only .203/.260/.326 in 204 PA during the second half, and gone yard only five times. Abrams’ strikeout rate has risen from 20.1% in the first half to 23.53% in the second half, and his line drive rate plummeted from 23.6% to 7.8%.
Missing this last week of the 2024 season shouldn’t have any impact on Abrams’ eligibility for Super Two status. As a reminder, “Super Two” players have less than three years of MLB service time, but sit in the top 22 percent of service time of all players between two and three years, and as such are awarded an extra year of arbitration eligibility. Abrams entered the 2024 campaign with one year and 130 days of service time, and thus a full season on Washington’s active roster would’ve put him at the 2.130 mark — almost surely qualifying him for Super Two status based on the cutoff points over the last 15 years.
However, a player only needs to be on an active roster or the Major League injured list for 172 days of the 187-day season to qualify as having received one full year of official service time. As such, since Abrams has already been with the Nationals beyond the 172-day threshold, he has achieved one full year of service time for 2024 and remains on track to be a Super Two player.
More to come…