Davey Martinez is from New York. Yankees Washington’s 23-year-old shortstop went 0-for-8 through the first two innings of a game against the AL East leaders at Nationals Park last week, after which the team called off the regular season game.
“We just wanted to give him a little bit of a break,” the Nationals captain explained when he brought Abrams back in as the seventh batter in the batting order rather than leading off in the series opener in Chicago. Cubs In the nation’s capital, “I want him to relax a little bit and have better at-bats. You know, he chases a lot. I want him to slow down a little bit. So I talked to him before I sent him out to bat. I think he’s OK with that. And like I said before, when he gets on base or walks, I want him to get back in there. But he’s got to slow down a little bit. He swings a lot.”
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Prior to this game, Abrams had 24 hits in 132 at-bats (.182/.243/.288) in 34 games in the second half of the 2024 season, with five doubles, three home runs, seven walks and 34 strikeouts in 144 at-bats.
“He’s got to get back to pitching down the middle of the field for strikes,” the manager said. “As always, he likes to swing at the first pitch. I’ve told him, ‘I’m not telling you not to swing, especially when they throw you a fastball, but you’ve got to be in the zone and that’s where we need to be.’ But like I said, he’s worked to be a leadoff hitter and I think he’ll do that again. I just want to ease him up a little bit and let him just go out there and have fun and throw some pitches he can hit. If he can’t do that, walk him.”
Martinez acknowledged the shortstop’s lingering struggles but said he tried to keep Abrams on a positive note late in the game after a strong first half of the season earned him his first All-Star appearance.
“He’s struggled a lot since the All-Star break,” the seventh-year coach said.
“And we’re trying to get him fired up. I think the biggest thing we have to do with him is understand he needs to move his feet slower and he’ll really get to the ball.”
“We need him to come back, get ready early and take his legs a little slower.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time a young hitter has faced adversity early in his major league career.
Martinez said he’s been in situations like this before and is hopeful Abrams and the Nationals coaching staff can sort it out.
“It’s part of the game. I was hoping he’d figure something out and get out of the depressed state he was in. I wanted to see how he would react to it all.”
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Photo: Rich Story/Getty Images
“I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now, so I thought, ‘Let’s do it now and see if we can get him back and finish the season strong.’
After deciding to rest Abrams for one more game in the series opener at Pittsburgh, Martinez talked about what he’s been doing working behind the scenes with the young hitter.
“He’s struggled a lot the last couple weeks, so we want to get him back on his feet,” Martinez told reporters. “We want him to feel a little better offensively and get back in the game.”
When asked about Abrams’ play at the plate, Martinez said, “He’s really getting open and his stride is really long. We’re trying to shorten it a little bit and get the ball back to the middle of the field. He could have made a better swing and he missed a couple balls. I think his stride was too long.”
The team knows what it wants from Abrams and has made it clear to him, but Martinez acknowledged that translating that into practice at the plate in the big leagues will be difficult.
“That’s part of the hit,” he said of Abrams’ slump.
“Sometimes you get a little bit down. It can get a little bit difficult. It may sound easy but when you’re out there playing, it’s a little bit difficult to try and slow down a little bit. At the moment, he’s taking batting practice and we’re trying to get him to step in a little bit quicker and hit on time so he doesn’t take too many big steps.”
Abrams played against the Pirates last weekend at PNC in Pittsburgh and was 1-for-9 in his first two games but batted leadoff in the final game and hit a 416-foot slider to center field for his 19th home run of the year.
“That was a great at-bat,” Martinez said after the loss to the Buccaneers. “We’re working hard to keep him in the middle of the field and slow his feet down a little bit. He’s gotten a little better. Now we just have to get him in the strike zone. He was chasing balls out of the strike zone today, especially up in the zone. We’ve got to get him a little lower in the zone, but I think his bat swing is a little better than it was. He’s trying to hit the ball in the middle of the field. He got a couple of hits the other way and a couple of lineouts the other way yesterday, but a home run is exactly what we’re looking for.”
It was Abrams’ fourth home run of the second half of the season, but the occasional homer during tough times isn’t the answer. The Nationals’ ultimate goal is to get him to consistently hit balls in the zone, with pitches outside the zone being a constant challenge.
“The chase. He really needs to stop chasing,” Martinez said.
“He really seems to hit the ball with force when it comes to him in a position to hit it, so we’ve got to keep him in the zone.”
