Jacob Young, Bonafide MLB'er?

[IanRubbish]

Young's base stealing concerns started in the second half of last year.

He got scouted and no one helped him adjust. 

He is a defensive replacement at best.

[welch]

He got scouted and no one helped him adjust. 

He is a defensive replacement at best.

Young is hitting .245. That's fine for the best fielding CF in baseball. Of all the problems with the Nats, Young is about the least. Salazar, Bryzkcy, and Loutos cannot pritch. Ferrer seems good one game, but cannot pitch the next. Certainly cant pitch three games in a row. Rutledge should be doing better, but he is worth keeping. Maybe Lord should be paired with Soroka, and come in for the 6th every time Soroka starts.

[IdahoNat]

If he continues to play outstanding defense and get on base enough, he's going to play every day and is the perfect bottom of the order player. He's essentially the MLB equivalent of Ben Wallace.

[Slateman]

Young is hitting .245. That's fine for the best fielding CF in baseball. Of all the problems with the Nats, Young is about the least.

Not when your slugging is less then your OBP and both are hovering at .300. That's unplayable. He's basically a below replacement level player, much like Rutledge and Salazar.

[imref]

Crews should be in CF when he’s back with whoever among Hassell/Lile can hit in RF.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Not when your slugging is less then your OBP and both are hovering at .300. That's unplayable. He's basically a below replacement level player, much like Rutledge and Salazar.

for young to be playable, he needs to have an OBP > .320 and stealing bases effectively.

Crews should be in CF when he’s back with whoever among Hassell/Lile can hit in RF.

I wouldn't mind a Hassell / Call platoon in right. As to whether it's Crews or Hassell in CF, I'll leave that open.

[Smithian]

I'm less worried about Jacob Young's bat this season than I am his baserunning. Last year, he was 33/43 on stolen bases, this year it is 5/13. As a rookie he was 13/13.

When Jacob Young is solid on the bases with an OPS over .600, I think he is a starting CF whose bat you live with if you have big hitters around him. When you are the Nationals with one big hitter and not much else, you can't waste CF on Young when he suddenly has become terrible on the bases.

I was Jacob Young's biggest supporter on here last season. Right now, I struggle to defend him as a roster option. Maybe if he was an automatic defensive sub every night, but I don't think the Nationals consider any of our outfielders as needing to be subbed out and we don't have very many leads to protect.

[welch]

Right now, Young is hitting .245 with an OPS of 613. He has been caught stealing 8 times, so there is something wrong. Other than that, he's fine.

[Slateman]

He's on pace for less than 1 WAR. That's not fine for a starting MLB outfielder.

[IdahoNat]

The thing is the Nats aren't competing this year so there is no point in having him on the bench.

[imref]

The thing is the Nats aren't competing this year so there is no point in having him on the bench.

not until Crews is back at least.

[Slateman]

The thing is the Nats aren't competing this year so there is no point in having him on the bench.

Sure there is. Play Hassell in CF and Lile in RF

[welch]

Sure there is. Play Hassell in CF and Lile in RF

Did that work when Young was hurt? Seemed to me that Hassell cannot field CF well enough. Since Lile started the season in Harrisburg, where he played about 25 games, and then got only 25 at Rochester, he might need to learn things in AAA. Bring back Hassell and put him in RF. Let him platoon in CF as a test. Then there is Call...

Ideal OF would be Wood, Young, and Crews in RF. Hassell or Call as 4th.

[Slateman]

Did that work when Young was hurt? Seemed to me that Hassell cannot field CF well enough. Since Lile started the season in Harrisburg, where he played about 25 games, and then got only 25 at Rochester, he might need to learn things in AAA. Bring back Hassell and put him in RF. Let him platoon in CF as a test. Then there is Call...

Ideal OF would be Wood, Young, and Crews in RF. Hassell or Call as 4th.

Hassell handled CF just fine. But more importantly, there's actual offensive upside to his play, where as Young has pretty much topped out. He's one of the worst hitting CFers in baseball. No amount of defense is going to make up for how poorly he's hitting right now. And he's been given more than a fair shake, at this point. He is the definition of a 4th OFer at this point. Maybe even a 5th.

Lile has a good approach, is taking pitches and not whiffing a lot. He's holding his own against MLB pitching and we should give him a ton of leash here. Ultimately his defense probably relegates him to DH or LF, but that's fine too. Its way more important to find out if he and/or Hassell can adjust to MLB pitching than to keep wasting at bats on Jacob Young. Young isn't a starter on any competitive team in baseball right now.

So no, the ideal outfield doesn' t have Young in it. The ideal outfield is one of Hassell or Lile getting a starting job and Wood and Crews filling in around them. Frankly, I think both should get the remainder of the season to play, just to see what they have. But I have an 800+ plate appearance sample size that says Jacob Young can't hit MLB pitching and a minor league career that indicates he probably never will. Time to move on, he's not a bonafide major leaguer.

[imref]

Hassell handled CF just fine. But more importantly, there's actual offensive upside to his play, where as Young has pretty much topped out. He's one of the worst hitting CFers in baseball. No amount of defense is going to make up for how poorly he's hitting right now. And he's been given more than a fair shake, at this point. He is the definition of a 4th OFer at this point. Maybe even a 5th.

Lile has a good approach, is taking pitches and not whiffing a lot. He's holding his own against MLB pitching and we should give him a ton of leash here. Ultimately his defense probably relegates him to DH or LF, but that's fine too. Its way more important to find out if he and/or Hassell can adjust to MLB pitching than to keep wasting at bats on Jacob Young. Young isn't a starter on any competitive team in baseball right now.

So no, the ideal outfield doesn' t have Young in it. The ideal outfield is one of Hassell or Lile getting a starting job and Wood and Crews filling in around them. Frankly, I think both should get the remainder of the season to play, just to see what they have. But I have an 800+ plate appearance sample size that says Jacob Young can't hit MLB pitching and a minor league career that indicates he probably never will. Time to move on, he's not a bonafide major leaguer.

[imref]

TalkNats says the coaches have been working with Young to get him to slide feet first. Since switching, he's had 3 successful steals in 4 games.

[Slateman]

That seems so random. Almost like it was in his head the entire time

[welch]

Young's steal last night, one that I saw, looked clean. Feet-first, no over-sliding. And the fielder did not try to put a knee down.

[imref]

Today, the answer is "yes".

[IdahoNat]

Bump

[JCA-CrystalCity]

he can be a regular for a 2nd division club if he just has a .320 OBP and can steal effectively again.

[Natsinpwc]

he can be a regular for a 2nd division club if he just has a .320 OBP and can steal effectively again.

So far the Phillies two guys in CF are a combined 0,1 WAR.  Young is 0.5 bWAR.  So maybe even contenders. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

So far the Phillies two guys in CF are a combined 0,1 WAR.  Young is 0.5 bWAR.  So maybe even contenders. 

well, the Phillies are structured so they don't need offense out of CF because they have so many other bats. They can carry a death to flying things CF. Rojas should be that guy, while Marsh should be a near neutral CF playing the bulk of the time.

Young vs. Rojas
Rojas - 148 PA, .227 / .278 / .303, 6.8 BB%, 25 K% (platoon v LHP)
Young - 194 PA, .244 / .317 / .298, 8.2 BB%, 14.4 K% (all pitching)

Marsh is .262 / .333 / .384.

Young is near break even with Marsh/Rojas on fWAR - 0.6 vs. 0.6 plus 0.1. Marsh is kind of neutral offense and defense, while Young is bad offense with stellar D.

Mets, Rays, Nats, Phillies, and Angels are all between 0.5 and 0.7 fWAR for 2025  (20th - 24th in MLB). Angels are the closest to opposites of the Nats, with the best O of those 5 teams and the worst D.

[imref]

The Nats need to make some deals to clear the OF backlog, especially with Crews coming up. Lile is hitting, Call really should be playing everyday somewhere.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

The Nats need to make some deals to clear the OF backlog, especially with Crews coming up. Lile is hitting, Call really should be playing everyday somewhere.

Crews returning after the ASB will force some moves. One of Call or Young could be moved. That sets up the other as 4th OF/platoon with the 3rd OF (Lile or Hassell), along with Crews and Wood.