When Nationals fans saw the lineup card yesterday, many of them scratched their heads. It was an unconventional alignment, with Andres Chaparro hitting second and CJ Abrams hitting sixth. Buckle up because this is not going to be the last time we see an odd looking lineup. Blake Butera is going to shuffle his lineup around based on the matchup a lot this season.
Tinkering with lineups and bullpen
usage is going to be part of the Nats new philosophy this season. Honestly, Davey Martinez had started to tinker with his lineups more in the last couple years, but we will see it taken to an even more extreme degree this season. CJ Abrams was almost always the leadoff man and James Wood was usually right behind him. This year, we are not going to have as good of an idea as to what the lineup will look like.
That is both cool to see, but I am sure it will be frustrating at times. You want to play the matchups, but at the same time you do not want to out think the room. At the end of the day, you want your best hitters at the top of the lineup. However, who your best hitters are can vary depending on the matchup.
When I saw Andres Chaparro in the two hole, I was a bit bemused at first. Sure, he hits lefties well, but that was not who I would have expected to hit second. If you gave me five chances to guess who was hitting second, Chaparro would not have been in my top five. However, Butera put him there and the move worked, with Chappy collecting two hits.
This has been the case the last few seasons, but more than ever, the Nats lineup will look very different depending on whether the pitcher is righty or lefty. The Nats platooned plenty under Davey, but usually guys like Wood and Abrams stayed at the top of the lineup. Honestly, I cannot remember the last time CJ Abrams hit lower than 4th in a lineup.
Abrams is not even a total liability against lefties, Butera just thought guys like Chaparro and Joey Wiemer matched up better against Matthew Boyd. I am curious to see what the lineup looks like tomorrow against a right handed pitcher. Presumably Chaparro and Wiemer will be out of the lineup, but what will the alignment look like?
Luis Garcia Jr. is likely to be the first baseman and hit pretty high in the lineup. However, I have no clue who will DH assuming the outfield is Daylen Lile, Jacob Young and James Wood. My best guess would be one of Jose Tena or Jorbit Vivas, but neither screams DH to me. It will also be interesting to see if the switch hitting Nasim Nunez stays in the lineup. He always provides value with his feet and glove, but he is a better hitter as a righty.
There will also be more that goes into consideration besides platoon splits though. I am sure the Nats are plugging in all sorts of numbers and seeing which combination is the best. This numbers based system will lead to plenty of surprises as we head through the season.
Lineups are not the only thing that will be different though. We saw yesterday that Blake Butera had a quick hook with Cade Cavalli. Butera asked the bullpen to get 16 outs and they rose to the occasion yesterday.
One thing I think we will see a lot more of is Butera weaponizing multi-inning relief arms. Both Brad Lord and Ken Waldichuk are well equipped to go multiple innings. Butera is going to want at least one of those guys available most of the time.
We saw Lord get the Nats 7 outs yesterday and that was huge. The Nats are going to lean more on their bullpen this year and that is good because I think this unit will be better than expected.
Another unknown after yesterday is who the Nats closer is and if they will have one at all. If I had to guess, I would have predicted that Clayton Beeter would be the Nats closer. However, Butera used him in the 8th inning of a 4 run game. Cionel Perez was in for the 9th, but at that point the Nats had blown the game open.
Like with the lineup, the Nats are going to mix and match with their high leverage arms. The Nats are going to have a few guys who are designated as high leverage arms, but I do not think any one of them will be “the closer”.
Some nights it will be Beeter, some days it will be Cionel Perez and other times it could be Cole Henry. As the season goes along, other names could establish themselves as high leverage arms as well. The Nats are going to be a very different baseball team this year and it is refreshing.
Blake Butera is going to follow a script for most games, but that script can change radically from game to game. Yesterday, his unorthodox moves paid off and he looked like a genius. However, there will be nights where these big brained moves back fire. That is just baseball. Hopefully, Butera’s big moves pay dividends more often than not.
