{"id":444204,"date":"2026-01-29T02:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444204\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:29:08","slug":"nationals-to-sign-sergio-alcantara-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444204\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals To Sign Sergio Alc\u00e1ntara To Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nationals and infielder Sergio Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Francys Romero of Beisbol FR<\/a>. The Movement Baseball client receives an invite to big league camp in spring training.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara, 29, has generally been a light-hitting but sure-handed utility player in his career. He has appeared in 193 big league games dating back to his 2020 debut, suiting up for the Tigers, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Padres and Giants. He has 506 plate appearances between those clubs with a .207\/.278\/.340 batting line.<\/p>\n

Defensively, he has played all three infield spots to the left of first base. The plurality of his playing time has been as a shortstop, with 532 innings there, plus 300-350 innings at both second and third base. His grades at short have been strong, with three Defensive Runs Saved and seven Outs Above Average. His grades at second and third aren\u2019t as good, which is a bit odd since most plus shortstops can easily handle the other infield spots.<\/p>\n

Teams must feel pretty good about his glovework as he\u2019s not hitting his way into his opportunities. His numbers at the plate have been a bit better in the minors but not by much. Over the past three years, he has a .263\/.377\/.387 line and 94 wRC+ at the Triple-A level.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of uncertainty in the Washington infield. CJ Abrams<\/a> has been the club\u2019s shortstop for a few years now but he has appeared in some recent trade rumors. Even if he\u2019s not dealt before the beginning of the upcoming season, he would be a trade candidate at the summer deadline. The top shortstop options behind him are Tsung-Che Chung<\/a>, Nasim Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> and Jos\u00e9 Tena<\/a>, who haven\u2019t done much to impress in the big leagues thus far.<\/p>\n

There are also question marks at the other spots. Luis Garc\u00eda Jr.<\/a> has been the regular at the keystone but the Nats moved him to first base late last year. That will put more pressure on his bat, which has been subpar. Even if he plays well, he would be a midseason trade candidate like Abrams.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez may be the heir apparent at second base. Brady House<\/a> hasn\u2019t seized the third base job as hoped. Both of those two still have options. Andr\u00e9s Chaparro<\/a> is in the mix at the corners and also has options. Abimelec Ortiz<\/a>, just acquired in the MacKenzie Gore<\/a> trade, is another first base candidate with options. The Nats have former prospect Orelvis Martinez<\/a> aboard as some non-roster depth, though he hasn\u2019t played shortstop in a few years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible there\u2019s a decent amount of shuffling throughout the season as the rebuilding Nats experiment with the guys in that group, with the whole picture potentially changing due to some future trades.. Alc\u00e1ntara adds some glove-first depth on the infield, particularly at shortstop, without taking up a roster spot. If he\u2019s eventually added, he is out of options.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nationals and infielder Sergio Alc\u00e1ntara have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Francys Romero of Beisbol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,230641,85],"class_list":["post-444204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sergio-alcantara","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}