{"id":426738,"date":"2026-01-24T09:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426738\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T09:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:13:08","slug":"nationals-rebuffed-giants-interest-in-cj-abrams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426738\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Rebuffed Giants’ Interest In CJ Abrams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants made an unsuccessful push to acquire\u00a0CJ Abrams<\/a> from the Nationals, reports Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic<\/a>. It\u2019s not clear precisely what package San Francisco would have put together, though Baggarly adds that they were open to building the deal around top shortstop prospect\u00a0Josuar Gonzalez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Washington traded\u00a0MacKenzie Gore<\/a> to the Rangers for a five-player package led by last year\u2019s first-rounder Gavin Fien<\/a>. The Washington Post<\/a> reported they\u2019ve been shopping Abrams as well, albeit with potentially a loftier ask than they had on Gore. Abrams is under arbitration control for three seasons compared to Gore\u2019s two.<\/p>\n

In each of the past two seasons, Abrams has been an excellent hitter through the All-Star Break before tailing off in the second half. He has been a little better than average overall, hitting .252\/.315\/.433 in more than 1200 plate appearances over the past two years. Abrams has 39 homers and 62 stolen bases with slightly lower than average strikeout and walk marks in that time. He\u2019s an above-average regular who has an All-Star level ceiling that he has yet to consistently reach.<\/p>\n

Abrams gives back some of the value with the glove. He\u2019s one of the weaker shortstops in MLB and trails only Elly De La Cruz<\/a> with 39 errors over the past two seasons. They\u2019ve mostly been of the throwing variety, yet Statcast hasn\u2019t looked favorably upon his range either. Abrams would project better at second base or potentially in center field. He has been a full-time shortstop on a Washington team that has probably had the worst all-around infield defense in the majors.<\/p>\n

Despite the drawbacks, Abrams should have substantial appeal on the trade market. He\u2019s a 25-year-old plus athlete who fits somewhere in the middle of the diamond. He\u2019s a former sixth overall pick and top prospect who has stretches where he\u2019s an excellent table-setter in one of the top two lineup spots. The Giants surely would have moved him to second rather than playing him at shortstop over\u00a0Willy Adames<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez respectively placed 30th and 44th on updated Top 100 prospect lists from Baseball America<\/a> and MLB Pipeline<\/a> this week. None of the players whom the Nationals acquired for Gore landed on either list. It seems fair to assume Washington\u2019s evaluators rate Fien more highly than those outlets do. They probably would not have traded two years of Gore\u2019s arbitration window if they didn\u2019t feel they were getting a Top 100 caliber talent.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible they\u2019re simply not as high on Gonzalez as some others. It\u2019s common for clubs to have differing opinions on prospects. That\u2019s especially true for someone like Gonzalez, an 18-year-old whose professional experience consists of 52 games in the Dominican Summer League. Teams don\u2019t have much of a statistical track record with which to work, so evaluations for players that far from MLB readiness are weighted very heavily towards their individual scouts.<\/p>\n

In any case, Baggarly\u2019s report certainly doesn\u2019t push back against the idea that the Nationals could demand more for Abrams than they had for Gore. The report suggests that while the Giants aren\u2019t interested in trading their top prospect, rookie first baseman\u00a0Bryce Eldridge<\/a>, they discussed most of their other high-end talents with Washington. Eldridge and Gonzalez are San Francisco\u2019s only Top 100 prospects at MLB Pipeline. Baseball America had outfielder\u00a0Bo Davidson<\/a> and infielder Jhonny Level<\/a> in the back quarter of their list. Baggarly\u2019s piece has more specifics on the prospects who surfaced in conversations, and Giants fans are encouraged to give it a full read.<\/p>\n

Abrams would have been the prize of a quiet San Francisco offseason to date. They opted for floor over ceiling with their rotation signings of\u00a0Tyler Mahle<\/a> and\u00a0Adrian Houser<\/a>. They\u2019ve done nothing to address a lackluster outfield (especially in right), nor have they come away with their desired upgrade over Casey Schmitt<\/a> at second base. He\u2019s a passable regular but fits better as a high-end utility infielder. ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan reported last week that the Giants were looking for a significant second base move<\/a> on the trade front.<\/p>\n

San Francisco has been linked to\u00a0Brendan Donovan<\/a> and\u00a0Nico Hoerner<\/a> at various points throughout the offseason. Neither player has been traded. Donovan still seems likelier than not to move \u2014 certainly before the trade deadline if not by Opening Day \u2014 while the Cubs should be reluctant to deal Hoerner. Abrams is still available as well, although it\u2019s not clear if those teams intend to reengage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants made an unsuccessful push to acquire\u00a0CJ Abrams from the Nationals, reports Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[105065,40810,202938,363,99],"class_list":["post-426738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bryce-eldridge","tag-cj-abrams","tag-josuar-gonzalez","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}