Washington Nationals: Grading the offensive players

Outfielder – Adam Eaton

The story of Adam Eaton‘s Washington Nationals career so far has been injuries. After surgery on his torn ACL, he didn’t quite look right at the start of the season. Then he missed more time with an ankle injury to start 2018.

But when Eaton has been in the lineup, he’s been an excellent table-setter for the Washington Nationals. And now that he appears fully healthy, we should see that continue throughout the rest of the year.

Through 22 games he sports a robust .293 batting average, .788 OPS and is fifth on the team wRC+ at 117. wRC+ is a weighted way to determine a players offensive performance, where 100 is the average. As you can see, Eaton is way above average.

And lest we forget, he won player of the week in the first week of the season. So were it not for injuries, he could genuinely be in the All-Star discussion with credentials like that.

It’s going to be an interesting rest of the season. He’s now competing with Juan Soto, Michael Taylor, and Bryce Harper for outfield at at-bats. But he should be able to find his fair share, although lately he’s been the odd man out with Taylor hitting well.

With his performance when healthy, he deserves top marks. But health brings the grade down slightly, with room to improve. A-