Washington Nationals: Three bold predictions for 2021

Victor Robles will lead the team in stolen bases.

Trea Turner has led the team in stolen bases the past five seasons. This past season Turner had the highest on-base percentage of his career, yet attempted stolen bases at the lowest rate of his career (save his 27 game audition in 2015).

Turner led the majors in hits this past season and also boasted a career high .588 slugging percentage. Aside from Juan Soto, Turner was the most reliable batter in the lineup in terms of getting on base. His .335 average worked well as a leadoff hitter, though not for a team which struggled to bring him around to score.

As Turner falls into a more run producing role for the Nationals, Victor Robles takes over as more of the base stealing threat. Robles reached base at the lowest clip of his career a year ago, leading him to only have four swipes on the season. In 2019 he stole 28 bases, second on the team to Turner.

Yes, Turner missed a lot of time with a broken finger, so the gap between them could have been more than the seven it was. Robles didn’t move into the leadoff spot while Turner was out, and stole most of his bases batting in the bottom half of the order.

I’m not saying Robles will be the table setter this year, just that he’ll swipe more bases than Trea Turner.