Nationals' new first base tandem continues to shine despite series sweep by Mets

The Washington Nationals are reeling a bit following their last few games played up in New York. Coming into the series just 3 games below .500 and still within striking distance of making the postseason, their chances unfortunately suffered a major blow as the Nationals were swept by the Mets over the weekend, dropping their record to 60-66, a full 7.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot.

However, despite the offense as a whole struggling over the weekend, the team's new duo of sluggers at first base has continued to rake. After trading Luis Garcia Jr. to the New York Yankees at the trade deadline, there were a lot of concerns about the first base tandem moving forward. However, the guys who have taken over have more than impressed so far.

Nationals' first base duo continues to rake following Luis Garcia Jr. trade

That duo of sluggers comes in the form of newcomer and rookie slugger Abimelec Ortiz, and veteran holdover Andres Chaparro. By now, we know just how much manager Blake Butera loves to play matchups, and Ortiz and Chaparro have been an excellent complimentary pairing with the former mashing against righties and the latter mashing against lefties.

This weekend's series perfectly exemplified how solid of a duo the Nationals have on their hands, as while the Nationals mustered just 8 runs as a whole throughout the 3 games, both Ortiz and Chaparro homered to help keep the Nationals in the game.

Starting with Ortiz, he has been absolutely awesome since first coming up to the big leagues a couple weeks ago. He has appeared in 14 games and has made 41 plate appearances with a slash line of .300/.317/.700 so far, already good enough for a 1.017 OPS and 0.5 WAR. Obviously, the sample size is very small, but outside of a miniscule walk rate, having drawn just 1 free pass so far, the underlying metrics look fantastic for Ortiz, who has had 6 of his 12 hits so far go for extra bases, including 5 homers.

Chaparro is a veteran holdover who has done the damage against righties as part of the platoon. His slash line is solid as well, boosted in large part due to his slugging and on-base percentages. He carries a .225/.344/.486 slash line, good for an .830 OPS to go along with 7 homers and 29 RBIs across 131 plate appearances this season. He also has been worth 0.3 WAR already, and while his underlying metrics are not as red as those of Ortiz, his elite walk rate will keep him in the playing time mix for a long time.

Both first baseman have gone from relative unknowns to certified sluggers in a matter of weeks, and it's safe to say the Nationals have not really missed Luis Garcia Jr. at all. For comparison, Garcia Jr. has a .238/.283/.381 slash line with the Yankees so far, and outside of his first game with the Yankees in which the team thought they had an instant legend on their hands, he really hasn't done much.

Simply put, if both Ortiz and Chaparro can finish 2026 on a high note, they likely will more than convince the front office to have the two of them switching off as the first base duo for the forseeable future, as both of them are under team control for several years. For a position that has routinely been a black hole for the Nationals since the retirement of Ryan Zimmerman and the stints of Josh Bell, the Nationals might have finally figured things out with a pair of unexpected veterans.

What have your thoughts been about the performance of the Nationals' new first base duo tandem so far? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.

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