Nationals make shocking CJ Abrams move that has fans demanding answers

WHAT. That was the first word out of my mouth when I got sent the tweet that's now officially become the one that first broke the news that CJ Abrams would be optioned to the minor leagues with just a handful of games left before the end of the Nats' season.

This move has fans from every fanbase around the league wondering the exact same thing that all of us Nats fans are about why the Nats would do this, as surely a team that is 18 games below .500 and eliminated from postseason contention would be fine with letting their 23-year-old All-Star shortstop work through his recent struggles right? Wrong.

Now to answer the question as to why, sources have already confirmed my initial suspicions that it is not performance-based at this time. Manager Davey Martinez even confirmed this as saying "I just want it to be known it wasn't performance-based. It's an internal issue. I'm not going to give specifics." which could possibly confirm some rumors that have been swirling recently on social media with the Nats in Chicago facing the Cubs right now. Again, I am not saying that the rumors are true as the Nationals are keeping things in-house, but the timing of all of this would somewhat make sense.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about as I'm sure a lot of people reading this probably don't, according to twitter user Cody Delmendo, he heard from a source that "CJ Abrams was at the Bally's Casino in Chicago until 8 am this morning." which was tweeted out yesterday. Abrams followed up by going 0/3 with a walk and a strikeout in yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Cubs. This is especially inexcusable due to the fact that he not only broke team curfew, but the Nats had a day game the next day, and being at a casino until 5 hours before the start of the game is a clear problem for a professional athlete of his stature.

I am absolutely shocked by this move personally. As a guy who has been on record as saying that I will ride with CJ Abrams until the wheels fall off, this feels like a punch to the gut. While many Nats sources have compared this saga to the demotion of Luis Garcia Jr. to AAA Rochester last season, this one feels completely different. At least with Garcia it was clear that the team wanted him to go down to the minors to work on different things such as his plate approach and defensive prowess, and he has responded this season by becoming one of the better second baseman in the league. However, in this case, it's clear that Abrams quite frankly has some growing up to do, and the optics of this situation don't look good overall.

I do believe that Abrams will ultimately be able to learn and grow from this, as Mike Rizzo is truly sending a message to the rest of the club that any nonsense such as this will not be tolerated off the field, no matter who you are. This is an especially important notion to set as the Nats are in the process of bringing up a lot of their young talent and building for the future, with Abrams being looked at as one of the established cornerstones of the rebuild. You can't set a bad example for young guys like James Wood and Dylan Crews, and it's clear that Rizzo felt Abrams was doing that in some capacity.

While the news overall is shocking, ultimately the organization decided that the best form of discipline for the 23-year-old All-Star was to not let him play another game the rest of this season, as he will be sent home to Washington and then will report to the team's facility in West Palm Beach until the end of the regular season.

What do you think of the move to demote CJ Abrams to the minors? Do you think this was a justifiable punishment by Rizzo and the organization? Will he be able to learn from this and come back stronger next season? As always, please let me know your thoughts on X, @DCBerk.