Roster News: Stone Garrett returns, Chaparro placed on Paternity List

As the Nationals begin a 3-game set tonight against the Kansas City Royals, the organization received some happy news before the game on multiple fronts, as the team announced that outfielder Stone Garrett would be recalled to the major leagues, with infielder Andrés Chaparro being placed on the Paternity List.

First of all, congratulations to Andrés and his girlfriend, who are set to welcome their first child into the world within the next couple days. Some things are simply bigger than baseball, and this is a super exciting time for the Chaparro family.

However, the main takeaway from today's roster news is the long-awaited return of Stone Garrett to Major League Baseball. A fan favorite of Nats fans around the world, Garrett is finally back at the highest level of competition 13 months after suffering a devastating leg injury against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium last year on August 23rd. I won't provide any links to the video, but in a lost year for the organization in 2023, losing one of the team's lone bright spots was a devastating blow for team morale last season.

To his credit, Garrett has worked hard to make it back to the big leagues, as he has been down in the minor leagues for the majority of this season. In 79 games between AA Harrisburg (primarily for rehab) and AAA Rochester this year, he had a slash line of .249/.348/.333 with a .681 OPS to go along with 3 homers and 22 RBIs. While these numbers aren't eye-popping, the fact that he has been solid overall against a high level of professional baseball is incredible considering how bad the injury was last season.

In terms of how he fits within the future of this organization and specifically the outfield mix for the rest of this season, that remains to be seen. Chaparro has been splitting time between first base and DH along with Juan Yepez and Joey Gallo, both of whom would seemingly offer more defensive value than Garrett would as he's still getting the feel for the diamond again. I would anticipate that he is able to possibly get a start or two before in the Nats' final 6 games, and it would be a truly wholesome moment for him to get an at-bat in front of the Nationals Park crowd and get a standing ovation to celebrate his return.

Long-term, Garrett's fit on the big league club has seemingly become much more clouded since he last appeared in a game with the Nationals. In fact, the only position players on the current Nationals active roster that played in that game last August against the Yankees are Luis Garcia Jr., Keibert Ruiz, and Ildemaro Vargas. Garrett hit .269/.343/.457 with an .800 OPS, 9 homers and 40 RBIs last season, and should hopefully be able to capture some of that momentum in the final week of the season.

Once again, congratulations to Andrés Chaparro and his girlfriend, and welcome back, Stone Garrett!

All stats in this article were provided by MLB.com.