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BREAKING: Sources told us earlier that Denard Span is set to come off the DL tomorrow and join the Nats for Game 1 of the series vs San Diego. Span had been on a rehab stint playing with Hagerstown and Harrisburg in the Minor Leagues.
This leads to the off-days biggest question as we discussed earlier on line-up construction as we look ahead to Yunel Escobar and Denard Span returning to the Washington Nationals line-up.
Some think Escobar is the weak link and some think Ian Desmond and some still think Danny Espinosa is a free swinger and a liability, but there’s probably no denying that an infield of Rendon at 3B, Desi at SS and Espinosa at 2nd Base is the Nats strongest defensive alignment. Trea Turner might be seen as the middle infielder of the near future and for now he seems destined for the bench.
The early morning discussion was mostly centered around who plays LF when Denard Span is inserted back into CF then we got the discussion of where does Espinosa play when Yunel Escobar returns now that Anthony Rendon is playing better.
UPDATED BELOW WITH QUOTES FROM BRYCE HARPER
With Danny Espinosa in the starting lineup, the Nationals improved to 51-38, and when Espi starts at 2nd base, the Nationals are 43-28. You can do the math and see that the Nats are 19-33 without Danny Espinosa starting at 2nd base. The Nats are 18-23 when Rendon starts, and 53-56 when Yunel Escobar starts. What is this years record when Rendon plays 2nd base and Matt LeCroy eats a banana with mayonnaise sandwich?
There was a time that Bryce Harper threw his 2 cents in on line-up construction a while back and named who he would have in there and omitted Denard Span’s name. It caused a little ripple and this time around Bryce just talked about Danny Espinosa and didn’t suggest who should sit on the bench.
Bryce shared his thoughts, “[Danny] deserves to play. When he doesn’t start for us, it’s pretty tough. He’s a great player. I think everybody knows he’s a Gold Glove caliber player at second base. He’s a great player for us. When he’s in the lineup, he does things on both sides of the plate that helps us out. He has a great attitude and mentality out there. He’s a guy we want in the field and in the lineup most often.”
The W/L backs that up and the question is who sits? Escobar, Ian Desmond or Rendon?
We created a poll question to weigh in on what you think
