Going Deep with The Nats

You cannot have a closer seat to the action behind the center fielder than my seats in the front row at Nationals Park. From all of my years of watching games at Nationals Park, there have been few who have the speed, athleticism and instincts of Jacob Young. We enjoyed the years of Denard Span and Michael A. Taylor — but none of them have had the instincts of Young. Yesterday’s discussion of reaction time is actually measured by Statcast. What my eyes have seen from dozens of games watching Young is that he has a unique intuitive movement in a direction as he watches bat angles to determine where the ball is going almost before contact, and his body is ready to pounce like a cheetah in the Serengeti. Young is so much better than the next closest player in reaction time that he more than doubles the next best. As someone described, it is like a sixth sense. He is fun to watch.

Coming soon to Nationals Park will be outfielders James Wood and then Dylan Crews. Both are currently teammates with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings after Crews was promoted officially on Tuesday. They were teammates last year in Double-A Harrisburg to finish the season, and then both were NRI teammates this year in Spring Training. There is a good chance that both will finish the season as teammates on the Washington Nationals roster. They will make up two-thirds of the Nats’ future outfield.

The other one-third of the Nats future outfield looks to be Jacob Young, and that is kind of like his defense where two-thirds of the earth is covered by water and the other one-third by Young. His center field defense has been so good — it looks like he will force Wood to right field and Crews to left field which is actually good because those spots are less demanding on the body. Of course you have Lane Thomas who would rotate in as an outfielder and DH. The 2025 season marks the final season of team control of Thomas.