There are a lot of thoughts of gloom and doom about what the Nationals face next season.
Stephen Strasburg likely won’t be seen until August/September, and there’s the unfinished business of Adam Dunn‘s contract extension.
As it stands entering Wednesday’s games, the Nats stood atop the NL East … in homers by the starting infield. That’s right, Dunn, Adam Kennedy, Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman reign supreme by five dingers over the Mets at the same positions. The Phillies are slumping this year, but even if you boost Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins to their career averages, it’s still a race too close to call.
But regardless of what happens with Dunn, the promising start of second baseman of the future Danny Espinosa and the progress made by rookie shortstop Desmond should give the Nats a power-producing infield for years to come.
Zimmerman, Desmond and Espinosa are all products of the Nats’ farm system, and Zim is the oldest — and he’ll only be 26 next season.
We know Zimmerman’s production — 25-30 HR, 90-110 RBI — and have watched Desmond’s improvement over this season (10 HR, 59 RBI) as a rookie.
Espinosa is the key, though. The Nats have consistently chased a second baseman since Jose Vidro was traded before the 2007 season. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s safe to say the Nats won’t repeat the 2008 and 2009 offseason courtship of Orlando Hudson.
The fact that Espinosa projects to be a 20-homer player is nice and would give the Nats the most power at that position since they moved to D.C. in 2005. But his shift from minor league shortstop to major league second baseman might be even more of an advantage.
He has quick feet and rockets double play throws to first in a way that’s visibly different than Kennedy or glovester Alberto Gonzalez.
For 2011, Espinosa would be a big upgrade over Kennedy. Kennedy has hit double-digit homers in only three of his 12 big league seasons and has just three this season. Espinosa has that many in 43 at-bats since his call-up.
