Ian Desmond made his major league debut with the Nationals a year ago this past Friday. After 365 days, and 154 games, he was hitting .285, with 13 home runs and 70 RBI. Offensively, pretty good for a first year, though you’d prefer that he’d walked more than 28 times and struck out fewer than 102 trips to the plate.
Defensively, it’s a different story. In 145 games at shortstop, he’s made 35 errors in 634 chances for a fielding percentage of .945. If this was 100 years ago you’d be fine with that, but hey, his this the 21st century.
You tell yourself he’ll get better with the glove, and in fact, he has in the sense that he’s been a much better judge of knowing when not to throw the ball since the All-Star break. He gets to a lot of balls other shortstops do not, but early in the season he’d attempt to make long, off-balance throws to first that tended to sail over or past Adam Dunn. A more capable first baseman might’ve saved a few of those, but that’s really apples and oranges.
Here’s the remarkable thing about Desmond: everybody, and I mean everybody in the NL loves the kid. When the Cubs were in town I spoke with one of their players about their rookie shortstop, Starlin Castro. “Oh, he’s good, but off the record? A lot of our guys would trade him for Desmond in a heartbeat.” I’ve spoken with scouts for virtually every other NL team and received a similar response.
Desmond turns 25 in a little more than a week, and it’s tempting to project him, and newcomer Danny Espinosa, as the keystone combination for this club for years to come. Espinosa’s debut has been as impressive as Desmond’s last year — Desmond hit four homers to go with 12 RBI in just 21 games in September 2009 — and his defense has been beyond adequate at second base. Espinosa’s natural position would seem to be shortstop, but several scouts who’ve watched him in the minors the past couple of years tell me he may be better suited for the other side of the bag. It’s a pretty small sample so far, but it will surprise no one if the club takes the same approach with him that they did with Desmond this past spring: handing him the second base job and telling him it’s his to lose.
Chatting with Espinosa during the current homestand revealed a young man with few pretensions, and several degrees removed from this year’s top draft pick, Bryce Harper, in terms of cockiness. I asked him if he’d given any thought to where he’d look for living arrangements next year.
“Next year? Gee, it hasn’t entered my mind,” he said. “I guess I’ll think about that when I know what team I make in spring training.”
Espinosa turns 24 next April, and if he’s living a long distance call away from the District, the Anacostia will be safe to drink.
The Desi and Danny Show should run for a long, long time.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
