The Nationals have promoted top prospect Bryce Harper to the major leagues and placed star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman on the 15-day disabled list, the team announced on Friday afternoon.
Harper, 19, will make his debut Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The top pick in the 2010 draft was sent to Triple-A Syracuse midway through spring training, where he was hitting .250 with one homer and one triple in 72 at-bats. Before the season, he was rated the No. 1 prospect by Baseball America.
Washington general manager Mike Rizzo has a specific developmental plan in place for Harper that called for around 300 more minor league at-bats in his second full pro season but circumstances have changed. Washington has already been without slugger Michael Morse, who has been out since early in spring training with a strained right lat muscle. He is under six weeks of mandatory rest to let that injury heal before even resuming baseball activities next month.
With Zimmerman now out until at least May 5 and possibly longer, the Nats were desperate to shore up a struggling offense. Only seven teams have scored fewer runs than Washington (69) so far, and the team has no credible every-day left fielder.
“We didn’t bring Bryce up there to sit on the bench,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “He’s going to get every day reps and get ample at-bats.”
Zimmerman, meanwhile, will have a chance to rest the inflamed AC joint in his right shoulder. He hurt the shoulder during last week’s homestand at Nationals Park and was having trouble swinging the bat. Zimmerman met with a specialist, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, in Los Angeles on Thursday and a stint on the disabled list was recommended. His return can be back dated to May 5 given the three games he’s already missed, according to Rizzo. The team’s medical staff doesn’t feel it’s a debilitating injury, but Rizzo also wouldn’t guarantee Zimmerman would be back next week, either.
“The decision is really a team decision,” Rizzo said. “It’s to support the major league club at really a time that we need an offensive player that can play corner outfield. … We still have a very good and committed developmental plan for Bryce in place. I still believe very passionately in the plan, and I’m going to be very committed to it. But this was expedited by the circumstances.”
Harper remained in the minor leagues just long enough to remain under team control for six full seasons after this one. That means he will hit the free agent market after the 2018 season — an important step towards keeping the core of this promising young group together. Washington is currently 14-5 and has the best record in the National League entering this weekend’s series with the Dodgers.
Harper was recalled instead of Tyler Moore, a power-hitting 25-year-old first baseman at Syracuse. But the Nats had just moved Moore to the outfield and are concerned he doesn’t yet have enough experience there defensively. For now, Harper will stay in left field, where Washington batters have a combined .097 average through 19 games, instead of center field, where he was predominately playing in Triple-A.
“I’m not going to commit either way that [Harper] will be sent back to the minor leagues or stay in the big leagues,” Rizzo said. “When [Zimmerman] gets off the disabled list, we’ll be monitoring the situation, obviously, on a daily basis, and we’ll make our decision then.”
Rizzo had just spent three days in Rochester, N.Y. watching Syracuse play a series there and had multiple conversations with Harper. But he never informed his star pupil that a promotion was imminent. It wasn’t until the organization learned that Zimmerman definitely needed to go to the disabled list that Rizzo had Syracuse manager Tony Beasley tell Harper the news he’d wanted to hear so badly during spring training.
“This isn’t the coming out party for Bryce that we had in mind,” Rizzo admitted. “This isn’t the optimal situation developmentally for Bryce.”
Washington still wants Harper to learn to play center field, but for now the need is at a corner outfield spot. He will play left field this weekend. Given how manager Davey Johnson pushed to have Harper on the big league roster out of camp anyway, he will certainly receive significant playing time for however long he is with the team.
“I don’t have many reservations. I know this guy is a very confident person, and we expect him to perform well in the major leagues,” Rizzo said. “And if he doesn’t, he’s not the type of guy that it’s going to derail his development plan whatsoever. He’s the type of guy who will handle anything that’s thrown at him and be better off for it.”
