Washington Nationals' CJ Abrams is atop the NL Shortstops in All-Star voting, and he proves why with a home run in three straight games against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Washington Nationals were ranked 29th in the MLB and ESPN’s preseason power rankings. The Nationals are just 27th in the MLB with a payroll of $92.6 million. Entering the season, nobody expected the Nationals to be competing in the NL wildcard race.
Fast forward to June 21, and the Nationals are 40-38 and have scored the most runs in the MLB. CJ Abrams has been one of the biggest contributing factors to the Nationals' offensive success. He leads the team in hits, batting average, and RBIs. He is also tied with other Nationals star James Wood at the top of the team with a .534 slugging percentage.
Abrams has taken this season to new heights after hitting a home run in all three games on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays. Although the Nationals dropped two of three games in Tampa Bay, Abrams' production helped keep Washington competitive throughout the series.
Abrams’ first home run of the weekend gave the Nationals a second-inning 1-0 lead on Friday, in an eventual 5-2 loss.
The Nationals' one win came by one run on Saturday, where he homered in the second inning to neutralize an early Rays lead.
On Sunday, Abrams’ home run gave the Nationals a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning. According to ESPN analytics, the Nationals had a 76.1 percent chance to win after his home run. He finished the series 4-for-12 with three HRs and a double.
He is now at the top of the National League shortstop All-Star voting in his 25-year-old season. And it makes sense with the start of the season he is having. He is one of only 16 players in the MLB with an OPS over .900. He is in the 97th percentile for batting run value, according to Baseball Savant. He is also third in the MLB with 57 RBIs.
But we have seen Abrams show stretches of star play throughout his young career, but he has failed to sustain high-level play through an entire season. In 2024, Abrams posted a .287 batting average through the end of June but finished the season at .257. He had a batting average below .240 in each of the last three months of the season, including a .204 batting average in September.
But 2026 looks like it can be different for Abrams. Looking deeper, we can see just how much he has improved to start the season.
We’ve seen large improvements in his average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard hit percentage, and walk percentage, according to Baseball Savant.
For average exit velocity, he has gone from the 29th percentile to the 67th percentile. His barrel percentage his increased from the 37th percentile to 68th percentile. His walk percentile has increased from a low 5.8 percent to a respectable 9.1 percent.
All of these improvements have also come against the third-highest strength of schedule in the MLB, according to the MLB Relative Power Index.
33-year-old Nationals Manager Blake Butera has changed the approach to CJ Abrams game. Throughout Abrams career in Washington, he had been used as a low-power high-speed leadoff batter. But with Butera coming in during the 2026 offseason, Abrams has moved down to the cleanup spot, where his power stats have leaped.
Some more of his improvement has come from his approach to the plate. He has seen 3.81 pitches per plate appearance through his 324 at-bats in the 2026 season, the most of his career. He has been more disciplined and has eaten away at balls over the middle. He has hit six home runs and has a .516 batting average on pitches in the middle of the strike zone, according to Baseball Savant.
He is now a likely extension candidate for the Nationals, who haven’t extended a player since 2023 with Keibert Ruiz. He has also been a common candidate for trade rumors, though he's been transparent about his appreciation for the front office's transparency.
The Nationals entered the 2026 season looking to rebuild the team and develop their young players. They even traded former ace Mackenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers before the season for five prospects.
But the timeline might be ahead of schedule with the Nationals currently sixth in the MLB’s relative power index, and Abrams has been an integral part of the Nationals' success. He has the second-highest WAR on the Nationals with a 2.7. He has a 1.89 win-percentage added in 2026, according to FanGraphs.
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