CJ Abrams is hitting like a player the Washington Nationals can build around. In 77 plate appearances this season, the 25-year-old shortstop has produced a.371/.481/.710 line with six home runs, three doubles, 19 RBIs and four stolen bases, a surge that has already given him 1.2 bWAR.
The numbers are not just good. They are the best version of Abrams the Nationals have seen since he came to Washington in the Juan Soto trade from the San Diego Padres. He has been pulling the ball in the air with more frequency and authority than he ever has, and the results show up across the board: a career-high 92.1 mph average exit velocity, a 13.2% barrel rate, a 50.9% hard-hit rate and a career-low 13.0% strikeout rate. His Pull-Air% has climbed from 13.4% in 2022, his Major League debut season, to 22.2% in 2025 and 26.4% so far in 2026.
That kind of production matters for a club still searching for answers. The Nationals need foundational pieces if they want to work themselves out of their rebuild cycle and make a legitimate playoff push, and Abrams has started to look like one. From 2023 through 2025, he averaged 3.4 Wins Above Replacement per season across 433 games, a level that suggested upside but not yet the sustained force he is showing now.
The tension is in the gap between promise and proof. Abrams had flashed superstar potential before, but he also had to answer questions about consistency. His 2026 start does not erase that history, and 18 games is still a small sample. But it does change the conversation around him and the Nationals. If this version holds, Washington may finally have a centerpiece from the trade that was supposed to reset its future.
