CJ Abrams is in the midst of his 4th spring training as a Washington National, and his 6th spring training overall. The 25-year-old shortstop has certainly become accustomed to the buildup to the regular season that occurs in March, but this time around, it’s different, with an entirely new coaching staff and technology around him.
Everyone on the Nationals roster is being challenged by the new staff to work on something new this spring to improve their game, and as for Abrams, he’s adapting as well as anyone to this. While Abrams overall numbers are nothing to write home about, he has made major strides in one area this spring.
It’s no secret that Abrams is a free swinger at the plate, finishing below average in chase rate every year he’s been in the big leagues. While it’s helped him tap into his power better, hitting 18 or more home runs each of the last 3 seasons, it’s limited his on-base capabilities, as Abrams .315 OBP in 2025 was the highest of his career, not ideal for a top of the lineup hitter.
One of the goals of manager Blake Butera and hitting coach Matt Borgschulte for Abrams this season is certainly to get on base at a higher clip, allowing him to wreak havoc on the base paths with his speed and be in position for bats like James Wood and Daylen Lile to drive him in.
While conclusions should hardly ever be drawn from spring training stats, certain outliers are worth keeping an eye on, and for Abrams this month, his chase and walk rate is one of those outliers. In a 37-plate-appearance sample size, Abrams’ chase rate ranks in the 85th percentile among all hitters with at least 25 plate appearances, a far cry from his 19th percentile chase rate during the 2025 regular season.
Factors such as facing worse pitching during the spring and minor league hitters increasing the sample size and bumping up Abrams’ ranking are at play, but they don’t fully explain how Abrams could go from near the very bottom in chase rate to near the top.
What does help explain the sudden change is the addition of Trajekt pitching machines at the Nationals’ spring training facilities, a high-tech device that can mimic the pitch arsenals and speeds of big league arms to better prepare hitters for games. According to Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic, Abrams arrived early to spring training this season specifically to train with this new technology, and the results are already beginning to show.
Abrams also had a strong chase rate in spring training 2025, ranking in the 79th percentile, but the difference this time around is that he’s turning them into walks at a much, much higher clip. Abrams’ walk rate last spring was 3.4%, just below his 5.8% walk rate during the 2025 regular season and right about in line with his 2021-2024 spring training walk rates.
This spring, Abrams is walking at a whopping 16.2% clip, leagues above where he’s been in the past. Abrams is swinging as a whole much less, and it’s leading to not only fewer swings and misses at pitches outside of the zone, but fewer mishits, which turn into weak groundouts or flyouts, when those at-bats could’ve ended in walks or extra-base hits.
37 plate appearances in February and March don’t dictate how Abrams 2026 season is going to look, but they may offer some insight into what we can look for, and in Abrams case, it might be more free passes, meaning more opportunities to swipe bags and let the hitters behind him do damage.
If Abrams can take more walks and get on base at even a slightly higher clip than he has in years past, it opens up lineup construction for Blake Butera in a big way, as he can experiment with all sorts of hitters in different spots because he can trust Abrams in the leadoff spot to start the rallies. Even though Abrams is only hitting .226 with a .706 OPS, this spring gives me optimism for the Nats shortstop.