The Washington Nationals are giving Elijah Green another step up the ladder.
Green, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2022 draft, has been promoted to Double-A Harrisburg for the first time in his career, the club announced. For a player who was once talked about as a possible superstar, it’s a notable turn after spending the entire season at High-A Wilmington.
The move comes with plenty of baggage attached. Green’s season line at Wilmington sat at .227/.324/.390 over 90 games, with 12 home runs, 28 extra-base hits and 38 RBIs.
The bigger problem has been the strikeouts. He’s fanned 168 times this year, pushing his minor league total to 672 strikeouts in 372 games.
Even so, there’s a reason the Nationals may be willing to push him now. Green entered the promotion on a strong run, hitting .347/.411/.571 over his previous 14 games.
During that stretch, he piled up 17 hits, including two home runs and five doubles, while driving in seven runs, drawing six walks and stealing six bases. He closed July with a .296/.363/.444 slash line.
The swing-and-miss never really disappeared, though. Green still struck out 40 times in 22 games in July, which left his strikeout rate at 44.6% for the season.
That’s the same flaw that has shadowed his career from the beginning. MLB Pipeline once described him as having “superstar potential,” and in 2023 he was Washington’s No. 3 prospect and the No. 46 overall prospect in the sport.
The tools were always there. The challenge has been making them play.
For now, the Nationals are betting that the latest stretch at the plate was enough to justify the jump. And after years of stop-and-start progress, Green is finally moving up the system again.
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