Yohandy Morales did not have to wait long to make a first impression in the majors.
The Nationals’ 24-year-old infielder stepped into his MLB debut Tuesday and, in his first big-league hit, launched a homer to left field off Atlanta Braves right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver in the third inning. The ball left no doubt, driving straight into the visitors bullpen.
That blast capped a night that also included two strikeouts and left Morales a triple short of the cycle in Washington’s 9-5 win.
Morales has long carried the kind of power that shows up in every direction. His home runs do not come with one fixed look, and he spent the season at Triple-A Rochester refining the parts of his game that needed tightening. He hit 25 homers there this year while working on his chase and whiff rates, and Tuesday’s result fit the broader picture of his game: a player still in the process of becoming more consistent, but dangerous enough to change a game with one swing.
Morales said he never spent much time wondering when his shot in the big leagues would arrive, even as his time in the minors stretched on longer than his slash line might have suggested. He pointed to Rochester’s winning ways and his own belief that a promotion would come once he earned it.
He was right.
Morales became the eighth player in Nationals history to homer for his first career hit, and he was the second Nationals player to do it this season, joining Andrew Pinckney.
In Other News...
Nationals Give Jared Simpson His Shot As Roster Change Turns Costly
September call-ups always bring a little roster churn, and this one came with a familiar bit of late-season bad luck for Washington. The Nationals selected the contracts of pitcher Jared Simpson and Yohandy Morales, giving both players a path to the big leagues as the organization starts to take a longer look at some younger pieces. To make room, the club had to clear a 40-man spot, and the move came at the expense of Drew Millas, whose season has been interrupted by injury.
Simpsons arrival is the more immediate baseball story for Washington. The 26-year-old has moved between Double-A and Triple-A this season while showing the kind of strikeout and ground-ball numbers that can get a pitcher noticed, and now he gets his first major league opportunity. For the Nationals, it is a chance to see whether his performance can translate in the majors, even if the first assignment figures to be in relief and the bigger question is how he fits into the bullpen picture going forward. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Win Put One Growing Standard Front And Center
A win can cover a lot of ground for a young club, but the Nationals still walked away with a reminder that standards matter as much as the scoreboard. Blake Butera has been reinforcing that message since taking over, and it showed up in a recent game when a mistake on a routine pop-up led to a quick benching. For a team trying to build habits as much as results, the point was hard to miss: effort and discipline are part of the expectation every night.
The backdrop made the lesson even clearer because Daylen Lile is starting to look more like the player Washington hoped he could be after working through a slump. His bat gave the lineup a real lift, and his recent progress has been one of the more encouraging signs for the Nationals. In that sense, the night offered both sides of the same coin for Buteras group, a glimpse of the upside when things are going well and a firm reminder that the margin for lapses is still thin. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals May Regret Letting Trevor Williams Get Another MLB Shot
Trevor Williams brief run in Washington ended with the Nationals designating the right-hander for assignment and releasing him after he cleared waivers, a move that initially closed the book on his stint in D.C. It was a tidy roster decision at the time, the kind that often fades quickly once a club shifts its focus to the bigger picture.
Instead, Williams found another opportunity with Texas, which brought him in on a major league deal as rosters expanded and immediately added him to the active roster. Before he left, he had given Washington quality work out of the bullpen, and that makes the turn of events linger a little longer for a Nationals team that may have preferred to keep that depth in-house. [Read more 🡒]