NL East Position by Position Preview: Third Base

Washington Nationals

This time last year, the Washington Nationals had one of the best third basemen in the game, Anthony Rendon, manning the hot corner.

But now Rendon is in Los Angeles with the Angles and the Nationals are left to piece together multiple players in order to have production.

According to their team’s website, Carter Kieboom sits atop the depth chart at third base, with others in the mix right behind him.

Kieboom has logged only 43 plate appearances in his big league career, with just five hits (two of which were home runs).

Interestingly enough, Kieboom is actually a shortstop by trade but is being forced to third base kind of out of necessity.

He spent most of his 2019 season in Triple-A, where he had a line of .303/.409/.493, with 16 home runs and 79 RBI. He played 62 games at shortstop, 41 at second base and 10 at third base.

If Kieboom cannot cut it at third base, the Nationals will likely fall back to Asdrubal Cabrera, who resigned a 1-year, $2.5 million dollar deal in the offseason.

Cabrera split time between Texas and Washington last season, slashing .260/.342/.441 with 18 homers and 91 RBI.

Neither of these guys is going to be Rendon, obviously. But Cabrera can be serviceable and if they get production from Kieboom — who is their top prospect — then that appears to be a bonus.