After not beating them in ’19, Thames decides to join Nats

The last time Eric Thames was in Nationals Park, his heart was sinking.

Then a Milwaukee Brewers first baseman, he had helped boost his team’s lead in the National League wild-card game with a double and home run off Max Scherzer, but he soon watched Juan Soto’s rocket to right field save the Washington Nationals’ season. The 33-year-old still remembers seeing the home team celebrate at the end of the night, the beginning of what became an improbable run to the franchise’s first World Series title.

The winning and clubhouse culture, hyped up by longtime friend Howie Kendrick, drew Thames to the Nationals. He signed a one-year, $4 million deal Monday. It took one 15-minute call with reporters two days later to see a personality that looks likely to fit well with a clubhouse stocked with such veterans.

“I can’t even contain myself,” Thames said Wednesday night. “That’s how excited I am.”

The left-handed hitter, who hit 25 home runs to go with a .247 average and 61 RBIs in 149 games last season, is expected to platoon at first base, possibly with Ryan Zimmerman. Thames hits right-handers well (.877 on-base-plus-slugging percentage last season) but isn’t as prolific against southpaws (.679 OPS).

He could pinch-hit often and joked he will do his best because “I don’t think anybody’s good at pinch-hitting.”The situation is secondary to Thames, whose only playoff experience was last season’s wildcard game.

“Whatever the role is, I’m ready,” he said. “I want to win. That’s where I stand.”

Thames first met Kendrick in 2012, when he was with the Seattle Mariners and Kendrick was with the Los Angeles Angels. Thames remembered that once, while their teams played each other, he fouled a pitch off his face and got a black eye.

The next day, even though he “couldn’t see out of one eye,” he was in the lineup. Thames somehow made it to second base during the game and Kendrick, the longtime Angels second baseman, approached to ask how he was doing.

Thames became interested in the science of hitting, and the prospect of working with Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long helped entice him.