San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Abrams turning heads, evoking big comparisons
Despite playing same position as Tatis, top prospect on path to majors
When the Arizona League Padres took the field for their first rookie ball game of 2019, third baseman Chris Givin, like so many others in San Diego’s organization, was eager to see what shortstop CJ Abrams had to offer.
The sixth overall pick in that year’s MLB draft out of Blessed Trinity near Atlanta, Abrams at just 18 years old had developed a reputation for blazing speed, elite bat-to-ball skills and surprising lefthanded power from his 6-foot-2, 185-pound frame.
Givin watched from the on-deck circle as Abrams hit leadoff in his first professional game, delivering all the traits that made him such a tantalizing prospect in a 4-for-4 performance that included a home run and a walk.
“After that first game, I was like ... this kid is the real deal,’ ” Givin said. “You don’t really know what to expect, and he goes out there and gets four hits and his first homer. I was just like, ‘OK, this kid is legit.’ ”
Padres management was just as impressed, promoting Abrams to Class A Fort Wayne before the end of his first season in the system. After standout performances at the Padres’ alternate site in 2020 and through this year’s spring training, Abrams was placed with the Class AA San Antonio Missions for his first full professional season in 2021.
Now 20, Abrams is the youngest player in Double-A Central, but he’s more than held his own with a team-leading .307 batting average. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the No. 8 prospect in baseball.
Abrams on Friday recorded his second career four-hit game and set a new career high with four runs batted in, raising his total to 20 for the season.
“He’s the youngest player in the league, but he’s also the best player on the field,” Missions manager Phillip Wellman said. “It’s quite understandable why the organization, and the industry in general, are excited about a kid like that.”
Watching Abrams, Wellman notices a litany of similarities to Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who earned a comparable level of acclaim during his time with the Missions in 2017 and 2018. Both are productive two-way players, and both boast a “tremendous” baseball IQ that prevents them from being caught off guard, Wellman said.
Tatis was 18 years old when he made his Missions debut late in the 2017 season, and he was the youngest player on San Antonio’s roster when he opened the next year as MLB.com’s No. 8 prospect — the same spot in the rankings Abrams now holds.
Tatis hit .286 with 16 homers and 16 steals in 88 games before his final Class AA season was cut short because of injury. Since then, he has established himself as one of the game’s most electrifying talents since being called up to the majors in 2019. He finished third in the National League’s MVP voting last season and ranks near the top of baseball in home runs and stolen bases in 2021 despite missing a good chunk of the season.
Given all that Tatis has accomplished in his young career, Padres senior director of player development Sam Geaney opted not to draw parallels between the two shortstops, acknowledging that both Abrams and Tatis are “exceptionally athletic and very talented offensively.”
“I’d probably prefer not to join those two guys too closely right now, but I know it’s an apt comparison,” Geaney said. “Definitely they’re both very talented in their own right, and we expect them to be part of what we’re trying to build in San Diego.”
His own way
Working alongside Tatis at the Padres’ alternate site last year and through this season’s spring training, Abrams said he gleaned everything he could — from how to handle a ball at shortstop to the daily approach required of a professional.
Abrams said he views his standing in prospect circles as a testament to the work he’s put in, but he doesn’t pay much attention to the rankings or any comparisons to Tatis.
“I’m just playing to be the best player I can be,” Abrams said. “It would be great to play with Tatis one day, hopefully sooner than later.”
With Tatis locked in as the Padres’ shortstop after signing a 14year, $340-million contract extension earlier this year, Abrams may have to switch positions to crack the MLB lineup.
Geaney said the question of fit with the Padres is “not changing our plan for CJ at all,” with the focus remaining “definitely up the middle” of the infield. Wellman said the organization wants Abrams to play second base about once per six-game series, and Abrams said his shift to the other side of the diamond has been smooth.
Abrams also dabbled in the outfield when he played for the USA Under-18 national team, but Geaney said any similar experimentation with the Padres organization is not being discussed.
Abrams, too, said he’s “staying in the infield for now,” feeling his path to the majors will benefit more from a “me versus me” mentality than an eye on the Padres’ depth chart.
“It’s not changing anything I do,” Abrams said. “I’m just going to keep doing me and see what happens.”
Through every level of his career, Abrams said he’s taken a simple approach: “Just see ball, hit ball.”
He did that better than any player in recent history in the Arizona League, finishing with a .401 batting average — the best mark out of more than 4,000 qualifying rookie league seasons since 2006, according to FanGraphs’ statistical data.
Jed Morris, the Padres’ Arizona League hitting coach, was struck by Abrams’ rare combination of bat speed and contact rate.
“Somehow, he’s able to look like he’s never rushed,” Morris said.
“He’s smooth to the baseball, and stays inside the ball. It looks like he’s trying to stay up the middle or the other way, but he’s able to pull the ball for power as well. That’s what makes him pretty special.”
Abrams also showed an uncommon focus and commitment to his routine, Morris said, wanting to expedite his path to the majors by “doing the right thing every day.”
Givin said he was taken aback by how seamlessly Abrams handled the transition from high school to a professional environment, displaying a polish at the plate that belied his youth.
Worried Abrams’ ability to make contact might stop him from waiting for a better offering, Morris worked through the season to help him narrow his pitch selection. By the end of his time in the Arizona League, Abrams had improved his identification of offspeed pitches and his knowledge of what to do with them, Morris said.
Morris also highlighted Abrams’ “natural ability to adapt to pitchers,” a quality Givin started to notice when they reunited as teammates this season in San Antonio. Abrams seemed to approach each at-bat with an understanding of the incoming pitch types and locations for any given count.
“He’s a super smart hitter. It’s easy to say some kid is really talented, and he’s just more talented than everybody else, but he’s more than just a good hitter,” Givin said. “He knows what he’s trying to do. His approach to not only hitting but to the game, it’s just more mature beyond his years.”
Abrams brought a positive energy to the Missions clubhouse, Givin and Morris said, maintaining a down-to-earth personality despite being the most touted player on the roster. Wellman described Abrams’ persona as quiet and “all business.”
Though Abrams often seemed reserved, he proved easy to get along with, Givin and Morris said, picking up bits of Spanish through his friendship with the team’s Latino players.
“Right from the get-go, he established himself as a guy who was going to compete,” Morris said. “He was going to put the bat on the ball, and he had this quiet confidence, because he didn’t really have to say much, other than just saying it with his bat.”
Quick improvement
When the 2020 minor league season was wiped out because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abrams spent a couple months training at home in Atlanta before being tabbed for the Padres’ alternate site.
One “very unique and positive” circumstance of the setup, Geaney said, was Abrams’ daily one-onone contact with Padres minor league infield coordinator Kevin Hooper. Away from the grind of a minor league season, Abrams said his footwork and hands on defense were his biggest areas of improvement.
The payoff of that focus was evident during Abrams’ first few weeks with the Missions, Geaney said.
“What has been very encouraging, if not honestly very surprising, has been the defensive side,” Geaney said. “He’s been handling the shortstop position very, very well.”
Nothing can replicate the variety of pitchers Abrams would have faced during a normal minor league season in 2020, Geaney said, but the alternate site that replaced minor league baseball last season during the pandemic pitted him against a higher class of player than he would have faced otherwise.
During spring training ahead of the 2021 season, Abrams appeared in 25 Cactus League games — second-most on the roster — and hit .240.
“He was definitely performing at a pretty high level close to, if not at times even with, the major league-caliber pitchers at the alt site,” Geaney said. “And then his experience in major league camp gave us some comfort as far as where we were going to place him. Him having stood in the box against major league pitchers gives us confidence to challenge him with what is still an aggressive first full-season assignment, to be at Double-A as such a young player.”
Abrams appeared “ahead of the game” from his first week with the Missions, Wellman said, and through his first 33 games he had an OPS of .800 with two homers and 10 stolen bases.
Early strikeouts were the only blip on the radar, as Abrams posted nine punchouts his first five outings. Over the next 28 games, he’s only stuck out 22 times — an improvement Abrams credited to a conversation with his father, Chris Abrams, about narrowing his approach and not chasing pitches.
Abrams said he talks to his father daily, often multiple times — one of his primary pastimes away from the ballpark aside from watching “Breaking Bad” on Netflix. Chris Abrams visited San Antonio for CJ’s first home series with the Missions, and he “never misses a pitch” of the online broadcasts.
So far, Geaney said, Abrams has remained focused and grounded in San Antonio — typically the fastest path to a move up.
Wellman said Abrams’ talent and tools always have been clear, putting the emphasis for this season more on repetition and consistency. But after watching Abrams thrive through every challenge thrown at him during the first month of the Class AA season, Wellman said an MLB opportunity could prove to be prudent sooner rather than later.
“In certain situations, if they called him up to the big leagues tomorrow, he could help them,” Wellman said. “He just needs to be on the baseball field playing as much as he can to gain that valuable experience. At some point in time, if something happens, they’re going to say, ‘You know what? He’s close. Let’s give him a shot up here and see what he’s got.’ ”