It took some convincing, but the Washington Nationals’ brass had the data to back them up, and with analytics on their side, manager Davey Martinez talked to Juan Soto about the plan to have him hit second in the lineup this season.
“I got to sell him on it,” Martinez said, as quoted by the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty last month.
“He likes hitting third. I think he thinks by getting those two guys on, he has more chances [to drive runners in].”
When they looked at the numbers though, and showed Soto, they led with the obvious fact that he’s likely to get more at-bats as the No.