Star Washington Nationals Shortstop Picking Up Where He Left Off After Injury

The Washington Nationals continue to be a fascinating team for their fans and those around the league to keep an eye on as the month of April comes to a close.

The group's impressive core of young hitters is performing about as well as could have been expected, and ace MacKenzie Gore has found a new gear as one of the top strikeout artists in all of MLB.

But despite these positive developments, the team is still held back due to its hapless bullpen, as the team's relievers rank dead last in ERA and gave away another winnable game on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies.

However, in the disappointment of a tough loss that sent the team's record to 13-17, the continuation of a positive trend remained.

Despite an injury interrupting a red-hot start to a crucial season in his young career, shortstop CJ Abrams has picked up right where he left off and still looks like one of the best young hitters in the sport.

The 24-year-old Georgia native was, along with Gore, one of the headliners the Nationals got from the San Diego Padres in return for Juan Soto.

His tenure in Washington has had ups and downs, but in spring training, both Abrams and the team declared they were ready to put all of that in the past.

The result has been a refocused Abrams who is living up to his potential. He has fully bought in as a member of this team's promising young nucleus moving forward.

Abrams suffered a right hip flexor strain on April 11 that forced him to the 10-day injured list with a rehab stint to boot.

At the time of the injury, he owned a .874 OPS that positioned him as one of the top-performing shortstops in all of MLB with the bat in his hands.

After a minor hiccup since returning on April 24, Abrams has regained the form he had when he hit the IL.

In Tuesday night's loss, he went 4-for-5 in a game started by perennial NL Cy Young candidate Zack Wheeler, including a double, triple and an RBI as he factored into the Nationals' late-inning comeback that saw them take the lead in the ninth before the Phillies pulled off one of their own.

Abrams' OPS now sits at .864, essentially right where it was when he hit the injured list.

Given that he was performing at a level not seen before from him, it would have been reasonable to expect that a stint on the injured list would throw off his rhythm and send him back toward his career norms.

Fortunately for Washington, that does not seem to be the case.

Abrams continues making a push to earn a nod as a National League All-Star later in the summer.