Nationals Designate Stone Garrett: Royals' Potential Target?

On Thursday, the Washington Nationals designated outfielder Stone Garrett for assignment. For the Kansas City Royals, could Garrett be a target as they continue to look at upgrading the team’s outfield mix? Garrett was an eighth-round pick by Miami in the 2014 Amateur Draft. Garrett then became a free agent after six years in the Marlins’ system. He opted to sign with Arizona, where he continued to get limited playing time before hitting free agency once again. The Nationals picked Garrett up on a Major League contract after 2022, but he appeared in 91 games for Washington between 2023 and 2024.

Of late, Garrett has been on the recovery path back from an awful injury in August 2023. Garrett sustained fractures to his fibula and ankle, and his production since has been far from what we saw previously. In 2024, Garrett spent most of his season with Triple-A Rochester. Even there, he was only able to log 71 games and struggled immensely with an 82 wRC+. Garrett, once seen as a potential power threat, mustered just an .084 ISO. It was a .247/.338/.336 slash line. There’s some value there with on-base ability, but it’s difficult to lean on that ability with little power and a strikeout rate north of 30%.

The underlying metrics for Garrett don’t look too promising, either. He finished the minor league season a year ago with an abysmal 72.1% zone contact rate.

Thanks to Thomas Nestico, it’s pretty clear to see that Garrett is far from an upgrade compared to anything the Royals currently have in the mix. His contact ability was among the worst of all batters at Triple-A last season. There’s some pop to be found in his max exit velocity, but on average, he’s below-average, and Garrett’s hard-hit rate was pretty brutal. Anytime an outfielder gets DFA’d this spring, it’s pretty common sense to wonder if the Royals may be a match. As far as Garrett is concerned, however, the Royals are better off steering clear and working with what they already have in-house.

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