Baker believes Rendon can be a run-producing weapon

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Get used to seeing third baseman Anthony Rendon hitting in the middle of the Nationals lineup - and not just because second baseman Daniel Murphy is still playing with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.

"There's certain guys in your lineup that are foundation guys in your lineup, and he's one of the foundation guys in your lineup," manager Dusty Baker said of Rendon.

Last season, Rendon got off to a terrible start. Hitting mostly out of the two-hole - where he's spent the majority of his major league career - Rendon was slashing .242/.310/.286 after the season's first 23 games. His power disappeared (he had only four extra-base hits, all doubles) and he'd driven in only one run.

With left fielder Jayson Werth also struggling, Baker flip-flopped the two players in the batting order. Rendon moved to the sixth spot, where there was a little less pressure to set the table, and Werth moved into the two-hole, where the Nats were hoping seeing more pitches could jump-start him out of a .211/.293/.437 slump to start the season.

The move worked, with Rendon using a .291/.357/.508 second half to finish with 38 doubles, two triples, 20 homers and 85 RBIs. Werth looked more comfortable as a table-setter who could make pitchers work, and finished with 49 extra-base hits and 69 RBIs to go along with a .244/.335/.417 slash.

Baker correctly gauged that putting Rendon in a run-producing spot in the lineup would take advantage of his strengths as a well-rounded player while complementing the sluggers around him and giving him a chance to do some offensive damage.

"I like hitters instead of just sluggers," Baker said. "Sluggers can carry you for a while, but when they're cold, it's like a three-point shooter when he's cold. They'll kill you with those long rebounds. You need a couple of layup guys, guys that can drive to the hoop. I talk about basketball a lot of time because that's how I think about baseball."

Rendon insists he carries the same approach to the plate regardless of where in the lineup his name is written. So maybe the move down the order simply afforded him more opportunities to do something he hadn't previously been given a chance to do.

"I have the same approach no matter what: Just try to barrel the ball," he said. "Obviously, in certain situations, I may have to stay inside the ball more, move the runner, whatever. But I'm still going to try to barrel it, no matter what."

When the Nationals drafted Rendon out of Rice with the sixth overall pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, they were enamored of his reputation as one of the draft's best pure hitters.

And Rendon doesn't think he's changed anything, except maybe the RBI opportunities that seem to present themselves more often when he's not hitting No. 2 in the lineup.

"I want to feel like I'm more of a gap-to-gap hitter," he said. "I always want to be able to drive in runs. I know I'm not the largest guy in the world, so I have to be able to manipulate the ball, too. I mean, I'm not 6-5."

But he can do other things besides wield a piece of lumber, too.

"The thing about Anthony, he can do a lot of things," Baker said. "He can run, you can hit and run with him, he has a good eye at the plate. He has pretty good power, pretty good bat control. I think Anthony's best days are ahead of him. All we got to do is keep him healthy."

Baker said a hamstring/quad injury over the final couple of months of last season prevented the Nationals from utilizing Rendon's baserunning savvy. So it wouldn't be surprising to see Rendon running more frequently this season, especially if Baker splits the two speedsters at the top of the lineup - shortstop Trea Turner and center fielder Adam Eaton - and drops Eaton to the sixth or seventh spot in the attack.

Because of the way Rendon handles the bat, Baker likes the idea of using him to protect right fielder Bryce Harper or Murphy in the lineup.

"Who's going to protect (Bryce) Harper and who's going to protect Murphy?" Baker said. "You need somebody in there that's not prone to the double play and not prone to the strikeout. So you try to split the double play guys up, because they'll kill you back-to-back, and you try to split up the strikeout guys."

Rendon hit into only five double plays last year, and 75 of his career-worst 117 strikeouts came in the season's first half.

So hitting Rendon fourth, fifth or sixth checks off a lot of boxes for Baker, though the manager knows that slotting a player in a specific lineup position isn't something that most skippers are able to do over the course of a season for a variety of reasons, most of which are beyond his control.

"I would prefer, but it rarely works like that," Baker said. "You've got guys that are going to take days off, you've got injuries. We started him off second last year and then I ideally like him in the middle of the order, in the run-producing spots."

Because, as Baker points out, producing and scoring runs are the goals of effective lineup construction. No newfangled statistics are going to sway Baker from that opinion.

"I don't understand saying RBIs aren't important," Baker said. "How are you going to score if you don't have RBIs?"