Chaparro keeps making loud contact ... when he makes contact

PITTSBURGH – The ball would have cleared the fence in any major league park, as any 419-foot blast to left-center field should. But if there’s one left-center field gap in baseball that might be big enough to keep such a drive in play, it’s this one at PNC Park, with its “North Side Notch” just to the left of the two bullpens.

So when Andrés Chaparro made contact in the top of the first Thursday night, he didn’t want to assume anything.

"As soon as I hit it, I knew I hit it well," the Nationals first baseman said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I knew I made hard contact. I wasn't sure if it was going to go out or not, but luckily it did and I was able to contribute to the scoreboard."

Chaparro’s blast indeed was deep enough – barely – to reach the stands and give the Nats a 3-0 lead they thought would hold up better than it did during what eventually became a 9-4 loss to the Pirates.

And it was merely the latest such blast from the 25-year-old rookie, who continues to make the most of his unexpected playing opportunity and try to convince the Nationals he should be part of their 2025 plans.

Chaparro has now played in 20 big league games, during which time he has produced 11 extra-base hits, eight of them doubles, three of them homers. He hasn’t necessarily done enough with his other at-bats, which explains his pedestrian .233 batting average and weak .291 on-base percentage. But a .466 slugging percentage will play, no doubt, and that more than anything has excited club officials.

“When he does swing – we talk about this all the time with him – he doesn’t get cheated up there,” manager Davey Martinez said. “When he gets a good pitch to hit, he hits it hard. He’s got to focus on the pitches he can really drive and hit. And once he learns how to do that, this guy’s got some pop.”

Martinez’s message to most of his hitters is to look for pitches up in the zone they can drive. Chaparro is the rare example of a hitter who does more damage with pitches down in the zone than up, and Thursday night’s homer came on just such a pitch: a curveball slightly above the knees from Pirates lefty Bailey Falter.

Chaparro takes as might a cut as anyone else in the Nats lineup. It can lead to some loud contact, provided he makes contact.

This isn’t new territory for him, though. He put up big power numbers at Triple-A each of the last two seasons, with 25 homers for the Yankees in 2022 and 23 homers in only 105 games for the Diamondbacks this year before the Nationals acquired him at the trade deadline for reliever Dylan Floro.

The Venezuelan slugger always believed he could hit. Now he’s seeing himself do it at the major league level for the first time.

“I’ve just tried to not change anything,” he said. “Keep the same approach, the same work ethic. I understand this is the big leagues, and the quality of play is a lot better. The pitchers have better pitches, they make more quality pitches. But I’ve tried to stay focused, working hard and doing what I have to do to prepare. And keeping that same focus in my at-bats. And luckily it’s been working out so far.”