Luke Erickson: What it means to be the next man up on the farm

For those of you interested in gambl ... er, fantasy baseball, you're probably well aware of the depth charts that are created for the minors for dynasty leagues. But even if you're not, the Nationals have made you aware of who's the supposed next man up with their inability to dodge injuries.

Adam Eaton is the latest starter to be lost for the season, and for now, the plan is to give backup Michael A. Taylor the chance to win the center field job for the third season in a row. This hasn't stopped folks from proposing fantasy baseball moves like returning Trea Turner or Bryce Harper to center field, using Stephen Drew at shortstop, etc., but that's for the major league pundits to dissect and the talk radio folks to discuss.

For the minors, the short-term answer was to bring up Rafael Bautista from Triple-A Syracuse to man the bench and shuffle the veterans on the Chiefs' roster to handle the outfield duties.

On Monday, the longer-term answer emerged as the Nats promoted Double-A Harrisburg's Andrew Stevenson to Triple-A to take Bautista's place. This a bit of a surprise because Stevenson struggled last summer in Double-A and is just now starting to get his legs under him (figuratively, he's been caught stealing three times out of four stolen base attempts; just sayin').

Had he been healthy -and producing at the same clip he was before he injure his hamstring - the Nats' top position player prospect, Victor Robles, might have been bumped up, too. It's hard to say whether the Nats would have promoted him because the one true knock against Robles is that he keeps getting hurt.

Instead, veteran Isaac Ballou has been summoned from extended spring training to take Stevenson's place on the Harrisburg while Dale Carey has been placed on the seven-day disabled list (Hellenic flu?) to make room for Robles.

Some folks may be wondering why Jack Sundberg, who was also just activated from extended spring training, wasn't sent back instead of Carey being sidelined. Well, this is where some of the cold, hard realities of minor league ball come in play.

In the full-season minors (i.e. the teams playing right now), there are always a handful of guys who are too old for the level (like Carey and Ballou). Many of them have been with the organization for a long time, some even beyond the seven seasons they're under team control after they've been drafted.

Some call them roster-fillers, others refer to them as organizational soldiers, which is a little kinder, and imbues them with a sense of purpose.

That purpose is to plug gaps and fill in when and where they're needed so that, for example, the four young outfielders at Hagerstown could stay put and not be pushed up before they're ready, as they're all in their first year at low Single-A.

The upper minors are often populated with veterans who can play at either Double-A or Triple-A. It's also why versatile minor-leaguers like Khayyan Norfork and Adrian Sanchez can have a longer career than they would have otherwise.

The simple fact is that the next man up isn't necessarily who's playing the position at the level below. It can also depend on whether they're ready to move up to the level above.

Luke Erickson blogs about the Nationals' minor league affiliates for NationalsProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter: @nats_prospects. His thoughts on the Nationals' farm system will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.