Matt of Matt's Bats: Giving thanks for Denard Span

Last week, Nationals fans got the disappointing news that center fielder Denard Span, who had just come off the disabled list, needed hip surgery and would be out for the rest of the 2015 season. This is a huge blow for the team and Nats fans. In his three seasons on the Nationals, Span became a fan favorite and a Gold Glove-caliber center fielder. Since he becomes a free agent at the end of this season, and given how Michael A. Taylor has played this year, chances are Span has played his last game on the Nationals. Let's take a look back at his great time in D.C.

Span joined the Nationals in the offseason of 2012. After long trade talks, the Nats traded right-hander Alex Meyer to the Twins in exchange for Span. At the time, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said that Span will "bring a dimension to the club we haven't had before." Still, the team and their fans did not know what they were getting. Prior to getting the call from GM Terry Ryan, Span only had a 40-RBI season, but hit .282.

Span had a good year in 2013, his first year in Nationals red and white. It included a 29 game hitting streak, which is the second- longest in Nationals history behind only Ryan Zimmerman's 30-game streak in 2009. But Span had a slow start to the year, as he hit his first home run in late July and took off from there. The 2014 season was a breakout year for Span. He set a Nationals single-season record for most hits in a season with 184 hits and hit five home runs.

It's an understatement to say that Span plays a solid center field. He has above-average range, making phenomenal plays in the outfield. Watching Span make a running catch is like watching a spider spin silk - he's that smooth. He makes tough plays look easy. And no matter if he's just moving a step to make a catch on a pop fly, or running 20 mph and tracking 90 feet, he always gets a good jump on the ball. With Span, we've become spoiled fans. We have a feeling that every baseball will be caught in center field. With most other center fielders, that's not the case.

If Span leaves the Nats, I'll miss his amazing catches most of all. Some of my favorites include the May 30, 2015 catch against the Reds, where Span purposely swatted a potential Todd Frazier home run back into the ballpark. He also had two great catches in 2013 that helped spur the "Spanning" hashtag - the Aug. 14 catch against the Giants, when Span dove and tumbled to make a spectacular game-saving catch on a potential gapper off the bat of Hunter Pence, and the April 27 grab against the Reds, when Span leaped up against the visitors bullpen to rob Joey Votto of a home run. This catch was featured on Span's bobblehead the next year. The "Spanning" hashtag is so appropriate because it's his name and demonstrates that he spans a lot of ground when in center field.

Span is a favorite among Nationals fans, both for his great baseball skills and for his great interactions with fans and the community. He has a charity, the Denard Span Foundation, which helps single-parent families in the D.C. and Tampa metro areas. The foundation recently had a school supplies drive to get kids ready for school. He also is just an overall nice guy. When I interviewed him last year at a camp, he joked that the reason he came to the camp was to see me. His joke helped me relax and have a fun conversation with him. He also follows me, and lots of other Nats fans, on Twitter.

I will always be a Span fan. I can't wait to see what else he will do - on and off the baseball field.

Ten-year-old Matt blogs about the Nationals at Matt's Bats. Follow him on Twitter: @MattsBats. He shares his views weekly as part of MASNsports.com's initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. 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.