Kieboom ready for "special" debut while Turner keeps healing

Carter Kieboom woke up at 9 a.m. Thursday to the ring of his hotel room phone in Reno. He had figured he had plenty of time to relax before heading to the ballpark for Fresno's 6:35 p.m. Pacific Coast League game against the Diamondbacks' Triple-A affiliate. But then he checked his cell phone and realized he had missed five calls from Grizzles manager Randy Knorr, who left a message saying he needed to get down to the lobby ASAP.

When he finally made it downstairs, Kieboom was greeted by Fresno's entire coaching staff, with Knorr spilling the beans: The Nationals were calling him up, and he needed to catch a flight to Washington.

"It's a moment that I think every kid dreams about, and it happened real quick," Kieboom said. "Next thing you know, I'm here. So this is real special."

"Here" not only was in the press conference room at Nationals Park, answering questions from a host of reporters for nearly 10 minutes, but also in the Nationals lineup, starting at shortstop in his major league debut tonight against the Padres.

And the way general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez describe it, Kieboom will continue to be in the Nationals lineup for the foreseeable future. Certainly until Trea Turner returns from a broken finger, which won't happen for several more weeks. And possibly even after Turner returns, with second base up for grabs if the 21-year-old rookie proves worthy of the job over veterans Brian Dozier and Howie Kendrick.

"Trea is one of the best shortstops in Major League Baseball," Rizzo said. "And when his bone heals and he's ready to play, he will be here playing shortstop for us. That doesn't preclude us from keeping Carter in the big leagues or sending him back down for more seasoning and recall him when we need him."

The Nationals could've promoted Kieboom when Turner suffered his injury 3 1/2 weeks ago, but he had yet to play a game at Triple-A, and Rizzo said he felt the prospect still needed to refine the defensive part of his game. But after Kieboom hit .379 in 18 games for Fresno and Wilmer Difo hit .246 with several defensive miscues as Turner's replacement in D.C., the club decided it was time to make the move.

There is a side benefit to the delay - by waiting more than 20 days to call up Kieboom, the Nationals delayed his free agency until after the 2026 season - but that doesn't appear to have been a primary factor in the club's decision-making process in this instance.

If anything, this appears to be more a reflection of Turner's recovery from his injury. The Nationals had refused to publicly offer any timetable for his return throughout, but today Rizzo finally revealed they've been told it'll be four to eight weeks from the time he got hurt. If they believed Turner was close to returning, they likely wouldn't have called up Kieboom at this point. But if he's going to be out a while longer, the promotion makes more sense.

"He's weeks away, not months," Rizzo said. "But in the meantime, we feel like this promotion was deserved. We think he's going to energize us and help us offensively. And he'll get his feet wet and become one of the guys we can really count on."

Kieboom is batting ninth for his debut, behind pitcher Max Scherzer. He received the same bit of advice from countless well-wishers: Just be yourself. Don't try to do anything special just because you're now in the big leagues.

That's easier said than done.

"Today it will be pretty hard," Martinez admitted. "He's going to get those butterflies. But he's very composed for a young man. ... It's hard, but go out there and be who you are and just do the little things. He's ready. He was excited, and I look forward to watching him play."

Kieboom is a familiar face around the Nationals. His older brother, Spencer Kieboom, spent most of last season as the big league club's No. 2 catcher and is currently playing for Double-A Harrisburg. And this isn't Carter Kieboom's first appearance at Nationals Park: He played here last summer in the All-Star Futures Game.

Not that a midsummer minor league exhibition game will compare with what Kieboom experiences tonight when he takes the field as a major leaguer for the first time.

"This whole thing is crazy to me," he said. "I mean, I was in high school three years ago doing art projects and stuff. This is like ... it's hard to even describe it."