Patrick Reddington: Clint Robinson making the most of his opportunities

After eight minor league seasons and a total of 3,836 minor league and 73 major league plate appearances, 30-year-old Nationals first baseman/outfielder Clint Robinson finally connected for his first major league home run in the Nats' June 11 game in Milwaukee's Miller Park.

Robinson, 30, hit 141 homers in the minor leagues for Royals, Jays and Dodgers minor league affiliates, putting up a combined .302/.381/.510 line in 921 minor league games. But before this season, the 2007 25th-round pick played in just 13 major league games.

After a .312/.401/.534 campaign with 31 doubles and 18 home runs at Triple-A in the Dodgers system in 2014, Robinson signed a 1-year/$525,000 deal with the Nationals this winter.

Finding the left-handed hitting and throwing infielder/outfielder, Nats GM Mike Rizzo told 106.7 The Fan this week, was a product of "great scouting by our professional scouts."

"Doug Harris did a great job of signing Clint Robinson," Rizzo said. "We saw what he did in the minor leagues for his career hitting-wise. We knew that he had a good, compact, simple approach that would tend to have success off the bench. Those type of approaches do."

Robinson made the Nationals' opening day roster after a .333/.404/.608 spring, but started slowly in limited at-bats over the first month and a half of the regular season, going 9-for-41 (.220/.256/.317) in 27 games, six starts and 43 plate appearances between April 8 and May 19.

As MLB.com's Andrew Simon noted last week, Robinson came off the bench exclusively between April 24 and May 19, going 2-for-14 with a double, a walk and three strikeouts over that stretch (.143/.200/.214).

When Jayson Werth went on the disabled list, however, some opportunities opened up. Between May 22 and July 1, Robinson appeared in 27 games and started 22, putting up a .288/.380/.450 line with four doubles, three home runs, 12 walks and 10 strikeouts in 92 plate appearances.

Manager Matt Williams talked last week about what Robinson has provided the Nationals so far in the first half and what has allowed him to produce offensively given regular at bats.

"He has a simple swing," Williams said. "Repeatable swing. That's why he's had success throughout his minor league career. He was fantastic in spring training for us and he continues to be good in whatever situation we put him, whether it's off the bench or whether he starts in right field or left field or at first base.

"He's shown a little bit of power lately. That's probably a product of more at-bats and better timing and that's the way every hitter is. But he's been very productive for us so we'll get, hopefully, more opportunities to get him in there to play."

Robinson has played 14 games in left field, eight in right field and eight at first base, but wherever he's played, he's hit, though Williams said he sees him as more of a hitter for average than a slugger.

"He's a little bit of a hybrid," Williams said, "because he does have a really good eye at the plate. He's not a true power hitter in my view. He's a .300 hitter. It's been .300 every step of the way at every level he's played, so I would view him as a .300 hitter, a guy that has the ability to hit the ball to all fields with power.

"I don't see him as a slugger, I see him as a good at-bat when he steps up there."

Patrick Reddington blogs about the Nationals for Federal Baseball and appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @federalbaseball. 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.