{"id":2980,"date":"2026-06-06T16:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2026-06-06T16:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:07:22","slug":"the-nationals-high-powered-offense-is-focused-on-bunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2980","title":{"rendered":"The Nationals\u2019 high-powered offense is focused on \u2026 bunting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baseball\u2019s long-lost art is making a minor comeback, including in Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Nasim Nu\u00f1ez is among the Nationals working on bunting to help fuel the offense. (Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

After the Washington Nationals wrapped up their best month in nearly three years Sunday, Manager Blake Butera leaned back in his chair and thought about the things the team still needs to work on.<\/p>

Read more Kimi Antonelli beats Max Verstappen to pole at Monaco Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s defense \u2014 that one\u2019s obvious. The Nationals have made more errors than anyone else in baseball. But second on his list? Bunting. He wants his team, which is leading MLB in runs, to be confident in squaring up if the situation calls for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at bunting the same way as CPR,\u201d Butera said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really want to do it, but when you do need to do it, you need to be really good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something the Nationals have improved upon already under this new administration. They have 10 sacrifice bunts through the first 63 games, compared with 18 for all of last season. They also have four bunt hits, on track to beat the nine they pulled off in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Nats\u2019 focus on a seemingly lost art matches a trend taking place across the sport. Bunting, generally considered an old-school tactic, has been on the decline for years, as analytics shifted teams\u2019 focus. Adding the designated hitter to the National League<\/a> meant pitchers no longer had to hit<\/a>, reducing its prominence even further.<\/p>\n

This season, though, the bunt is on the rise as teams use it as a tactic to combat increasingly dominant pitching and unsuspecting defenses. It\u2019s also cheaper for teams to carry speedy, lower-power hitters than to acquire sluggers who require eight- or nine-figure contracts. Before Friday\u2019s games, there have been 195 bunt hits, compared with 139 at this time a year ago.<\/p>\n

The three teams with the most bunt hits \u2014 the Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks \u2014 are also among the three teams with the lowest home run totals. Bunting helps them get production from players who aren\u2019t able to consistently hit the ball hard in the air.<\/p>\n

The same goes for the Nationals. A player such as James Wood, who has 16 home runs already, won\u2019t be asked to bunt. But someone such as Nasim Nu\u00f1ez, who has an OPS of .498 and no home runs, probably will be.<\/p>\n

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Nu\u00f1ez says bunting can be scary: “You’re in a vulnerable state.” (Lynne Sladky\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI just think you need to be well-rounded and be able to do a lot of different things, especially when you are facing good arms and runs are hard to come by,\u201d Butera said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to lean on doubles and home runs, that\u2019d be awesome, but I don\u2019t think every night we\u2019ll be able to do that. When times call for it, you need to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Nationals, it all began in the offseason. When Butera was hired in October, he met with every player on Zoom. Each one, he said, expressed a desire to get better at the little things that can make a difference between a win and a loss. Bunting, in Butera\u2019s philosophy, is one of those things.<\/p>

Read more West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan quits ahead of \u2018historic allegations\u2019 to be made against him<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, when the team gathers early on game days, bunting is often a priority. On Monday, half of the hitters were on the field getting work in around 2 p.m., more than four hours before the game against the Miami Marlins<\/a>. It\u2019s not mandatory, but the expectation of the new coaching staff is that players will participate more days than not.<\/p>\n

Some players, such as Jacob Young, are comfortable bunting. When he was coming up through the minors, the Nationals told him he would be expected, given his profile, to bunt. He practiced it and continues to refine it, four to five days a week.<\/p>\n

His first Major League hit in 2023 was a bunt, and he has one sacrifice this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve messed up in big situations on the bunt,\u201d Young said. \u201cI\u2019ve been smoked in big situations on the bunt, and I\u2019ve succeeded on them, too. I always say it\u2019s easy to bunt the machine, that\u2019s, you know, throwing it right down the middle, it\u2019s harder when the guy is throwing different pitches at a lot harder speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the fear factor. Bunting requires the hitter to turn their body toward a ball that\u2019s often traveling over 90 mph. Nu\u00f1ez leads the team with five sacrifice bunts, tied for fourth-most in MLB, even though he admits it scares him.<\/p>\n

When he was in Class AA, he was hit in the foot by Brewers pitcher Abner Uribe when attempting a bunt. The umpire didn\u2019t think it hit him, so Nu\u00f1ez, now with a sore foot, had to square up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think bunting is hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThey say it\u2019s easy, but you\u2019re in a vulnerable state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., who has never been hit but was almost smoked in the face once, said he has seen more players emphasize the skill this year. As he has learned first base this year, defending bunts made him uneasy at first. Now, he said, he\u2019s much more comfortable with bunting, both offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important, especially in today\u2019s game,\u201d Garc\u00eda said through an interpreter. \u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of defenses are expecting teams to build, or they\u2019re not ready for it, so that\u2019s why I think it\u2019s really important to have that skill.\u201d<\/p>

Read more The World Cup poses an unprecedented\u00a0security challenge at a fraught moment. Is the US ready?<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baseball\u2019s long-lost art is making a minor comeback, including in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Nationals\u2019 high-powered offense is focused on \u2026 bunting? - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2980\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Nationals\u2019 high-powered offense is focused on \u2026 bunting? - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Baseball\u2019s long-lost art is making a minor comeback, including in Washington.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2980\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-06T16:07:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4040e8c1c1bb534b59912ecb3a21e6a5-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"The Nationals\u2019 high-powered offense is focused on \u2026 bunting?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-06T16:07:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980\"},\"wordCount\":1003,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/19e2ae6a1d5da3af38fa096b4f8c6e94-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2980\",\"name\":\"The Nationals\u2019 high-powered offense is focused on \u2026 bunting? 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