25-year old righty swinging Elijah Dukes will have to fend off 25-year old righty swinging Justin Maxwell this spring for the starting job in RF. Dukes played in 107 games for the Nationals last season and he was 91 of 364 (.250 avg, .729 OPS) with 38 runs scored, 8 homers, 58 RBIs and 3 stolen bases (he was caught stealing an amazing 10 times!). Dukes made a whopping 7 errors in 65 games in RF for the Nationals last season while showing above average range. Dukes did have 6 assists while in RF showing off a very strong throwing arm. Dukes has the potential to be a much better player than he has shown to this point and the Nationals hope he will realize some of that potential in 2010.

25-year old righty swinging Justin Maxwell will push Dukes this spring for the starting job in RF. Maxwell is the Nationals’ #8 rated prospect coming into this season according to Baseball America. Maxwell played in 40 games for the Nationals last season and he was 22 of 89 (.247 avg, .793 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 4 homers, 9 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. He played in 2 error-free games in RF last season for the Nationals and he showed slightly below average range there.

27-year old righty swinging Mike Morse will try to win a bench spot for the Nationals in 2010. He played in 32 games for the Nationals last season in which he was 13 of 52 (.250 avg, .772 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 3 homers and 10 RBIs. He didn’t make any errors in 3 games in RF last season for the Nationals while showing outstanding range.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE RF IN 2010: C