August 2, 2022, will be a day in Nationals’ History that fans will always remember! On that day, Robert Hassell III, CJ Abrams, Luke Voit, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood, and Jarlin Susana were traded to Washington from San Diego for Juan Soto and Josh Bell. Many scouts expected that Hassell would be one of the first in this bunch to reach Washington. However, injury and a lack of offensive production put a halt to Hassell’s ascension to the Nationals.

We are also learning that his injury, a fractured Hamate bone in his right wrist, was directly related to his lack of offensive production. Rob Hassell III was the top pick for the Padres in 2020.

Immediately, he was ranked as a top prospect by Baseball America. In 2021, San Diego rated him as their #7 Prospect, and MLB ranked him #85. In 2022, Hassell was ranked as the Padres #2 Prospect and up to #30 in MLB rankings when he was traded to the Nationals. The following year, Hassell was ranked as Washington’s #2 Prospect, but he had dropped to #57 in MLB.

Last year, he became #7 with the Nationals and is no longer ranked in the top #100 of MLB. This year, he dropped out of the Nationals’ top 10 to #12. Last year, Hassell had a good spring training, and his nickname “Bobby Barrells” was being tossed around again. He started the season in AA Harrisburg and got off to a hot start. It seemed like he was finding his groove as his batting average had improved 50 points better than the preceding year, but then he went on the injured list as his hamate bone started acting up again, aggravating his right wrist.

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