Ian Desmond is one of the top hitting shortstop's in baseball. (Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports)
ORLANDO, Fla. — In the spring of 2006, Ian Desmond was a promising 20-year-old shortstop in the Washington Nationals’ minor league system.
After finishing the 2005 season at high Class A Potomac, he was promoted to Double-A Harrisburg. He nearly fell flat on his face, hitting .182 in 37 games before he was sent back to Potomac.
Desmond spent the 2007 season in Potomac as well, and it was not until 2008 that he made it back to Harrisburg. By 2009, he was in the majors, and Desmond enters this season as the starting shortstop once again for the Nationals after posting at least 20 steals and 20 homers in each of the past three years.
Will this be the last season for Desmond in Washington? He has been with the organization longer than any player — he was drafted in the third round by the then-Montreal Expos in 2004 — but he will be a free agent after this year.
“I’m going to enjoy this ride,” Desmond told reporters in Viera, Fla. “And you know what? If it’s my last year here, it’s my last year here. But I’m going to enjoy every single day.
“I’ve got a lot of friends and family in this organization. I’m going to make sure I don’t slight them in any way by throwing in any other distractions. I owe it to everybody here to give my 100 percent concentration, and that’s what I’m going to do. Everything else is not really going to be talked about. It’s time to go.”
Last season, Desmond won the Silver Slugger for the third year in a row at shortstop. He hit .255 with a .313 on-base percentage, a .430 slugging percentage, 24 homers, 24 steals and 91 RBIs while playing in 154 games.
The Nationals are 70-20 (.778) in games in which Desmond hits a homer. That is the highest winning percentage of any active player with at least 80 homers. He led NL shortstops in homers in 2012 and 2014.
Desmond played at Sarasota (Fla.) High for the legendary Clyde Metcalf, who started coaching at the school in 1982. Among the other players to come out of school and make the majors are Greg Blosser, Bobby Seay and Derek Lilliquist.
“The way he runs the program is second to none,” Desmond said. “And it is not only baseball. He has matured and made more men (out of teens) than any other organization in town.”
Desmond went to a clinic at the school when he was 12 and heard a minor-leaguer speak.
“Ever since, I wanted to be a major league player,” Desmond said.
