May 6, 2014 4 min read

C.J. Beatty, the Wild Things’ leader in home runs and RBI last season, got quite the reaction from some of his teammates when he commented last week about new Washington second baseman Nick Ratajczak.

“Is it just me, or is our new second baseman a whole lot better than the guy we had playing there last year?” Beatty asked. “It’s OK to say he is, because that second baseman from last year isn’t here anymore.”

That guy playing second base for the Wild Things last season was Beatty. For the record, Beatty is back with Washington, but he will be playing left field this summer.

Ratajczak, a rookie out of the University of Louisville and a former college teammate of Wild Things right fielder Stewart Ijames, has impressed during spring training with his range and sure hands.

Washington signed Ratajczak in the offseason to upgrade its defense. Manager Bart Zeller hopes the Wild Things will be better defensively with the slick-fielding Ratajczak at second base and Beatty in left field, where he played while in the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system.

The Wild Things have been interested in Ratajczak since last spring, before he went undrafted despite batting .343 as a junior and .283 last year. One reason the major league scouts passed on Ratajczak was a freak injury that cut short his senior year during Louisville’s run to the College World Series.

At a practice leading up to Louisville’s Super Regional series against Vanderbilt, Ratajczak collided with a first baseman while running out a ground ball. The 5-10, 177-pound Ratajczak was knocked off his feet and landed awkwardly on his right shoulder, separating his clavicle. Ratajczak tried to play that weekend, but he was pulled from the lineup after only one at-bat against Vanderbilt, his season over and the start of his professional career delayed until the injury healed.

“It was depressing,” Ratajczak said. “I went to the College World Series but I couldn’t play. When something like that happens, you ask yourself, ‘What do you do now?’ I feel blessed that Washington put so much faith in me.”

It didn’t hurt that Ijames already had put in a few good words for his former teammate.

“(The Wild Things) approached me about him last year,” Ijames said, “and I sold ’em on him. I told them to go get him. I can’t believe he wasn’t drafted. I guess getting injured right before the draft doesn’t help.”

Though he was 10th in the Big East in batting as a junior and the toughest player in the nation to strike out as a senior – only nine strikeouts in 291 plate appearances – Ratajczak’s calling card is his defense. While at Gulf Coast Community College, he was the conference Defensive Player of the Year.

“I knew that I wasn’t ready to hang it up,” said Ratajczak, a native of Joliet, Ill. “I had some independent teams contact me, but mainly it was Washington. They showed a lot of interest in me. I appreciated every call.”

In the few intrasquad games the Wild Things have played so far, Ratajczak has displayed a style of play that Ijames described perfectly.

“He’s a scrappy player,” said Ijames. “He’s going to get the job done. He has some of the best hands on an infielder I’ve seen.”

The Wild Things host the Lake Erie Crushers in the exhibition opener Thursday night (7 p.m.). … Yeurys Tejada, a middle infielder from the Dominican Republic, arrived at camp in time for Tuesday’s morning workout. Tejada has not played in the United States since 2010.