For hitters, on-field batting practice represents an open invitation to swing freely. Yet CJ Abrams has operated this season as if that invitation doesn’t exist.

Watch Abrams take a round of batting practice and you’ll see a noticeable difference. He might watch more pitches whiz by than he swings at. Discipline, even in practice, is paramount.

So, if a pitch isn’t over the middle of the plate, he won’t swing. Even if he can get to a pitch on the edges, he’ll hold off. In Abrams’ mind, habits an hour before first pitch determine what happens when the lights turn on.

It’s a philosophy he’s carrying everywhere: in games, in batting practice and even on the team’s Trajekt machines, pieces of technology that replicate pitchers’ arsenals.

“Being able to kind of see live pitching in that aspect, in the cage, just everything, right over the heart,” Abrams said. “Over the heart. Over the heart. Over the heart.”

So far this season pitchers are making mistakes over the plate against Abrams. And he isn’t missing them.

Abrams leads the league in batting run value, a stat that measures runs created by a hitter, with 16, five more than the next-closest player. And, on pitches over the heart of the plate, Abrams has a run value of 10, the best mark among qualified major league hitters. Last season, Abrams had a run value of minus-14 on those pitches.

“Just locking on the heart of the zone so when they throw it there you’re not kind of surprised,” Abrams said. “Before, I would kind of just swing, trying to hit balls hard wherever it’s pitched. But now I’m trying to shrink the zone.”

Abrams and dominant Aprils are nothing new. Over the last three Aprils, including March games, Abrams has batted .311 with a .387 OBP and a 1.009 OPS. His 17 homers and 47 RBIs in April are his highs for any month. Abrams’ start, then, doesn’t come as a surprise.

Yet his start to 2026 has been on another level. He ranks in the top five in the majors in average (.371), OPS (1.191) and RBI (19).

“The biggest thing is ... just making sure CJ feels comfortable being himself,” manager Blake Butera said. “Going up there, understanding what the plan is he needs to do at the plate every night and then just letting his talent take over.”

The Nationals have believed in Abrams’ talent since they acquired him from the San Diego Padres in 2022. In 2024, the team offered him a long-term contract extension, according to multiple people familiar with the talks, though the terms of the offer were unknown and discussions didn’t go far.

Other teams know his talent, too. Teams inquired about trading for Abrams over the winter but, ultimately, no one was willing to meet the Nationals’ asking price. So he remained, giving the Nationals an opportunity to benefit from his offseason swing adjustments.

It’s unlikely he’ll hit at this rate for a full campaign. Still, his ability to hammer mistakes could make his early success sustainable and help Abrams avoid the second-half slumps that have plagued him previously.

Abrams went to Maven Baseball Lab in Atlanta to train, as he does every offseason. The staff did an assessment using full-motion-capture video and force plates to understand what needed to be addressed with his Abrams’ swing.

They identified two areas. First, they wanted him in a balanced, centered position when his front foot landed. In seasons prior, Abrams said, he’d collapse his backside and lean over. This resulted in too many ground balls.

Second, they wanted Abrams’ bat to be a bit more vertical; they found that his bat was on too flat of a path when it entered the zone. Abrams felt he fouled off too many pitches he should’ve hit hard last season.

“When you’re able to put yourself in more advantageous positions, you can cover more of the zone,” said Chris Antariksa, hitting consultant and head of performance team at Maven. “And the most important part of the zone to cover is the balls that are thrown in the heart of the zone.”

In some senses, Abrams’ propensity to mash pitches over the heart of the plate comes by necessity. Granted, the sample is small, but Abrams is seeing fewer pitches in the strike zone this season (43.1%) than any previous year. As a result, he’s swinging less than he ever has (47.8%), especially on the first pitch (30.3%).

And, when he gets the optimal pitch to hit, he’s connecting. Meatball percentage is a stat on Baseball Savant that quantifies the percentage of pitches a hitter sees belt high. Abrams has only seen those in 4.7% of his at-bats; league average is 7.4%. He’s swung at 92.3% of those pitches.

Earlier in his career, Abrams said, he was swing happy. He’d swing at pitches in the zone but not in optimal areas. He wanted good results but, in his own words: “Bad things will happen if you swing at bad pitches.”

Now, he’s OK with taking a called strike — or even striking out — on a pitch on the edge of the zone. He’s not budging on his approach. So far, it’s working.

“No matter what, anything over the heart,” Abrams said. “It’s got to be over the plate.”