Adam Eaton played 310 games combined in his last two years with the White Sox. He'll now be fortunate to top 10 percent of that figure in his first two years with the Nationals. 

Eaton has been dealing with a bone bruise in his ankle since early April. As the injury had not progressed as the Nationals had hoped, Eaton saw a specialist, and the result was this: 

Let's dig in on "a return this season is still in play." It's May 10. The "glass half empty" interpretation of that would be that there's a chance Eaton could miss the rest of this season. 

Last year, Eaton's first with the Nats, he played in 23 games before tearing his ACL and missing the rest of the season. This year, he came hot out of the gate, hitting .345/.424/.655 with three doubles, two homers, five RBI and 10 runs through eight games. Since then, though, the ankle injury has kept him out of the lineup and now he might not be back until 2019. He's sitting on 31 career games as a National. 

The Nationals will roll with Bryce Harper in right, Michael Taylor in center and -- at least for the time being -- a Matt Adams/Howie Kendrick platoon in left. Moises Sierra and Andrew Stevenson are also options. Bear in mind that Brian Goodwin is on the disabled list with a wrist injury, but he could be back in the coming weeks. 

Heading into the season, the top outfield prospect the Nationals had was Victor Robles, but a serious injury has him out for a while (story from April 17). 

The next prospect up would be Juan Soto (ranked No. 29 in baseball during spring training by MLB.com). He was just promoted, after all. The problem is he's 19 years old and was promoted to Double-A. 

As such, it appears the Nationals need to get by with what they have, at least until trading season. They've been doing fine these last two weeks, as they've won nine of their last 11 games heading into Thursday.