Five years ago, when Adam Eaton stepped to the plate for his big-league debut, he had no clue where he was.

“I felt like I was playing baseball on the moon,” Eaton says. “I didn’t know what planet I was on.”

The date was Sept. 4, 2012. Earlier that morning, Eaton and his then-fiancée Katie had driven three and a half hours from Reno, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks' Triple-A affiliate, to San Francisco, where the D-backs were slated to take on the first-place (and eventual World Series champion) Giants. After checking into the team hotel, the two of them sat in their room and scoffed at the notion that Eaton -- an undersized 19th-round draft pick -- might actually see the field that day. Moments later, thanks to the global messenger that is social media, Eaton learned he was starting.

“Holy s---,” Eaton said to Katie. “This is the real deal. They called me up, and now I’m playing.”

Once Eaton got to AT&T Park, he discovered that not only was he in Arizona’s lineup, he was at the top of it. Leading off. For the visiting team. No time to get his legs under him in the outfield. No time to sit in the dugout and watch the opposing pitcher. Bat-ism by fire. As if that weren’t enough, the guy catching for San Francisco -- the dude with a front-row seat to Eaton’s imminent train wreck -- was none other than the eventual MVP of the National League.

“I tap the plate and Buster Posey's behind the dish,” recalls Eaton. “I didn't know where I was. I struck out on four pitches. Then I went out in the outfield and dove for a ball that was a good 15-20 feet away from me, and it rolled all the way to the gap.”

"I got enough fuel. I don't need any more. My whole life, I was told I was too small. I could never play outfield in the big leagues. I could never play center field in the big leagues. I could never lead off." Adam Eaton

Five years later, Eaton looks back on his debut and says that it’s the most pressure he’s ever felt in his entire baseball-playing life. A close second? The time he was the starting pitcher for Kenton Ridge High in the Ohio state finals -- when he lasted just three innings, walked six, and remembers feeling so tight that “you couldn’t have slid a piece of paper between my cheeks.” Nowhere on the list? Living up to the hype that comes with getting traded for not one, not two, but three stud pitching prospects.

“To be honest, I can't think about that,” says the 28-year outfielder, who in December was sent from the White Sox to the Nationals in exchange for the Nats’ No. 1 prospect (RHP Lucas Giolito, the fourth-ranked talent in all of baseball), their No. 3 prospect (flame-throwing righty Reynaldo Lopez) and their top draft pick from last year (RHP Dane Dunning). It was a deal that resulted in more head-scratching than a Head & Shoulders commercial. Not that Eaton’s letting it get to him.

“If you dwell on that, your expectations are through the roof and you'll never be able to reach them,” he says. “When you talk about what a team gives up or receives in a trade, that's not for me to decide. I wasn't in the negotiations. I was just part of the deal. My job is just to come and do what I've been doing the past few years, and continue to be consistent and play the best baseball I can. If it's good enough for whoever I got traded for, then great. If not, then that's the best that I can put out there.”

For what it’s worth, Eaton’s best has been pretty darned good. He overcame that inauspicious inaugural inning to record 10 hits in his first five big-league games (including a couple against some guy named Bumgarner). Since getting traded from Arizona to the Chicago White Sox prior to the 2014 season, his .362 on-base percentage ranks ninth in the American League. Last year at the plate, he slashed .284/.362/.428 and led the AL in triples. Defensively, he led all MLB outfielders with 18 assists, and in right field, he tallied more runs saved (20) than anyone not named Mookie. Overall, Eaton’s 6.0 WAR was the 11th highest in the bigs and was better than any Nats player, including Daniel Murphy (5.5), who finished second in the voting for National League MVP.

Still, Eaton has never posted an OPS above .800 and has zero All-Star appearances to his credit. On top of that, with right field already covered in D.C. (see: Harper, Bryce), Eaton will find himself back in center, a position where he struggled the last time he played there regularly (minus-14 runs saved in 2015).

Speaking of Bryce Harper, the Eaton deal was so surprising that moments after it was announced, the face of the franchise tweeted simply, “Wow...”

Wow...

— Bryce Harper (@Bharper3407) December 7, 2016

While the intent of Harper’s message may have been a little murky, what is clear -- crystal, in fact -- is that come April, all eyes in D.C. will be on Eaton, to see if he’s worth the whopping price tag. To see if he can hush the haters. By now, he’s used to it.

Eaton was drafted out of Miami University with the 571st pick in the 2010 draft. If you’re scoring at home, that’s 570 picks after Harper. It’s also 307 picks after Kole Calhoun, 219 picks after Joc Pederson, and well ... you get the point.

“I’ve got enough fuel,” says Eaton, who’s listed at 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds. “I don’t need any more. My whole life, I was told I was too small. I could never play outfield in the big leagues. I could never play center field in the big leagues. I could never lead off.”

Whether he leads off in Washington remains to be seen (it’ll either be Eaton followed by Trea Turner or vice versa), but this much is certain: Compared to his 2012 Bay Area moonwalk, getting dealt to D.C. is a cakewalk. As far as Eaton is concerned, joining a stacked Nationals squad that won 95 games last year and has made the playoffs three of the last five seasons -- regardless of what Washington gave up to get him -- is the opposite of pressure.

“Really just don't wanna mess it up,” the newest addition to Washington’s outfield says. “They’ve got a really good thing going. Hopefully I can complement Bryce and [left fielder Jayson] Werth out there, and we can come together as a team and have a good year.”

As for the critics who claim the Nationals got fleeced in the White Sox deal and that their new center fielder can’t possibly undo the sticker shock, Eaton views that not as pressure, but simply more fuel for the fire that burns within.

“Usually if you tell me I can’t do something, I’m going to out and try to prove you wrong.”