Washington Nationals Hopeful Recent Draft Class Is Core of Next Contending Team
The Washington Nationals are hoping they're on the backside of their rebuild, having finished under a .500 winning percentage for the fifth consecutive season but with a lot of young talent "earning their stripes" at the major league level.
If this truly is the beginning of an upswing for a franchise that's been lost in the wilderness since winning the 2019 World Series, then the 2024 draft class could potentially be the final pieces that push the roster over the top once they make the major leagues.
Baseball America, doing their annual "draft report card" article that doesn't actually have grades in it, had several significant notes about the players that Washington selected in July and the consensus is that there is plenty of impact to be had in the class.
First-round pick Seaver King, taken out of Wake Forest with the 10th overall pick, earned three different superlatives all by himself: fastest baserunner, best pure hitter, and best power hitter, definitely an unusual but impactful combination of traits for a player to have.
He was lauded for both his barrel control and hand speed in the "best pure hitter" write-up but also his college batted ball data in the "Best Power Hitter" blurb, albeit with the caveat that his impact may show up in more doubles and triples than homers.
Depending on the position he ends up playing - King has time at shortstop, second base, third base, and centerfield during his college career - it's possible the speedster makes his way to Washington rather quickly. The ideal scenario is for him to be a similar player to Los Angeles Dodgers utilityman Tomy Edman, able to hold his own defensively at both shortstop and in centerfield, which allows the team flexibility to adjust their lineup based on matchups.
Catcher Caleb Lomavita, the team's supplemental first-round pick out of Cal, earned raves for his defense. The blurb talks about both his hands and his arm while mentioning his development as both a blocker and a receiver. With a young pitching staff in Washington, having a better defensive option than Keibert Ruiz would go a long way to getting the full potential out of a rotation.
Speaking of the rotation, several of the drafted arms for the Nationals had impressive traits which Baseball America acknowledged. Davian Garcia, a righthander out of Florida Gulf Coast Community College who joined the team out of the 6th round, received rave reviews for his fastball and slider combo. The heater averaged 98 mph with elite levels of induced vertical break in his college action, while lefty Jackson Kent (4th-round, University of Arizona) received plaudits for his changeup, which put up a 43% whiff rate in his final season at Arizona.
