Nats promote third base prospect House to Triple-A

One day after making a change at third base in the major leagues, the Nationals made a change at third base in the minors, promoting Brady House to Triple-A Rochester and perhaps indicating the 2021 first-round pick has a chance to reach D.C. by season’s end.

House, the 21-year-old slugger from Georgia, earned this promotion after hitting 13 homers with 34 RBIs and a .734 OPS in 75 games at Double-A Harrisburg this season. Combined with his brief stint there at the end of last season, he wound up with 16 homers, 46 RBIs and a .767 OPS in 111 total games at Double-A.

“He’s knocking on the door,” manager Davey Martinez said. “And he’s just another one of those guys we feel like can help us up here in the big leagues.”

House’s promotion to Triple-A comes one day after the Nationals called up Trey Lipscomb to the majors, replacing struggling veteran Nick Senzel at third base. Lipscomb, a third-round pick in 2022 from Tennessee, will be given the opportunity to play every day and seize that position. But he’ll do so with House now on his heels.

Originally drafted as a shortstop out of high school, House moved to third base last year after a back injury derailed his 2022 season. He worked his way up through three levels of the minors in 2023, then got his first opportunity to participate in big league camp this spring, where he worked with the Nats coaching staff for the first time.

“What I learned about him is he’s a really good third baseman,” Martinez said. “And he loves to play the game. When he gets the ball in the zone, he impacts the ball really, really hard. And he’s super young still. He’s still learning a lot about himself, and we’re trying to learn a lot about him. He loves to play the game. When I saw him at 18, I said the same thing. This kid really loves baseball. He loves to play, and you can tell he has a lot of fun doing it.”

The Nationals will watch House even closer at Triple-A, paying particular attention to his plate discipline. His walk rate in the minors is only 7.3 percent, though he’s managed to keep his strikeout rate relatively low at 24.9 percent.

“The big thing with him now is teaching him to accept his walks, to hit the ball in the zone,” Martinez said. “He hits the ball really hard, and he’s been hitting the ball hard. And just doing the little things every day. Be more consistent. When you get to Triple-A, it’s about consistency. That’s going to help you up here in the major leagues. We’ll definitely keep an eye on him. We’ll have reports on him now every day.”