Nats take versatile King with 10th pick, then catcher and shortstop with 39th, 44th picks

MILWAUKEE – Given the choice between drafting one of the best high school players in the country or a more experienced player from a top college program, the Nationals tonight went with experience, not to mention versatility.

The Nats selected Wake Forest’s Seaver King with the 10th overall pick in the MLB Draft, choosing a talented player who spent time at four different positions this season for the Demon Deacons after previously dominating at the Division II level.

They then used the pick they got Saturday night from the Royals in the Hunter Harvey trade on Cal catcher Caleb Lomavita before using their second-round pick on New Jersey high school shortstop Luke Dickerson.

In announcing the first-round pick live from the MLB All-Star Game in Texas, commissioner Rob Manfred called King a shortstop. The Nationals then announced him through their social media feeds as a third baseman/outfielder. Wherever he winds up playing in the field, he could find himself on a fast track to D.C.

King, 21, hit .308 with 16 homers, 64 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, a .377 on-base percentage and .954 OPS in 60 games at Wake Forest. A right-handed batter and thrower, he played 36 games at third base, 21 in center field, 10 at shortstop and two at second base.

"I think shortstop is where I feel the most comfortable, and it's where I've played kind of my whole life," he said during an introductory Zoom session with reporters. "But I think a part of my game is I can play anywhere. My ultimate goal is winning. And if that's me catching, that's what I'm going to do."

Danny Haas, the Nationals' new vice president of amateur scouting, witnessed one of King's 10 games at shortstop this season and came away convinced that can be his path to the majors.

"Some of our special assignment scouts were watching him one night when the regular shortstop had an injury," Haas said. "They got on the phone and said we think he’s going to play shortstop tomorrow. We hopped in there, just because we could. And he made a fantastic play at shortstop. That one play convinced us he was definitely a shortstop long-term.”

A native of Athens, Ga., who grew up playing with 2021 first-round pick Brady House, King started his college career at Division II Wingate in North Carolina, where he delivered a 47-game hitting streak in 2022-23 and batted .411 with 11 homers and 13 steals as a sophomore.

According to MLB Pipeline, King "excels at putting the ball in play with a compact right-handed stroke geared for hitting line drives to all fields," though he "needs to improve his plate discipline … because he swings and chases too much."

"From when I was a kid until now, I've had to separate myself," he said. "I was going to be the scrappy guy who wasn't afraid to get to two strikes, wasn't going to be afraid to swing early. I don't average the most pitches in my at-bats, and I'm OK with that."

The Nationals weren’t in nearly as advantageous a draft position this time as they were one year ago, when they held the No. 2 pick and selected outfielder Dylan Crews after the Pirates took LSU teammate (and now All-Star Game starter) Paul Skenes first overall. But the fact they picked 10th tonight was a bit controversial in its own right.

The Nats finished with the majors’ fifth-worst record in 2023. But Major League Baseball’s new and convoluted Draft Lottery rules stipulated they were ineligible for a top-nine pick because the franchise paid (instead of received) revenue-sharing dollars. They then learned they actually won the initial lottery drawing and would have held the No. 1 pick if not for that rule, which bumped them all the way back to No. 10.

This year’s class didn’t have names as big as Skenes and Crews at the top of the list, but it was awash in quality college talent, and the first portion of the first round reflected that. The first eight picks all came out of college, all but two of them full-time position players.

That left a Nationals organization with a revamped amateur scouting department - Haas was hired away from the Diamondbacks to replace longtime scouting director Kris Kline, with analytics-versed Brad Ciolek hired away from the Orioles to serve as senior director of amateur scouting - to decide whether to stick with the college theme or take a bigger risk with the top available high school players.

The Nats used their first pick on a high school player only five times since Mike Rizzo became general manager in 2009, with mixed results. Lucas Giolito (2012) became an All-Star after he was traded to the White Sox. Carter Kieboom (2016) never seized his opportunity and is currently playing at Triple-A Rochester. Mason Denaburg (2018) dealt with injuries and has yet to pitch above low Single-A. House (2021) has moved quickly to Triple-A and could make his major league debut before season’s end. And Elijah Green (2022) is still trying to find a consistent swing at Single-A Fredericksburg.

After the Pirates took Mississippi high school shortstop Konnor Griffin with the ninth pick, the Nationals could have gone with shortstop Bryce Rainer from Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake High School (Giolito’s alma mater). In the end, they chose the more experienced college player in King and now will hope to get him to the big leagues in short order.

"In terms of what Seaver has done, in terms of taking all of these leaps, that is one criteria we always look for, not only with our first pick but also with our top few selections," Ciolek said. "The underlying theme here is: All three of the guys made tremendous strides from their previous year to their platform year."

King admitted he had no idea the Nats were that interested in him until shortly before the draft began this evening and figured he'd be picked somewhere in the middle of the first round. When his name officially was announced and a crowd of friends and family surrounding him cheered, he broke down for a moment, perhaps still grasping the significance of what just happened.

"If you asked me three years ago if I would've been in the draft, period, I would've said probably not," he said. "Let alone be a top-10 pick and be in an organization that values development as much as they do. I think it's just surreal. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm glad I didn't know it was going to happen, because it's just kind of better that way."

Saturday night's trade of Harvey brought third base prospect Cayden Wallace to the Nationals, but it also brought Kansas City's "Competitive Balance A" pick in tonight's draft, which turned out to be the 39th overall selection. They used that pick on something they had never used an early-round pick on before: a catcher.

Lomavita is the first catcher the Nats have ever drafted prior to the third round. (Bryce Harper was a catcher in high school and junior college, but immediately was converted to the outfield upon becoming a professional.) A power-hitting native of Hawaii, he produced a .981 OPS with 15 homers in 55 games this season as a junior at Cal. He possesses a strong arm behind the plate but is still learning the nuances of the catching position, according to MLB Pipeline's scouting report.

"We definitely didn't set out to say we're going to draft catchers," Haas said. "We were happy that a talented one at Loma's level was available at our pick. But we've definitely had conversations with (vice president of player development) Eddie Longosz that it would be nice to get some more catchers."

Dickerson, meanwhile, is an athletic shortstop from New Jersey who tied Mike Trout's state record with 18 homers this season and who also happened to help lead Morris Knolls High School to the state championship in hockey. The 18-year-old has committed to play baseball at Virginia, so the Nats may have to offer him more than the designated $2.12 million slot value for the 44th pick in order to sign him before the Aug. 1 deadline.

"You talk about how gifted an athlete Luke is, playing hockey, and then also starting his baseball season a little later this spring," Ciolek said. "I think we're really encouraged at the strides he made on his own while playing another sport. And we're really excited about what his future looks like when he chooses to specialize in baseball here in the next few weeks."