Nats prospect watch: Blake Perkins

The Nationals' 2015 draft class hit the ground running this past summer and into fall instructs in Viera, Fla. I will profile some of these outstanding hitters in the system for the next few weeks.

Outfielder Blake Perkins is one of the many prospects on the roster that showed very well last month, drawing the attention of the coaches.

The just-turned 19-year-old (September 10) was a second round selection out of Verrado High School in Buckeye, Ariz., in June. He has shown that he is advanced for his hitting at such a young age and impressed the coaching staff.

He did so well, they added switch-hitting to his repertoire, something Perkins had experience with while in high school.

The 6-foot-1, 165 lbs., Perkins hit .211 in 49 games for the Gulf Coast League Nationals with five doubles, two triples, one homer and 12 RBIs. He walked 13 times, struck out 36 times, stole four bases and was caught five times. When his season concluded, Perkins was placed on the organization's instructional roster.

Nationals hitting coordinator Troy Gingrich got to work with Perkins at instructs in October at the club's Florida training facility.

"Perkins was unbelievable for the age of 18 and he's just beginning to switch-hit," said Gingrich, who had remembered scouting Perkins during pre-draft workouts.

"I was down in D.C., when they had the workout there and Perkins was there. I really liked him," Gingrich said. "I was really excited we got a chance to pick him. For the age of 18, we've kind of nicknamed him "Smooth." How he runs, it doesn't even look like he's running, but he's running. You look down and he's running 4.1, 4-flat (seconds) to first.

"In the outfield, everything is there," Gingrich raved. "He is smooth. How he swings is smooth. He started switch-hitting a little bit in high school and then kind of shut it down, just started hitting right-handed. We saw him hit left-handed in the workout."

Sometimes when a player picks up switch-hitting again, it takes awhile for him to get back into a rhythm that he had timed the muscle memory for all summer. But Gingrich was amazed at how natural Perkins looked from the left side of the dish, as well the right, from the first at-bat.

"The thing I liked about it is he did everything basically identical to what he did to his right-hand side, so it was very natural for him," Gingrich said. "After we drafted him, we just let him hit right-handed all (season in the) Gulf Coast League. We started to work with him with his left-handed swing and in instructs we allowed him to start hitting left-handed in games and it was amazing how fast (he picked it up). It was like he'd been doing it for five years."

Scouts always mention a major league player that a draft selection reminds them of if he is considered a high-end prospect. Perkins started receiving glowing praise from the Nationals veteran coaches.

"Really, really excited about this kid," Gingrich said. "A lot of people say he reminds them of a young Carlos Beltran. We have a couple coaches that had Carlos Beltran when he was with the Royals. Just very, very smooth and easy with the things that he does, and how he picks up and knows his game at the age of (19) is pretty exciting."