Washington Nationals Prospect Profile: Andrew Stevenson

We look back at Andrew Stevenson’s first year of professional baseball in the Nationals organization

In last June’s MLB Draft, the Washington Nationals selected LSU outfielder Andrew Stevenson with their first pick (2^nd round – 58^th overall). In his first year of professional baseball, Stevenson made it up to low-A Hagerstown by the end of the season. He was known for his defense while playing in the SEC and he showed his good defensive skills this past season.

Yesterday, MLB Pipeline released their all-prospect defensive team for the 2015 season. Stevenson was listed as one of the outfielders named to that team along with Byron Buxton from the Twins and Albert Almora from the Cubs. Out of the 55 games Stevenson played in last season, he played 52 of them in center field and made only one error.

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As far as his offense goes, the 21-year-old left-handed hitter had a slash line of .308/.363/.379 in those 55 games with one home run, 16 RBI’s, and stole 23 bases in 30 attempts. Out of those 23 steals, 14 of them came with the Hagerstown Suns in August (14-for-17).

After his first two games in the Gulf Coast League, Stevenson was promoted to the Auburn Doubledays in the New-York Penn League (short season). In 18 games with Auburn, he hit .361 with nine RBI’s and he had an on-base percentage of .413. Plus, he had a 13-game hitting streak at one point.

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As the South Atlantic League was coming to a close this past season, I talked with Zach Spedden, who is the editor of the Hagerstown Suns Fan Club and he covers the Nats’ Farm System for The Nats Blog, about his impressions of how Stevenson was progressing with the Suns:

"“Stevenson has really taken off, both offensively and defensively. The outfield at Hagerstown’s Municipal Stadium is not very easy to play because it’s a hard surface, the dimensions are irregular, and the balls often deflect off of the wall at weird angles, especially in centerfield. He has wasted little time in adjusting to those challenges, however, because he does a very good job reading the ball off of the bat and has tremendous speed.”"

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As of now, MLB Pipeline ranks Stevenson as the 13^th best prospect in the Nats’ system, but he is the second best outfielder in the system behind 18-year-old Victor Robles (seventh). Stevenson hasn’t shown much power, but with his strong defense and his ability to get on-base, he is a prospect to keep an eye on in 2016 to see how far he rises up the system.