Grading the Nationals Picks on Night One of the MLB Draft

The MLB Draft kicked off last night as All Star Week is in full swing and the first two rounds of the draft are now complete. All in all, 74 players heard their names called, three of which were selected by the Nationals at picks 10, 39 and 44 respectively. So how did the Nationals do?

Round 1, Pick 10 Overall: Seaver King, UTL
Pre-Draft Ranking: 17

As we mentioned last night, Seaver King was the Nationals top choice in the draft at pick 10. King is a utility player out of Wake Forest University, where he played this past season after transferring in from Wingate, a Division II school, where he spent the previous two seasons. After hitting .424 with a 1.021 OPS in the Cape Cod league last summer, King continued to show he could play at the highest levels with a strong showing this past year for the Demon Deacons. In 60 games, King hit .308 with a .954 OPS and 16 home runs with 64 RBIs. He did have a 50% groundball rate and a low walk rate, which is concerning, but he also had a low strikeout rate, meaning he is a bat-to-ball kind of player with some power potential if he can learn to pull the ball in the air.

In a vacuum, King was a bit of a reach at 10th overall (he was ranked 17th by MLB Pipeline), but seeing as teams frequently utilize an underslot draft strategy to spread out their money evenly in an effort to sign more of their draft picks, it is not a bad pick. The question with King specifically is what do the Nationals want him to do? He has defensive versatility and above-average speed, but where do the Nationals want him to ultimately settle in. The have CJ Abrams at shortstop, who is not the best defensively but is an All Star nevertheless. They have two Outfield spots committed to James Wood and Dylan Crews - is King the third piece? Third base is open for now, but Brady House is a top 100 prospect and is already in AAA. Not to mention they just acquired Cayden Wallace from Kansas City, who is another top 3B prospect in baseball.

King is a fine player, but the hope is he develops into more than just a utility player at the next level. For the Nationals, it would be a bit underwhelming to spend a top 10 pick on a utilityman, given the talent that was still on the board like Braden Montgomery, Trey Yesavage and Bryce Rainer.

Grade: C+

Compensatory Round 1, Pick 39 Overall: Caleb Lomavita, C
Pre-Draft Ranking: 33

One of the worst kept secrets in recent Nats history, their love affair with the catcher from the University of California was well known. There were even some rumors that the Nationals were considering taking him as an underslot pick at 10. It is good they didn't, as Lomavita wound up being available with their second pick of the night at 39th overall.

Lomavita, ironically, profiles a lot like Keibert Ruiz. He posseses an above-average offensive profile as a catcher with a good arm. He is more athletic and better defensively than Ruiz, but has similar issues when it comes to his chase rate. However he does move better due to his athleticism and could even steal bases at an above average rate.

The power profile is clearly tantalizing, and it is not wrong for the Nationals to look to upgrade their catcher position despite Ruiz's contract given his struggles, but there is some question on the use of their early draft picks on a position that is not one of their more pressing needs.

That being said, the Nationals are a team that needed to go Best Player Available, especially given going underslot at pick 10. So if Lomavita was their top player available at 39, then they were following that plan. They used their recently acquired pick from trading away Hunter Harvey in order to do so, so it is clear they have had their eyes set on adding Lomavita for a while now. It would not surprise me to see them go slightly overslot in order to secure a deal.

Grade: B

Round 2, Pick 44 Overall: Luke Dickerson, SS
Pre-Draft Ranking: 49

Here is where we really saw the underslot strategy come into play. The most effective use of this strategy is saving some money from your top pick in order to have extra money in later rounds to potentially sway a prep player away from their college commitment and sign a deal to join your organization.

In Dickerson's case, the Nationals will now be working towards convincing him to forego his commitment to play at the University of Virginia. Not an easy task, but they now have the money to do so without punting on the rest of their draft. They managed to sign Travis Sykora last season, who was drafted in round 3 and still signed despite being committed to play at the University of Texas. Now Sykora is tearing up Single-A, as he has a 2.78 ERA in 45 innings with Fredericksburg as a 20 year old. Good get by the Nats.

So ultimately the success of this draft hinges first and foremost on every player signing, particularly Dickerson, who was the only prep player the Nationals selected. If that happens, then you can at least say everything went according to plan in the draft.

In Dickerson, the Nationals are getting another athletically gifted player. A multisport athlete, Dickerson was also a hockey player where he helped lead his team to a New Jersey State Championship. A primary shortstop, Dickerson has a 60 grade run tool with a chance to stick at shortstop as a pro, but may find better success at Second or Centerfield. His most intriguing asset is his hit tool which has displayed more and more power to all fields, with scoutings thinking it could improve even more as time moves on and Dickerson progresses.

It will take a good deal to get Dickerson away from UVA, but the Nationals clearly identified premier athletes in the draft and are likely prepared to sign all of them. While I would have liked one of the first three picks to be an arm (Jonathan Santucci from Duke was still available), it is hard to blame them for betting on Dickerson's upside, particularly after going with higher floor college players with their first two picks.

Grade: A-

More than anything this draft's start has shown a change in philosophy from previous years, likely in large part to Danny Haas and Brad Ciolek, who are in their first year with the organization and are now in charge of scouting. Both have been a part of organizations previously who would go underslot in drafts. With Mike Rizzo in charge, the Nationals frequently used the majority of their draft pool money on the top 2-3 players, which ultimately produced some stars but certainly hurt the depth of the Farm System.

Now, it looks like the Nationals are looking to build up the depth in the Farm System when they can, as evident by their decision to trade for a draft pick over the weekend instead of another prospect in the Royals system. Gaining a third pick in the top 45 picks allowed them some more flexibility in this draft, and with a good amount of pool money likely remaining, the Nats will be in a positive to sway more players away from their schools and into the organization with above-slot deals.

We'll see how the draft looks when it is all said and done, but this will be a draft that depends on the success of the entire draft class as opposed to the top 2-3 picks.

Day One Draft Grade: B-