Nationals grab Wake Forest’s Seaver King with 10th pick in MLB draft

“If you would’ve told me yesterday that I’d be a top-10 pick, I wouldn’t have believed you,” King said Sunday night. “And it’s a reality today, so I’m just thankful for the opportunity.”

King said the Nationals weren’t on his radar until about 30 minutes before the draft. Until then, he thought he would be going between the 12th and 24th picks. King grew up playing with Brady House, the Nationals’ first-round pick at No. 11 in 2021, and was at his draft party that year. He never imagined he would be in House’s shoes one day.

Wingate was the only team that offered him scholarship money out of high school. He thought he would play four seasons and then become “a normal human,” as he put it. But then he had a good freshman season and followed it up with a better sophomore year. Before playing his junior season at Wake Forest after transferring, he tore up the Cape Cod Baseball League, hitting .424 with a 1.021 OPS. That was when he realized being a major leaguer was possible.

A right-handed hitter, King excels at sending line drives to all parts of the field. The primary knock against him is that he has to improve his plate discipline. Defensively, King is most comfortable at shortstop but said he could play anywhere. At Wake Forest, he played second base, shortstop, third base and center field.

King was the first selection by Danny Haas, whom the Nationals tapped to be their vice president of amateur scouting — their new scouting director, in simpler terms — in October. Kris Kline had served in that role since 2009, when Mike Rizzo became general manager, but was reassigned as a special assistant to the GM. Kline was responsible for drafting Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon. But in recent years, the Nationals have struggled to draft and develop talent — specifically hitters.

Sunday was the start of a new era under a regime led by Haas, senior director of amateur scouting Brad Ciolek and national crosschecker Reed Dunn, who returned to the team after being a scout earlier in his career.

The Nationals, who tied for the fifth-worst record in the majors last year, ended up with the 10th pick because of the recently altered draft lottery rules. The 2022 collective bargaining agreement prevents teams that pay into MLB’s revenue sharing system from drafting in the lottery in back-to-back years. So even though the Nationals won the lottery’s first drawing in December, they were ineligible to pick higher than 10th. (Teams that receive revenue sharing funds cannot have a lottery pick three years in a row.)

Washington entered the season with two picks on the first night of the draft — Nos. 10 and 44. On Saturday, they acquired the 39th pick from the Kansas City Royals as part of the return for reliever Hunter Harvey. The 39th pick has a slot value of $2.395 million, which boosted the Nationals’ bonus pool to $13,895,100 — giving them more financial flexibility. The slot values for the 10th and 44th picks are $5,953,800 and $2,122,200.

This story will be updated.