Seaver King will enter the 2026 season looking to improve on the 2025 season in which he failed to make an impact at the plate. In 551 plate appearances, split between High-A Wilmington and Double-A Harrisburg, the 22-year-old shortstop hit a lackluster .244/.294/.337 with six home runs and an 88 wRC+. There’s definitely more in the tank. Drafted 10th overall in 2024 by the Washington Nationals out of Wake Forest University, King has both the resume and raw tools to establish himself as a solid hitter at the big league level.
He showed some of that promise in the admittedly hitter-friendly Arizona Fall League. As our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen put it, King bounced back in a big way, posting a 1.031 OPS and eight extra base hits in 79 plate appearances with the Scottsdale Scorpions. Just as importantly, he showed a smooth right-handed stroke that allows him to fire balls to all parts of the court, which he does when he is at the top of his game.
He does not lack self-confidence nor is he afraid of honest self-evaluation. The Athens, Georgia native, who reportedly sold out for power early last season, has come to realize that staying true to himself will yield the best results.
“I feel like I bring a lot to the table,” King told me early in his AFL stint. “Defense. Leadership. I’m obviously still finding my way in the box. It’s hard to play against elite competition, so I have to go out there and play my game. That’s line drives. I might mix in a few home runs with the right launch angle, but mostly I try to get on base and move around it as quickly as possible.”
Driving is among his better qualities – a runner of 60 on the scouting scale of 20-80, he swiped 30 bags and was caught just four times in 2025 – as is his glove. Rated by our friends as the best defensive infielder in the Washington system Baseball AmericaKing has good hands, solid reach and a plus arm. He also has versatility in his toolbox. Although he performs best at his current position, King saw more time at third base and center field during his draft year at Wake Forest as a slick 2025 Minnesota Twins first-rounder. Marek Houston was firmly anchored at the short stop.
A similar situation could happen in DC. Not only do the Nationals currently employ the 25-year-old C.J. Abrams (57 home runs and 109 steals in the past three seasons) at this position they drafted an 18 year old short stop Eli Williams first overall last summer. Although Willits is still a few years away, his ceiling is as high as Abrams’ and loftier than King’s.
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Regarding King’s offensive capabilities, he acknowledged that trying to seize power is not in his interest, although that does not mean he has no power; he joined the Demon Deacons 16 times during his service year.
“The more I try to launch, the more my swing gets out of hand,” King explained. “Basically, the deeper I travel the pitch, the better results I have. When I try to pull the ball, my direction deviates, so I have to be focused on right-center. If I can hit every fastball to right-center, everything will be fine. And then when I finally pull the baseball, I pull the baseball.”
“My goal is to hit the ball as hard as I can all the time, and whatever the result is, that’s the result,” he added. “For the most part, I want to keep the ball low and watch. I also want to move the ball as quickly as possible and not have to work too deep into the counts. I’m an aggressive hitter.”
Aggression in itself is not a flaw, but swinging out of the zone at a high clip rarely leads to success. King’s chase rate last year was 37%, which was not only far from ideal, it also represented a potential red flag going forward. With no shortage of young hitters, the inefficiency of their plate discipline was exploited by more experienced pitchers as they climbed the minor league ladder.
I asked King why he doesn’t want to do deep counts.
“I’m not a patient man,” he admitted. “It’s hard for me to sit there and be picky, be super picky. I mean, I can work deep into the counts, but I also don’t want to miss a cookie or be late on a pitch that I can move. Waiting on your pitch… these guys are too good for that, especially when you get two hits.”
King experienced that firsthand in his first full professional season. After hitting 14.4% of his plate appearances (and posting a 121 wRC+) with Fredericksburg in 2024, he saw that number jump to 21.1% in 2025. Additionally, his walk rate dropped from 10% to a free-swinging 5.8%. Somewhat surprisingly, he looks back on that first summer as the less selective of the two.
“When I signed, I was just swinging,” recalled King, who had struck out 78 and walked 55 to go with a .362 batting average over 683 plate appearances in his three collegiate campaigns. “If it looked like a strike, I went. That got me in trouble, obviously, because I fell behind in college. In college I could get away with that – just putting the bat on the ball and maybe getting lucky – but especially with wood, I want to get a pitch I can handle. Then with two strikes, I just fight. But like I said, I’m an aggressive hitter. I want to move the ball.”
As of now, Longenhagen expects to assign King a 45+ FV when our 2026 Nationals list is published in the coming months. Further refining his approach will only help the athletically gifted infielder achieve a higher grade. More meaningfully, it would also increase his chances of one day becoming a regular contributor to the Nationals’ lineup, rather than just a speedy and versatile role player. Despite disappointing performances with the stick in his first full season, the potential for that remains.
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