Nationals Sign First-Round Pick Seaver King
The Nationals announced that they have signed Seaver King, who they selected with the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft. Jim Callis of MLB.com relays on X that the signing bonus is $5.15MM, a bit below the $5.95MM slot value for his pick.
King, 21, got into 60 games for Wake Forest this year, lining up at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as center field. He hit 16 home runs in that time and slashed .308/.377/.577. He also stole 11 bases in 12 tries.
Based on his ability to contribute in multiple ways, he was one of the top ranked players coming into the draft. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and Keith Law of The Athletic ranked him 17th. ESPN put him slightly higher at 16th while FanGraphs was the most bullish by putting him 11th.
The outlets generally commend him for doing damage and putting up impressive exit velocities, though with some concern for his lack of discipline and propensity for chasing bad pitches, which leads to some weaker contact and few walks. Defensively, he’s considered a bit raw at his multiple positions but is expected to be carried by his athleticism in the short term and become more polished in time. FanGraphs sees a ceiling of an everyday shortstop but admits a multi-positional role is probably more likely.
The Nationals are at an interesting time in their rebuild, as they flirted with contention this year but have recently pivoted to selling, with Hunter Harvey flipped to the Royals. But they are starting to form a nucleus of controllable players at the big league level, with CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood and others up at the big league level.
Still down in the minors are notable prospects such as Dylan Crews, Brady House and more. King will join Crews and House in the minors, with his future defensive home and his role with the big league club still to be determined.
2024 MLB Draft, First Round Results
This year’s amateur draft is officially underway, and we’ll be updating this post throughout the night with every first-round selection. More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.
The first-round picks…
- Cleveland Guardians: Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State
- Cincinnati Reds: Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest
- Colorado Rockies: Charlie Condon, OF/3B, Georgia
- Oakland Athletics: Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
- Chicago White Sox: Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
- Kansas City Royals: Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida
- St. Louis Cardinals: JJ Wetherholt, 2B/SS, West Virginia
- Los Angeles Angels: Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee
- Pittsburgh Pirates: Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Jackson Prep High School (MS)
- Washington Nationals: Seaver King, SS/3B/OF, Wake Forest
- Detroit Tigers: Bryce Rainer, SS, Harvard-Westlake High School (CA)
- Boston Red Sox: Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M
- San Francisco Giants: James Tibbs III, OF, Florida State
- Chicago Cubs: Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State
- Seattle Mariners: Jurrangelo Cijntje, LHP/RHP, Mississippi State
- Miami Marlins: PJ Morlando, OF, Summerville High School (SC)
- Milwaukee Brewers: Braylon Payne, OF, Elkins High School (TX)
- Tampa Bay Rays: Theo Gillen, OF/MI, Westlake High School (TX)
- New York Mets: Carson Benge, OF, Oklahoma State
- Toronto Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage, RHP, East Carolina
- Minnesota Twins: Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State
- Baltimore Orioles: Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina
- Los Angeles Dodgers: Kellon Lindsey, SS, Hardee High School (FL)
- Atlanta Braves: Cam Caminiti, LHP, Saguero High School (AZ)
- San Diego Padres: Kash Mayfield, LHP, Elk City High School (OK)
- New York Yankees: Ben Hess, RHP, Alabama
- Philadelphia Phillies: Dante Nori, OF, Northville High School (MI)
- Houston Astros: Walker Janek, C, Sam Houston
- Arizona Diamondbacks: Slade Caldwell, OF, Valley View High School (AR)
- Texas Rangers: Malcolm Moore, C, Stanford
All 30 teams will have picks in the first round this year, though the Mets, Padres, and Yankees all had their first-round selections dropped back by 10 slots. These three teams surpassed the third luxury tax tier ($273MM) in 2023, and thus their punishment included a 10-space drop in their opening draft choice.
The 2024 draft will take place over three days, consisting of 20 rounds of selections. Rounds 3-10 will take place on Monday, rounds 11-20 will take place on Tuesday, and the draft’s first 74 picks will come off the board tonight. Those 74 picks consist of the first two proper rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents), and two Prospect Promotion Incentive picks.
The two PPI selections will go to the Diamondbacks at 31st overall and the Orioles at 32nd overall, awarded since Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson fit all of the criteria for their teams to receive the bonus picks. Carroll and Henderson won Rookie of the Year honors, both young stars were included on their respective teams’ Opening Day rosters, and were rated as top-100 prospects in at least two of three sets of preseason prospect rankings from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and ESPN.