Nationals' Brady House Could Breakout This Year After Three Improvements This Spring

One of the players who stood out for the Washington Nationals this spring was Brady House.

While a lot of the marquee hitters struggled throughout spring training, that was not the case for the 11th overall pick of the 2021 draft. Following an underwhelming performance during his debut season in the bigs last year, House looked like the highly-touted prospect he previously was during Grapefruit League action.

Not only did he lead the Nationals this spring in home runs (three), doubles (six) and RBIs (11), but he also went 17-for-38 across his 14 games with a walk and 10 strikeouts. House is always going to have a free-swinging approach at the plate, but he showed some growth this spring that should give Washington the player they were expecting to get when they drafted him.

Brady House Was More Disciplined With Lack of Chasing

Washington Nationals third baseman Brady House | Brad Mills-Imagn Images

A thing that has followed House throughout his career is how aggressive he is with the bat in his hands. He was a high-strikeout guy coming up the minors, but he was able to do damage with double-digit home runs in all three of his full seasons and 20-plus doubles in two out of those. However, when facing major league pitching for the first time, he wasn't able to have that same success with only four home runs and 11 doubles across 73 games.

To be successful, tweaking his approach a bit has to be done. And that's what happened this spring when he dropped his chase percentage from 36.9% in the majors last year to 30.9% during Grapefruit League play. While that doesn't seem like a lot, he increased his contact rate in the zone and struck out less. House has to do damage on pitches he gets to hit, so if he does that while reducing his chase rate, then he'll be inline for a breakout this season.

Hitting the Ball Hard

Hitting for power comes from hitting the ball hard, and that was a huge improvement for House this spring. With a hard hit rate of 47.6% that was in the 72nd percentile and an average exit velocity of 89.6 mph that was in the 57th percentile, those were solid numbers for his first taste of MLB action. However, he bumped those up to 63.3% and 92.9%, per TJStats, which is a massive improvement after just one offseason.

Of course, spring training numbers and results need to be taken with a grain of salt. But that is a great sign that the 22-year-old is starting to get more comfortable in the box as a major leaguer. He has massive power potential, so seeing him put together those type of hard hit numbers is a huge positive for both the Nationals and House.

Pulling the Ball in the Air More

One way to increase power numbers is to pull the ball in the air. While chasing that type of result can get a player in trouble when it comes to generating more strike outs and pop outs, there is a clear correlation between power and pulling the ball in the air.

Last year, House struggled with that. He only pulled the ball in the air 7.4% of the time. This spring that number jumped up to an impressive 13.3%. The sample size is much smaller during his time competing in the Grapefruit League than it was in the MLB last season, but the fact House was able to reduce his chase rate, increase his hard hit rate and pull the ball in the air more often all at the same time is a major positive.

And because of that, it would not be a surprise to see the 22-year-old breakout this season and become the star player Washington believed they were getting when they selected him in the first round of the draft.