Brady House is finding his footing with the Washington Nationals

Brady House’s combination of a brilliant glove and growing comfort at the plate is making him a force

Brady House looked uncomfortable at the plate in his first couple weeks as a big leaguer. He was clearly getting up to speed with the challenges of big league pitching. However, he has found his feet this month and is looking like a threat at the plate.

From the second House arrived in the big leagues, it was easy to see that his glove was excellent. He was just moving differently at the hot corner compared to the likes of Jose Tena and Amed Rosario. House already has 2 outs above average thanks to his range and cannon for an arm.

That defensive floor gives House a foundation as a big leaguer. For some guys, if they are not hitting well, they cannot do anything on a big league field. However, that is not the case for Brady House. His defense does not slump.

As a third baseman though, House needs to hit to become a truly impactful player. In June, the bat was not really there for him. He was hitting .231 with no power in his first month as a big leaguer. It was a bit surprising to see the lack of power, given he had hit 13 home runs in 65 Triple-A games. House has 60 grade raw power, but it was not showing up in games.

That was until his 2 homer game against the Brewers when he homered off of Brandon Woodruff and Abner Uribe. Interestingly, both were on breaking pitches, a trend we will dive into later

In this month of July, House is hitting .322 with an .803 OPS and a .475 slugging percentage. Sure, there are some holes in his profile. House only has one walk all month and is walking at a 3.5% clip overall. His 38% chase rate is a bit crazy, but we always knew House was not the most disciplined hitter.

House makes solid contact that makes him a guy who consistently runs a high batting average on balls in play. His expected batting average is actually up to .310, showing that he can be a high average player. Despite the chase and some swing and miss, he still makes a decent amount of contact and high quality contact.

For a guy who chases a lot, House does a great job at picking up and hitting spin. He is actually at his best against breaking balls. House is hitting .341 against breaking balls with an even higher expected average. Fastballs have actually given House much more issues than spin.

A guy as talented as House should be able to learn to hit fastballs. It is likely the case that he is just adjusting to the higher velocity and something about his swing makes heaters tougher on his than breaking balls.

However, Brady House has been a good player for the Nats. He already has 0.5 fWAR in just 28 games, even though his offense has been up and down. The defense never struggles for the Nats young third baseman.

He has enough offensive warts that it is unlikely that he will become a star. However, House has enough strengths in his game to be a good starter for a long time. The Washington Nationals are in desperate need of good starters. We have stars, but we have too many scrubs around them. House can be one of those secondary pieces that may never be the star of the show, but he does a lot of things very well.

To get back to the promised land, the Nationals simply need more good players. They have some great players, but not enough good ones. Brady House is showing that he can be a good player and is almost there already at just 22 years old.

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