The Washington Nationals should swing for the fences and select Ethan Holliday

Ethan Holliday has the most power in the 2025 draft and is number one on most boards, the Washington Nationals should not get cute

With the 2025 MLB Draft coming on Sunday, I am officially endorsing Ethan Holliday as the man the Nationals should take number one overall. At the end of the day, the Nationals should not overthink this selection. We saw what happened when the Nats tried to get too cute last year. They need to take the best player on their board.

Holliday has been the most famous player in this draft for years due to his talent and family background. He has the most raw power in the class. Even last summer where he was not at his best on the showcase circuit, he was hitting balls 111 MPH with wood bats, which is insane for a 17 year old.

While Holliday is a shortstop right now, the expectation is that he will move over to third base. He is a big kid, who’s 6’4 frame is much closer to his father Matt than his older but smaller brother Jackson. With that size comes 30-35 home run power. Holliday and James Wood would be such a dynamic power threat for this team in the future.

He is also the best player in the draft according to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America. At number 1 overall, I want to take the best player in the draft and Ethan has a very good case to be that guy.

Holliday’s primary competition for the number 1 slot is LSU lefty Kade Anderson. Anderson has some things over Holliday. He will get to the big leagues faster, maybe as soon as next season. Anderson also has a dominant track record in the tough SEC conference. He is probably the safer bet.

However, I just think Holliday has a pretty significantly higher ceiling. Anderson is good, but his fastball averages about 93 MPH. When you think of the dominant lefty aces in the game, guys like Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and even MacKenzie Gore throw at least a couple ticks harder than that. Most projections see Anderson as a 2 or 3 starter, with a good 2 being his ceiling.

Meanwhile, Holliday has a pretty good chance of being a middle of the order bat, the type of guy scouts call an aircraft carrier. He is not without his warts though. This is not the strongest draft at the top and there is no perfect prospect in this draft. Holliday does have some swing and miss questions after an up and down summer showcase. However, he has looked a lot better this spring and there are some reports that he cleaned up an issue with his swing.

Holliday’s power and patience mean that there is not a ton of pressure on that hit tool. He could still be a highly productive hitter with a .240 average thanks to his home run hitting and ability to take a walk. Obviously at first overall, you would want more and if everything goes well we will get more, but it shows that even if the swing and miss issues don’t fully go away, Holliday can be productive.

Going heavily underslot to take a guy like Eli Willits would also be a mistake for me. Since the slot value of the first pick is so high, the Nats are going to go underslot on whoever they take, the question is how much. Is it really worth it to pass on the best player on your board to save a million dollars to spend on a guy further down the board who is even more of a question mark.

Last year the Nats did this and it did not pay off. They passed on a lot of great players to take the struggling Seaver King. Their reasoning was to save money to spend big on Luke Dickerson. While Dickerson is a talented kid, he has had an up and down start to his pro career.

Just make the obvious pick and go from there. At first overall, it is not the moment to overthink things. That is why the Nationals should take Ethan Holliday first overall.