So, one of the challenges of having a draft on a Saturday is, it’s awfully hard to find time to do a full comprehensive reaction in a timely manner. So, this will be somewhat brief, but wanted to get a conversation out there real quick.
In this year’s first round, the Nats at #11 take Chris Hacopian, 2B from TAMU. He’s a DC area native; born in Gaithersburg, grew up in Potomac, went to Churchill, and spent his first two college seasons locally at Maryland (click here for his PG profile). He was at UMD with his older brother, and upon his graduation Hacopian entered the transfer portal and went to TAMU. Hacopian was ready for better competition than what UMD gave him; he destroyed big 10 pitching his sophomore year. He wasn’t awful in the Cape Cod league after his sophomore year (he destroyed the NECL after his freshman year).
His junior season at TAMU he slashed .319/.405/.578 with more walks than Ks and some power (11 homers). He played 3B and SS for Maryland, and initially was set to play SS for Tamu as well, but ended up at 2B instead thanks to some limitations in his arm strength and lateral motion. I think he’s profiling as a 2B/LF type in the pros. His leading tool is his Hit tool, where he was one of the best pure hitters in the draft and has a 60 grade from MLBpipeline.com. They give him a current 50 power grade, but something tells me this guy can improve on that as well. I think he’s a pro hitter who won’t chase, hits the ball hard, can power it up when he wants to, and who should move through the ranks quickly. He had some injury issues this year, and by most accounts is a stiff, awkward athleticism guy who may struggle to stick even at 2B.
Hacopian was mocked to the Nats pretty frequently in the end, with the major pundits all over the pick. The way the 1st round worked out, if the Nats were after a college hitter, then they got the one that made the most sense; Burress, Gracia, and Bell all went just before Hacopian, and the next three picks were all HS guys (Gringlinger, Condon, Lombard). They passed on the toolsy Lebron, as well as Ace Reese, who went 24th and was clearly not in the near-top10 level. They also passed on all the prep projects, which is interesting and indicative of what this new front office is thinking after last year’s prep-heavy draft.
My judgement: the way the draft worked out, he was the “right” pick if the target was a College bat, with all the other candidates going before him. He could be a fast mover, maybe in the majors by end of 2027.
What a refreshingly ordinary draft so far. We didn’t try to outsmart other clubs by bucking conventional wisdom. We didn’t throw all our eggs into one basket and only draft HS shortstops or something. We drafted guys a variety of players. So far 5 bats, 4 arms. 2 HSers (one arm, one bat), 7 college players (only one senior so far, 3 arms, 4 bats). According to their announced positions: 1 2B, 1 SS, 1 3B, 1 OF, 1 C, 4 P (though all righties).
We also ended up with, according to MLB’s ratings, 4 top 100 players. Only the Cardinals ended up with more than 4, and that’s because they had 5 picks in the top 100.
I’m liking what I’ve seen so far. I hope I think the same way a year and five years from now.
Will
12 Jul 26 at 1:54 pm
after getting the college bats they wanted the first three college arms are from the Sun Belt Conference, Missouri Valley Conference & Coastal Athletic Association. later rounds they went to the big schools.
hidden gems or specific types? we’ll see.
Anonymous
13 Jul 26 at 7:48 am
forgot to enter my name on the last post
very informative article from Spencer in today’s Athletic on the methods for scouting and development. too much to capsulize but the new folks have a very detailed plan and do not discard the traditional thinkers but require them to adapt.
one thing I expect to hear a lot about: pitch shaping.
for this reason I think locking up Griffin would be great. there will always be a place for 98 but the majority of the arms just can’t get there. his insight would be valuable
FredMD
13 Jul 26 at 9:01 am
[…] See here for the quick post I made specifically about Hacopian and my reaction. I won’t repeat that info here, but will note the interesting discrepancy of Hacopian on the ranking boards presented here. Every shop has him between 8-14 except … our friend Keith Law, ever the contrarian, whose writeup on Hacopian doesn’t really say anything critical of him except to note that he missed a month and hasn’t moved well since he returned. It’s almost like he dumped Hacopian way down when he got hurt, then never revisited him upon his return. I wonder where Law would have him if he had never gotten hurt. I can’t imagine, based on the consensus of his ranking in the class, that this is an under-slot pick by any means, so I’d expect him to sign at or near slot. Maybe he saves a little bit off of the $6.1M figure, money that we can throw at the two prep kids. […]
2026 Nationals Draft Top 10 Rounds Overview at Nationals Arm Race
15 Jul 26 at 8:35 am