Nats sign top Draft pick King, 3rd-rounder Bazzell
Jessica Camerato
@jessicacameratoWASHINGTON -- This time last week, 21-year-old Seaver King was an MLB Draft hopeful. On Sunday night, he became the 10th overall pick in the 2024 class. And on Friday afternoon, he was signing with the Nationals at Nationals Park.
¡°I guess it really hasn¡¯t hit me yet,¡± King said. ¡°I was just excited to get here.¡±
The Nationals signed King for $5,150,000, according to MLB.com¡¯s Jim Callis. The slot value for the No. 10 pick was $5,953,800.
2024 Draft presented by Nike:
Draft Tracker | First-round signings | All-time biggest bonuses
Pick-by-pick analysis: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Bazzana goes No. 1 | Wake Forest makes history | Mariners nab switch-pitcher | Top 7 Day 1 storylines | Best hauls | Our favorite picks | Famous family ties | Biggest steals | These picks could be new club No. 1's | Picks who could be quickest to bigs | Sons of Manny, Big Papi selected | Complete coverage
¡°It definitely was a whirlwind,¡± King said of the signing period. ¡°I was expecting it to be fast, but probably not this fast. I think that I function better that way.¡±
King played his first two years of collegiate baseball at Division II Wingate. Last season, he transferred to Wake Forest, where he hit .308 with a .954 OPS and 16 home runs, earning an MLB Pipeline No. 17 pre-Draft ranking.
¡°[I] always [play] fun, always have a smile on my face, always want to see my teammates do well,¡± King said. ¡°The baseball stuff kind of takes care of itself after that. But obviously, [the] big thing is the swing decisions. But obviously, that's something I've never worked on and I'm super excited to get the resources and the time to put into that and get better in that aspect.¡±
The Nationals signed not one but two of their 2024 Draft picks on Friday at Nats Park. Washington also inked its third-round pick (No. 79 overall), catcher Kevin Bazzell from Texas Tech, for the full slot value of $980,300, per Callis.
¡°I¡¯ve wanted to play professional baseball since I was a little kid,¡± said Bazzell, 21. ¡°So once they called my name, I was ready.¡±
Bazzell was ranked as the No. 55 Draft prospect. He hit .330 with a .961 OPS and 16 homers in two seasons at Texas Tech after playing his first fall season at Dallas Baptist University.
¡°Going into this, these were two players that we identified,¡± said general manager Mike Rizzo. ¡°But those guys did such a great job. We identified just a small handful of players out of the vast Draft board that we had up there. To their credit, with great evaluation and great strategy, we managed to land all the players that we identified prior to the Draft. It was a credit to the way they ran the Draft to get all the players that we wanted. These guys were handpicked and more or less were on our wish list from Day One.¡±
Before sitting at a podium for a press conference, King and Bazzell got their first glimpses of Nationals Park from a player's perspective. They visited the clubhouse, where their name cards hung above lockers, and took batting practice in a group with Joey Gallo, one of Bazzell¡¯s favorite players growing up.
¡°It was super nerve-wracking for sure,¡± said King. ¡°It¡¯s definitely the most nervous I¡¯ve ever been on the baseball field. But it¡¯s like anything -- you take a few minutes on the field and then you kind of get used to it. It was a super cool experience, for sure.¡±
The Nationals encouraged King and Bazzell to have fun and soak up the moment. They passed along a few tips on the field, too.
¡°And they told us to hit home runs,¡± said Bazzell.