Washington Nationals First-Round Pick Surges at Plate After Awful Start

In fact, last year’s first-round pick has gone nuts at the plate since that slow start. During a seven-game hitting streak he is batting .458, going 11-for-24 at the plate.

Now, the narrative has flipped considerably, and it’s part of the season teams tend not to panic if a highly rated prospect has a slow start. Through 16 games King has slashed .237/.318/.305 with the home run and four RBI. He also has a double.

He’s also starting to flex his muscles on the basepaths. He has six stolen bases. For comparison, he had 10 stolen bases in 20 games with Class-A Fredericksburg last season.

There, he slashed .295/.367/.385 with no home runs and 10 RBI. Washington sees the former Demon Deacons star as a potential shortstop or third baseman at the Major League level and, with the right performance, a move to Double-A Harrisburg sometime this year isn’t out of the question.

The prospect’s upturn in performance now makes a promotion at some point this season a bit more likely. MLB Pipeline considers King the organization’s No. 4 prospect behind pitcher Travis Sykora, pitcher Jarlin Susana and third baseman Brady House.

King is still somewhat raw. He only played one year of Division I baseball after he proved to collegiate coaches in the ACC that he could play at that level after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Division II Wingate. While at Wingate he authored the third-longest hitting streak in Division II history at 47 games.

King transferred to Wake Forest for his junior season. With the Demon Deacons, he was selected third-team all-ACC and was a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist.

He started every game for Wake Forest and led the Demon Deacons with 78 hits. He also ranked second with 64 RBI and 59 runs. He hit 16 home runs and slashed .308/.377/.577. He had at least one hit in 48 games, multiple hits in 24 games and multiple RBI in 21 games. He also had a 31-game on-base streak.