2026 is a massive year for Brady House’s development. He is entering the season as the undisputed starter at third base. For that to be the case again next year, he is going to have to make big improvements with the bat. His first game of Spring Training was a major statement, with the 22 year old clubbing two home runs.
That power is great to see from House, and it is something that was missing in his first taste of the MLB. He only hit 4 homers in 73 games last year, and two of them came in one contest against the Brewers. That is not what you want to see from a guy who is supposed to be a power hitter. House’s chase and whiff issues will limit his on base numbers, so he will have to slug.
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Anyone who has followed House knows he is capable of hitting for power. His exit velocities in Triple-A were elite last season and he even hit the ball pretty hard in the majors. The former first rounder translated that into game power in AAA last year. He hit 13 homers in 65 Triple-A games and had a slugging percentage over .500.
With his strong defense at third base, House does not need to be an elite hitter, but he needs to be much better than he was last year. A .574 OPS simply will not cut it at the MLB level. I think hitting for more power is the best way for him to improve. His approach will have to get better as well, but I don’t see House suddenly developing a strong eye at the plate.
That is one of those skills that is more innate. Tapping into more game power is something you can coach, especially when the player has the raw power. Hopefully today marks the start of a big year for House. His first homer actually came off of former Cy Young Sandy Alcantara, so at least one of his bombs came off of big league competition as well.
So how can Brady House consistently hit for power? We know he has the horsepower to be a 25 homer bat. Well, he is going to have to get the ball in the air more consistently. Last season, House’s ground ball rate was higher than average at 46.3%. He is going to have to develop into a line drive and flyball hitter to make it at the MLB level.
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The whiff and chase give him a smaller margin for error when it comes to the quality of his contact. His well struck balls are going to need to be elevated for House to have big league success at the plate. Another thing I would like to see, but is not as necessary is for House to pull the ball in the air more. Last season, his air pull percentage was well below average at just 10.6%. For context, the league average is 16.7%.
House has enough raw power to hit balls out to all fields. Both of his homers yesterday actually went to right center. If House is not comfortable selling out for air pull, he can stick to just hitting line drives and flyballs all over the yard. However, pulling the ball in the air is the easiest way to compile extra base hit damage. House has enough juice where he just needs to elevate to have success though.
We saw that on display yesterday. Hopefully this can continue deeper into Spring Training and into the regular season. If House can even be an average bat this season, that would change a lot for the Nats. It would make the lineup a lot deeper and more powerful.
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One thing about Brady House is that he tends to get better in his second try at a new level. In 2024, House struggled with AAA after a midseason promotion. While he hit .250, he only posted a .655 OPS due to a lack of plate discipline and an inability to translate his raw power into games. That should sound familiar to Nats fans because that is what we saw from House last year.
However, he put in some important offseason work and was ready to go for the 2025 season. He hit .304 with an .872 OPS in AAA last season. That earned him a big league call up, but just like 2024, he struggled at the new level. Hopefully this first taste of the big leagues was a learning experience and House can come back looking much better.
Despite his whiff and chase issues, House has always been able to post higher batting averages than you would expect in the minors. He hits the ball so hard that he is able to sneak a lot of hits through. Even in his disastrous big league debut, his average was not horrible at .234. However, he needs that average to be fairly high because he is not going to walk much.
My dream outcome for House is for him to hit about .260-.265 with 25 homers, a .310 OBP and an OPS in the mid-.700’s. With his defense, that would be an excellent player. However, it requires quite a bit of projection to get to that point. The biggest goal for House this year should be to find a way to turn his tremendous raw power into good game power. Hitting two homers in your first game of the spring is not a bad start in achieving that goal.
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