Washington Nationals select shortstop Seaver King
The Washington Nationals selected collegiate shortstop Seaver King out of Wake Forest University with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 MLB First-Year Player Draft on Sunday. President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo, Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas, Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek, and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcement.
King, 21, hit .308 with 14 doubles, three triples, 16 home runs, 64 RBI, 25 walks, 11 stolen bases and 59 runs scored in 60 games as he helped lead Wake Forest to the Greenville Regional of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. He posted a .377 on-base percentage, .577 slugging percentage and recorded a hit in 48 games, including 24 multi-hit performances. King recorded 21 multi-RBI games including eight games with three or more. He reached base safely in 31 straight games during the 2024 campaign (April 2-May 25), posting an 11-game hit streak (April 6-23) and a 16-game hit streak (April 27-May 24) during that span.
The No. 17 draft prospect according to Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com, King was a Dick Howser Trophy (top collegiate player) semifinalist and garnered Third-Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors after his junior season. Prior to the start of his junior campaign, he was named Preseason Third-Team All-America by D1Baseball.com.
Between his sophomore and junior seasons, King played for Harwich in the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he slashed .424/.479/.542 with four doubles, one homer, nine RBI, five stolen bases, seven walks and 15 runs scored in 16 games.
Standing at six-foot, 195-pounds, King began his collegiate career at Wingate (N.C.) University, where he had a 47-game hitting streak as a sophomore in 2023, the third-longest hitting streak in Division II history. He went on to lead Wingate in batting average (.411), slugging (.699), on-base percentage (.457), runs (63), hits (90), RBI (53), doubles (20), triples (5), home runs (11), total bases (153) and stolen bases (13). Following the season, he was named to the USA Baseball Collegiate Team.
As a freshman in 2022, King led Wingate with a .381 average while hitting 18 doubles, three triples, four home runs, 44 RBI, seven stolen bases and 34 runs scored.
A native of Athens, Ga., King graduated from Athens (Ga.) Christian High School, where he was named First-Team All-State after hitting .505 with 19 doubles, three triples, seven home runs, 48 RBI, 24 walks, three stolen bases and 45 runs scored in 36 games as a senior. A two-sport athlete, he also placed fifth in the State of Georgia in the high jump.