The Nationals’ Best Third Base Solution Is Ready for His Shot

As we near the end of May, the Washington Nationals occupy the second-place spot in the National League East thanks to a surprisingly competent 27-27 record. The club is already nine games behind the division-leading Atlanta Braves, with very little legitimate hopes of making it very far this year, but so far, so decent.

The usual suspects like James Wood, Daylen Lile and CJ Abrams have been carrying the offense on a nightly basis, while multiple top current and former notable prospects have struggled to find their footing at the game’s highest level.

One of those prospects, Brady House, broke camp as the team’s primary third baseman, but things didn’t go so well for him to start the new campaign. After scuffling in a 73-game showing last year in the big leagues, the former first-round pick (2021) hit seven home runs and drove in 25 runs while posting a 91 wRC+ before being demoted to Triple-A recently.

Similarly to Dylan Crews in the outfield last year, House is a former can’t-miss prospect who didn’t hit the ground running in the big leagues. This leaves the Nationals with a bit of a hole in their nightly lineup, but it’s important to note that they may not be seeking an answer there for much longer.

The Nationals Have a Third Base Problem

So far this year, the Nationals have called on four different players to man the hot corner for them through the team’s first 54 games. House has received 35 of those looks, but Jorbit Vivas, Curtis Mead, and José Tena have all received at least one shot at the position as well.

Vivas has hit .247 with a .671 OPS and 94 wRC+ through 41 games this year. His ability to fill a bench role and his status as a non-prospect kept him on the big league roster over someone like House, who needs consistent at-bats somewhere to find his footing.

Then there’s Mead, who’s seeing big league time in his fourth different season now. To his credit, he’s got five home runs, a .792 OPS, and a 130 wRC+ through his first 40 games this season. Unfortunately, he’s much more of a first baseman than a third baseman, but he’s held his own at the hot corner so far this year.

Throughout Mead’s career, he’s gotten a handful of looks and hasn’t proven to be capable of sustaining success like this for long stretches. Still, the Nationals are going to ride his bat until it trails off. Mead’s swinging a decent stick, but he’s getting more of his playing time at first base than third base, and he’s never been a very good defender at any spot around the infield.

It would’ve been ideal to give House some more runway, but he was clearly having issues seeing the ball before his demotion. Just one look at his 10th percentile Whiff%, 17th percentile K%, and 30th percentile BB% will tell you that much. Even if his stay in the minor leagues ends up short lived, there’s a void in this Nationals lineup, and the solution is staring them straight in the face.

Yohandy Morales Is the Obvious Solution

Down in Triple-A, the Nationals have Yohandy Morales absolutely tearing the cover off the ball on a consistent basis. The 24-year-old isn’t a household name amongst prospect outlets, but his performance this year is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Through his first 47 games, the 2023 second-round pick has 10 home runs with 29 RBI, a .353 batting average, 1.025 OPS, and 166 wRC+.

In all of Triple-A, Morales’ wRC+ tops the leaderboards, just one point above fellow 24-year-old Noelvi Marte, who the Reds have in the minors trying to find himself.

Morales has been hitting the ball hard, too, as his average exit velocity sits at 92.2 right now, which is higher than big leaguers Shea Langeliers, Freddie Freeman, Mike Trout, Corbin Carroll, and Corey Seager. The up-and-coming slugger’s maxEV is 113.1 this year, too, which is higher than the likes of Julio Rodríguez, Bryce Harper, Rafael Devers, and Ronald Acuña Jr.

That’s not bad company for Morales to keep.

Looking at a few other metrics, Morales finds himself third at the Triple-A level in OPS, fifth in batting average, seventh in hits and SLG, 10th in OBP. You’re going to have a difficult time finding a hotter and more complete hitter than him right now at the highest level of the minor leagues.

yohandy morales in the month of may:
.414/.500/.828
19 R, 24 H, 6 HR, 14 RBI pic.twitter.com/DeLYSoKPm2

— Nationals Player Development (@Nats_PlayerDev) May 20, 2026

Last season, Morales demolished Double-A pitching before getting his first 95-game look in Triple-A, and he saw his wRC+ go from 155 at his first stop down to 94 at the second. His walk rate got higher, but he also began striking out 7% more while aiming to hit for more power. This did end up working, as he hit 11 home runs in Triple-A versus four pre-promotion.

This year, he’s raised his walk rate from 9.9% to 10.9% and is striking out 4% less than he did the year prior. His ISO is up .075 points and he’s already well on his way to shattering career-bests in most offensive categories.

Defensively, Morales has an almost 50-50 split between third and first base in the minor leagues. He’s got a solid throwing arm, but his range is suspect and he likely profiles better as a first baseman than a third baseman in the long run.

Yet, that hasn’t stopped the Nationals from giving him 32 of his 41 defensive games at the hot corner this year. It’s true that he’s been seeing more time at first since House was demoted to Triple-A, but Morales already has kept his third base glove warm this year, and it’s pretty easy to see that this was in preparation for a stint in the big leagues if/when he’s called upon.

Morales Is Becoming Harder to Ignore

The Nationals have a farm system absolutely packed with talent, so it’s easy to see why someone like Morales, who’s already older than all of the organization’s other top prospects, falls under the radar a bit.

Eli Willits, Ronny Cruz and Gavin Fien are some of the org’s top young guns that have yet to even hit their 20th birthday. Travis Sykora, Jarlin Susana, Seaver King, and Devin Fitz-Gerald are all much more notable names but none of them are any older than 23 either.

The highest you’ll find Morales on a Nationals prospect list is 22nd, where Baseball America put him in their latest updated list. MLB Pipeline has him 28th on the team’s top-30, while FanGraphs didn’t include him at all in their top-41 ranking.

Are we dealing with a true prospect who should be cracking everybody’s rankings moving forward? No. However, Morales is an obvious candidate to join the Nationals in short order, and it won’t be surprising at all to see him snag the starting third base gig and hang on to it, at least until House is ready to come back up. At the very least, Morales can be an oft-used bat who bounces around between the corner infield spots and designated hitter.

Regardless of how this all shakes out, one thing’s for sure: the Nationals are going to need all the help they can get if they want to continue this respectable stretch of play. Why not ride the hottest bat they’ve got that happens to play a position they need a boost at?