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Three early Spring Training standouts for Washington Nationals
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- Three early Spring Training standouts for Washington Nationals
While the sample size may be small, we take a look at three early standouts through the start of spring training as the Washington Nationals , standing at 4-0-1, remain undefeated to open the unofficial start of the Blake Butera era.
Brady House , third base
Brady House showed out in his first Spring Training appearance of the year against the Miami Marlins , where he would end 2-of-4 from the plate with both hits going deep center field for home runs.
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The 22-year-old has appeared in two of the Nationals' first five Spring Training bouts and leads the team with two home runs and four runs batted in while doing so.
House finished the 2025 MLB season with the Nationals' starting lineup after a successful triple-A showing in Rochester that saw him batting above .300. In the 73 games in the Major Leagues, he finished with a .234 BA, a .252 OBP, 29 RBIs and 4 HRs.
He finished 0-of-2 in his second appearance against the St. Louis Cardinals and holds a .333 batting average through his first two games.
Trey Lipscomb , third base
Trey Lipscomb has put together two great appearances to start Spring Training. He leads the Nationals in hits and OPS through the first stretch of games.
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The 25-year-old first appeared as part of the Nationals' split squad against the Cardinals, where he was a perfect 2-of-2 from the plate with a double, as well as being walked.
Lipscomb was the third baseman for the Nationals Triple-A team, the Rochester Red Wings, in the 2025 season. He played in 122 games and hit .249 with a .305 OBP while adding 11 HRs and 65 RBIs.
In his second game, he was 1-of-2 from the plate with a double in a tie against the Philadelphia Phillies . Lipscomb finishes his first two games with a .750 average, .800 OBP and a 2.050 OPS through his first two games.
Matt Mervis , first base
Matt Mervis was an offseason addition for the Nationals when he signed a minor league deal in December. The newcomer has already shown great poise at the plate and has started his Nationals career strongly in his two Spring Training appearances.
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Mervis appeared as a first baseman—a position the Nationals still don't have a definitive answer for going into the season—in his appearances against the Phillies and the Cardinals. He would finish with a hit and a walk in both appearances, while only getting out once.
His one hit against the Phillies would come up huge as he hit a two-RBI ground rule double in the eighth inning to tie the game at five apiece, which would also be the final score.
Mervis played in 65 Triple-A games across the Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks ' organization, where he batted .248 with a .315 OBP and .570 SLG. He would also struggle as he saw 42 games in the Major Leagues with the Marlins, where he batted .175 with a .254 OBP, but did hit 7 HRs.
But he has started Spring Training differently for the Nationals, as Mervis is hitting a great .667 with an .800 OBP through the Nationals' first five games.
