Brady House made his long-awaited debut at the big league level in 2025 for the Nationals, and it came with a mix of good and bad. On the bright side, House was a fantastic defender at third base, finishing in the 78th percentile in OAA and 79th percentile in arm strength. He also made a solid amount of hard contact, finishing above the 50th percentile in average exit velocity and hard hit rate among all big league hitters.
On the downside, some of the issues that plagued House in the minors followed him up to the bigs, such as his proneness to swing and miss, as he finished 2025 with a 28.5% strikeout rate. Plate discipline also remained an issue for House, as he walked as little as almost anyone in the bigs last year, finishing with a 2.9% walk rate. Thirdly, the power didn’t come as consistently as fans would’ve hoped to see, as House had a .322 slugging percentage in 274 plate appearances his rookie year.
Still just 22 years old, it’s far from time to panic when it comes to House’s future at the big league level, but there is reason for concern entering his sophomore campaign. His great defense at third base provides a nice floor for his value and makes his ceiling that much higher if he can get the bat going, but the issues he has at the plate cannot be ridden of easily.
The first key for House to improve on offense in 2026 is a revamped plate approach. Under the old coaching regime, plate approaches were a weak point of many young Nats, including House. With the new coaching staff in town, a point of emphasis with House and many others will be to improve their approaches, which in House’s case will mean being more patient at the plate and being aggressive when he gets his pitch. House’s BB/K ratio was 0.10 in 2025, and if he could get that ratio to 0.25 in 2026, while still not great, it would be considered a success to me.
House becoming more patient at the plate not only would mean more free passes, but also more favorable counts to hit in. House struggled mightily when behind in the count in 2025, posting a wRC+ barely above 0 in 2-strike counts, but was an above league average hitter when he was ahead in the count. Proving to opponents you won’t chase the junk they throw you will be critical in House, not only improving his walk rate, but increasing the number of strikes to hit he will get.
The next key for House to improve on offense in 2026 is getting to his pull side more and keeping the ball on a line and in the air. The majority of House’s offensive success in 2025 came when he hit the ball to his pull side, where he had a 150 wRC+ and 3 of his 4 home runs. House also had a ton of success when he was hitting line drives in 2025, as he posted a .725 batting average on his 40 line drives last season. A focus on pull-side power and lifting the ball will not only turn more of House’s ground balls into line drives, but more of his line drives into home runs.
My third and final key for House to improve in 2026 will be continued defensive success at the hot corner, possibly even at a Gold Glove level. It was known throughout the minor leagues that he was a strong defender, but proving it in the big leagues was huge in proving that he belonged up there long-term.
Now, as his bat hits a critical juncture, staying elite defensively will be important in extending his leash as a major leaguer. If he can make a leap on defense from 2025 to 2026, House could enter Gold Glove talks, and possibly bring home the Nats’ first Gold Glove since Adam LaRoche in 2012.
House is still early in his big league career, and he will have plenty of opportunities to prove himself, but there are some areas he will need to clean up in his sophomore season. With the new coaching staff, which specializes in unlocking players’ true potentials, I am confident House is going to make major strides this season and prove he will play a major role in breaking the Nats through their rebuild.
