The Washington Nationals went about Day 1 of the draft as everyone expected, grabbing injured RHP Erick Fedde (No. 18) before adding Miami LHP Andrew Suarez (No. 57) in the second round.
Few teams, if any, had a better Day 2 than Washington, which landed a variety of promising players from both the prep and college ranks. The Nats began the day by selecting catcher Jakson Reetz, one of the more impressive high school players in the class, in the third round, and then grabbed one of this year's top junior college arms, hard-throwing RHP Robert Dickey, in the fourth.
"Very excited," Nationals vice president of scouting operations Kris Kline said about the selection of Reetz, via MLB.com's Daniel Popper. "This is a high school catcher that we love. ... He's got a really good feel to hit. You're looking at an offensive catcher at the big league level down the road."
The Nationals landed one of college baseball's premier athletes in the seventh round in CF D.K. Carey, who finally put things together this spring at Miami to bat .305 with a career-high seven home runs. They also added a pair of college sluggers before the day was done in Louisville OF Jeff Gardner (eighth round) and Nevada 1B Austin Byler (ninth), who batted .326 with 14 doubles and 14 home runs this spring.
Like the Blue Jays, Washington's Day 3 saw it take fliers on several prep players who had fallen down the board due to signability concerns. The Nats ultimately selected outfielders Elliot Cary (32nd) and Clay Casey (33rd), catcher Evan Skoug (34th), LHP Quinn Brodey (37th) and OF Jon Littell (39th).
