Nationals’ Brad Lord Sees Stuff Tick Up In Breakout Season
At every step on his way to Triple-A Rochester, righthander Brad Lord has improved his game.
Each pitching coach or analyst has helped make the 18th-round pick from the 2022 draft a rising prospect.
It all started last season at Low-A Fredericksburg, where his distant relative Justin Lord is the pitching coach.
“We discovered we really are third or fourth cousins, which is pretty neat,” Brad Lord said. “When I was in Fredericksburg with him, we made some mechanical adjustments. My stuff ticked up from there.
“Then in (High-A) Wilmington, Mark DiFelice helped me sharpen my off-speed stuff. And in (Double-A) Harrisburg this year, Rigo Beltran put the finishing touches on it.”
All that coaching and work added up to Lord’s breakthrough at Double-A this year. In 12 starts for Harrisburg, he went 8-1 with a 1.40 ERA. He struck out 75 and walked 23 in 70.2 innings.
The 24-year-old South Florida graduate reached Triple-A on June 23.
“He attacks the zone early, especially with that first-pitch strike working both sides of the plate and moving his fastball around the zone,” Nationals farm director Eddie Longosz said.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Lord has a 93 mph four-seam fastball, a 92 mph sinker and a changeup and slider that he throws in the mid 80s.
In his next-to-last start with Harrisburg, he struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings against Bowie. A majority of his 19 swinging strikes came via his sinker.
“He has done a great job with his usage of both secondary pitches this season,” Longosz said. “He’s a student of the game and has made great adjustments in games to keep hitters guessing and off-balance.”
Lord has a criminology degree and was considering following in the footsteps of his father, a recently retired federal wildlife officer.
“I’ve always liked the outdoors and been interested in that part of it—protecting the resources we have,” Lord said.
CAPITAL GAINS
- Among the most high-profile midseason promotions for the Nationals were outfielder Dylan Crews’ move to Triple-A and outfielder Daylen Lile’s ascension to Double-A.
- Righthanded reliever Marquis Grissom Jr. also has moved up from High-A Wilmington to Double-A Harrisburg. A 13th-round pick in 2022 out of Georgia Tech, he had seven strikeouts in his first 4.2 innings for the Senators after posting a 1.25 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 21.2 innings for the Blue Rocks.
