Nationals’ Robert Hassell III Began To Hit His Stride In AFL
Thanks to getting the ball off the ground more often, the career of 23-year-old outfielder Robert Hassell III might be taking off again.
With the chance to make the Nationals’ 40-man roster, the eighth overall pick from the 2020 draft had a good run in the Arizona Fall League. Hassell hit .291/.365/.535 with four home runs through 21 games.
Nationals farm director Eddie Longosz got a first-hand look at the franchise’s AFL contingent. The lefthanded-hitting Hassell was striking the ball with more authority and stretching singles into doubles. One of the tweaks with his swing has been a slightly new stride direction.
“Robert has been playing extremely well out here, with a great approach at the plate, staying inside the baseball and keeping the barrel in the zone,” Longosz said.
Hassell, one of five young players acquired in the August 2022 trade that sent all-star outfielder Juan Soto to the Padres, has above-average range, speed and arm strength. He was considered the best pure hitter in the 2020 draft out of Independence High in Tennessee, but he has been limited by injuries in pro ball, mostly of the hand and wrist variety.
When Hassell was healthy in 2024, he showed flashes of strong hitting. But a hand injury helped knock his overall numbers down to .241/.319/.328 with five home runs in 320 at-bats between High-A Wilmington, Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester.
According to the Washington Post, citing statistics from TruMedia, Hassell pulled fly balls or line drives just 6.3% of the time during the season. That number rose to 16.4% in the AFL.
Hassell played briefly in the AFL in 2022 and regularly in 2023. After he missed about two months of the 2024 season, he and the Nationals agreed that a third stint in Arizona could be good for him.
“He made tremendous progress in Double-A this year as well as the last month in Triple-A,” Longosz said “He is an elite outfielder in both center field and right field. He is going to be a very exciting player to watch come spring training.”
CAPITAL GAINS
— Catcher Maxwell Romero Jr., a 2022 ninth-round pick out of Miami, was also finishing the year well in the AFL. He was hitting .234/.393/.383 with one home run in 14 games.
— The High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks have put the naming rights to their stadium up for sale for the first time in franchise history. Their ballpark was known as Legends Stadium in 1993 before being renamed in memory of city mayor Daniel S. Frawley in 1994.
