Picked up after Opening Day, the Nationals’ infielder is hitting for power and seeing his role grow as a result.
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When Curtis Mead arrived in the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse earlier this season, Manager Blake Butera was honest with his new infielder about his role.
The Nationals planned to use him off the bench, Butera said. But if he played well enough, there could be an opportunity for more.
It was all he needed to hear.
Mead has been a top prospect. He’s hit all of the major league “firsts.” But he’s yet to establish himself as an everyday major leaguer, and Washington, he hoped, could be the place to hit that milestone.
Now might be his chance. After Brady House was optioned to Class AAA last week, Mead has been tapped as the starting third baseman. And with that everyday playing time, he’s putting up the best numbers of his career, hitting .236 with an .824 OPS and .472 slugging percentage. After going deep twice Monday, he also has seven home runs, a career high.
The Nationals, at 29-28, are playing better than expected. And it’s because of players such as Mead, who have stepped up to fill roles when the team has needed it most.
“I give a lot of credit to Blake and the staff kind of just being straight-up,” Mead said. “I understood my role and just tried to succeed in it the best I could.”
It helped, too, that he already knew and trusted Butera. Mead was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018 as an international free agent out of Australia and was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays a year later. That offseason, Mead was playing for the Adelaide Giants of the Australian Baseball League, and Butera, a manager for the Rays’ low Class A affiliate, was coaching the Perth Heat.
After the trade, Butera took the three-hour flight across the country to meet the Rays’ newest acquisition. As Mead progressed through the levels, rising to be the Rays’ No. 2 prospect in 2023, so did Butera right alongside him. In 2021, Butera managed Mead at low Class A Charleston, and in 2024, he oversaw his progress as the senior director of player development.
Butera said a young Mead was always curious and eager to find ways to improve.
“Just always very astute and always asking questions,” Butera said. “He’s really curious about what’s going on.”
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From there, Butera’s path kept accelerating, while Mead’s took a detour.
After debuting in 2023, Mead spent the next season bouncing between Class AAA and the majors. He was traded to the White Sox midway through the 2025 season, where he hit .240 in 41 games. With inconsistent playing time, he found it difficult to get into any kind of groove.
He went into the offseason hoping to change that. He spent the downtime changing his setup and adjusting his hand position on his bat. The goal was to replicate the same positioning in every at-bat, regardless of how often he was stepping into the box.
“That’s why I think I’ve struggled with irregular playing time, too, because what I’ve been doing has been irregular as well,” he said. “I wanted to come into this year and be consistent with what I’m doing so that if I wasn’t playing every day, I still would be able to feel comfortable every day in the box.”
He didn’t get a chance to show off the fixes with the White Sox. They designated him for assignment after he didn’t make the Opening Day roster, and the Nationals acquired him for cash.
Mead expected, and was told by Butera, that he was brought to Washington for infield depth. He ended up playing more days than not early on as a matchup-based pinch hitter, but he has started the past seven games at third base. He’s hitting .280 during that stretch.
Where Mead fits into the Nationals’ long-term plans will be determined by how productive he can be during this stretch. Before this season, House was seen as the long-term solution at third base. And that still may be true, even though he hit .227 with eight errors in 37 games this year before his option.
Then again, Mead, too, was a highly regarded prospect, and he wouldn’t be the first one to need a change of scenery to kick-start a career. Being out of options makes his maneuverability on the roster tricky, but he is only 25 and under team control through the 2030 season.
“Couldn’t be happier for him to get this opportunity and some runway to play, and play a lot,” Butera said. “To be able to get him some rhythm, some extended playing time to help him one, get some confidence and two, get into that rhythm of everyday at-bats and hopefully build off that success.”
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