Daylen Lile was the best thing Washington Nationals fans had in the second half of the 2025 season. As the rest of the team floundered, Lile looked like a star. His September was the most exciting month
from a National since Kyle Schwarber’s June in 2021. He got rewarded with a 5th place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
He finished behind Drake Baldwin, Cade Horton, Isaac Collins and Caleb Durbin. All of those position players played significantly more games than Lile and have better defensive skills. However, Lile had the best offensive output of the group. His .845 OPS was the highest of that group. Going forward, I am definitely taking Lile over Collins and Durbin.
The fact that Lile was able to hit nearly .300 at just 22 years old is a tremendous accomplishment. Hitting .300 has become harder than ever with the consistent velocity and nasty breaking pitches you see every night. However, Lile’s natural hitting ability makes this look easy.
A big reason why I think he can be a .300 hitter in the years to come is his unique batted ball profile. Daylen Lile hits more line drives than anybody in baseball. The best way to get hits consistently is to hit line drives and Lile has mastered that. Fangraphs actually compared his line drive swing to Freddie Freeman.
As mentioned, his September was just a legendary month. To close out the season, Lile hit 6 homers, 3 doubles and an insane 7 triples. He also hit .391 with a 1.212 OPS. It was an insane heater to close out the season. Obviously he will not do that every month, but all of his underlying numbers suggest he is a very good hitter.
His expected batting average of .305 was in the 100th percentile and higher than his .299 real life batting average. While his .360 wOBA is better than his .347 xwOBA, his xwOBA is still in the 78th percentile. Lile’s elite angles can also help him outperform those expected numbers.
With all that being said, Lile is not a complete player just yet. His defense was very poor as a rookie. He posted -8 outs above average and -10 fielding run value. That is why his fWAR was only 1.4 despite very good offensive production.
However, it seems like Lile knows that he has to get better on that side of the ball. He is already in the gym working on his defensive game. His trainer said a Gold Glove is loading. While that may be ambitious, hopefully this offseason work can get that defense to an average level.
Lile has the tools to be a quality defender. He is an outstanding athlete with 92nd percentile sprint speed. We see that speed when he is running the bases, but it does not show up as much in the field. I think that is due to not being as comfortable and getting poor reads. If he can clean those reads up, his athleticism could be an asset on defense.
The arm will always be a question mark though. He had Tommy John Surgery in 2022 and it looks like his arm is not quite the same. His throws don’t have very much juice on them and he posted -2 arm value in 2025. However, you can still be a good defender with a weaker arm.
Overall, Lile had an outstanding rookie year. Finishing top 5 in ROY voting despite playing only 91 games is a great feat. Before this year, Lile was a bit of an afterthought. Sure, he showed promise, but he seemed buried with all of the outfielders in the Nats system.
However, Daylen Lile just knows how to hit. That hitting ability got him a shot in the big leagues and then it made him a star in September. I am so excited to see what is next for Lile. He will be a starter in 2026 and I think he is a player the Nationals can build around.
