Nationals Arm Race

Here’s the five month check-in with all our top 20 (and some) prospects. This mostly does an August focus on the prospects being mentioned, but sometimes mentions season-long stats, which are as of 9/1/25 as best as possible.

This is our prospects as I ranked them prior to the season: If i was to re-rank prospects today a big chunk of these guys would be graduated or moved. Plus, we picked up at least six guys who will feature in our top 30 at the trade deadline; i’ll put those after the top 20 in a special section to highlight their pre-Nats stats.

#1. Dylan Crews OF (CF/RF): Returned from a couple months off, played about half of August and was not good. .218/.317/.309. He’s providing positive defensive contributions so he’s somehow got a positive bWAR for the season, but this isn’t what we were expecting. He’s still plagued with a ridiculously low BABIP; .248 for 2025, on par with where he was last year. He’s at a 40% hard-hit percentage, but is over 50% ground balls. I dunno what to say here. Temperature: remains cold so far professionally.

#2 Travis Sykora RHP (Starter): Tommy John surgery. Temperature: on ice til 2027.

#3 Brady House 3B: Cooled off considerably from July to Aug, slashing just .22/.230/.278 for the month and has been losing ABs to the likes of deJong. Tangent: why the F is this team giving ABs to deJong, Bell, or any other random dude who’s going to be a FA this off-season? It makes no sense. Bell should be DFA’d tomorrow and you bring up Yepez or Morales immediately to see what they can do. You’re 30 games under .500; time to see if our AAA hitters can cut it in the majors in games that are meaningless. Temperature: cooling off as the season grinds on.

#4 Jarlin Susana RHP (Starter). Had an awesome month in August, then grabbed his arm and exited his last start. Apparently just a tendinitis issue, but it sure looked worse. On the DL, likely done for the season, and the team has to wonder how he’ll bounce back. He’s now our most important pitching prospect by a mile. Temperature: on ice for the rest of 2025, hopefully nothing more serious than reported.

# 5 Seaver King SS. Bottoming out as the season winds down; .209/.275/.282 in August. Not really the production we expected out of a top 10 1st round pick. Should he still be in High-A? Temperature: ice cold.

# 6 Yohandy Morales 1B maintained his July slash line through August, going .298/.394/.489. I’m frankly pissed that we’re still playing Josh Bell full time at this point. Morales needs to be in the majors, right now, starting at 1B and seeing what he can do. Temperature: hot.

#7 Cayden Wallace 2B/3B: well, he had no where to go but up, and up he did in August: .359/.413/.587 for an OPS north of 1000 in the month. He had one game where he went 4-5 with 2 homers and 11 TB, but he also had a 7 game hitting streak in the middle of the month to help out. Lets see if he can keep this up, if he’s figured something out. Temperature: red hot in August.

# 8 Cade Cavalli RHP (Starter): Didn’t exactly “earn” his way into the Majors other than being the only starter on the 40-man roster, but has performed well in his MLB stint so far. Temptingly good actually. We discussed it more in the Pitching post, but save for one weird start in NY he’s been quite solid. Wow, can he be a contributor in 2026? Temperature: Warm?

#9 Alex Clemmey LHP (Starter): Promoted to AA as a 20yr old; wow. Got shelled in his first 3 starts; no surprise. Went 6ip with 1H in his most recent start; that’s what i’m talking about. Clemmey should be higher on our prospect lists this coming off-season and could be in the majors next year at this pace. Temperature: staying hot.

# 10 Robert Hassell III OF (CF): Seems to have officially supplanted Jacob Young as our starting CF, which is saying something given how good a defender Young is. Slashed .246/.306/.386 in August, which is ok but not awesome, but enough to keep him in the starting lineup. Amazing how Hassell was nearly being written off in some quarters at this time a year ago, now he may have secured a starting job in the majors. Temperature: warming up.

#11 Caleb Lomavita C: had a solid month in August at the plate: .288/.325/.411. I’d like to see a bit more power, but he’s maintaining a decent slash line in AA in his first pro season, so can’t really ask for much more. Temperature: Improving.

# 12 Luke Dickerson SS/2B: put up his third straight month of hitting in the 100s, and now has to fend with the drafting of Willits pushing him to 2B. Or, frankly, the bench, if he doesn’t step up. Temperature: ice cold

# 13 Andry Lara RHP (Reliever): 10.70 ERA in August. I’m not sure what his future holds. On the one hand he’s only 22 and on the 40-man, on the other hand he’s having an absolutely awful 2025 and i’m surprised he’s not getting DFA’d. Temperature: ice cold.

#14 Tyler Stuart RHP (Starter): Tommy John. out til 2027. Temperature: on ice for a while.

#15 Daylen Lile OF (CF/RF): with Crew’s return, ABs have been tough to come by with 5 outfielders on the roster, but Lile’s bat has kept him in the lineup. For august: .304/.353/.418. That will keep you in the lineup. Temperature: warming up

#16 Kevin Bazzell C: has continued his solid July with an even better august: .333/.400/.350. Still want more power out of him, but can’t argue with .333. Temperature: warming.

#17 Jake Bennett LHP (Starter): 5 starts in AA, 0.77 ERA. I don’t care that they’re still babying his innings, he’s really shutting down the league. Only nit: not a ton of Ks; just 12 in 23 IP last month. I wonder if that’s who he is, or if he’s pitching more to contact trying to stay longer in games. Either way, He should be in AAA next season as a 25yr old and may really put his name into the mix for the Majors soon. Temperature: red-hot

#18 Brad Lord RHP (Starter/Reliever): has been inserted into the rotation to cover for injuries and may have finally reached a plateau he cannot overcome. In 2025 in the majors as a starter: 5.79 ERA. As a reliever? 2.79 ERA. I think we know what he should be in the majors. Temperature: cooled as a starter

#19 Angel Feliz SS: did not start off low-A well: .200/.271/.320 while trying to find innings at SS on a team with both Willits and Dickerson. He’s only 18, and a lot of his 24IFA class are still on the island, so no real complaints. Temperature: cold but young

#20 Andrew Pinckney OF (CF or corner): continued hitting in AAA; .317/.372/.515 with 5 homers in August. See above comments on Morales: why is this guy still in AAA? We have a 1B and a DH slot in the majors … frigging use Pinckney and Morales in those spots now. Temperature: hot.

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Trade Acquisition Update. here’s the 10 prospects we’ve acquired with their season stats and levels. They’re listed in rough order of their prospect ranking, with some quick comments on their Aug performance here:

• Linan, Sean Paul: SP: had one 3-inning start then hit the DL in High-A.
• Franklin, Christian: OF (CF): tearing it up in AAA: .296/.381/459 in August.
• Swan, Eriq: SP: 4 starts, 5.03 ERA in High-A to start. Meh.
• Cruz, Ronny: SS: in FCL, season complete.
• Randall, Josh: SP: 5 starts, 6.17 ERA in High-A to start. Meh.
• Beeter, Clayton: RP: fantastic august in AAA bullpen: 18/0 K/BB in 13ip as an 8th/9th inning guy
• Sales, R.J.: SP 5 low-A starts, 3.86 ERA, good start to Nats career.
• Eder, Jake RP; on the AAA DL the entire month.
• Martinez, Browm, OF: in DSL, on DL, season complete.
• Brown, Sam: 1B/LF: crushed it for AA in August: .365/.436/.573 for an OPS > 1.000. Awesome.

The first 6 of these 10 guys are already in our top 30 on both BA and MLBpipeline lists. I like Sales and Martinez for the back-end of that list at some point. Eder might be a 4-A lefty reliever, and Brown might be a throw in. But we got 10 guys into the system in a week, which is great.

2025 Draft Acquisition update: a slew of our 2025 draftees have already debuted; here’s how things are going for those in full-season ball (in order of their draft round):

• 1st Willits, Eli: SS: great start: .333/.417/.357 so far in Low-A, starting at SS.
• 2nd Petry, Ethan: 1B/LF: also a great start: .274/.391/.370 in Low-A, playing mostly 1B/LF.
• (our three other prep draftees Harmon, Sime, and James all are in FCL and have not played)
• 8th Maddox, Riley SP: has one brief appearance but is getting a start this week
• 9th Henseler, Wyatt 2B/3B got pushed up to High-A after hitting .351 in Low-A as a sr sign, only hit .118 in 9 high-A games so far
• 13th: Biven, Tucker, a few games in low-A bullpen so far.
• 14th Hollifield, Nick C: decent start as a backup C in Low-A: .286/.397/.304 so far.
• 15th Walsh, Jacob 1B; struggling at .117 in pro debut in Low-A.
• 18th Puk, Owen RP: a few innings in Low-A bullpen

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Notable Prospects #20 and above who are going to be ranked much higher the next time I do a list.

in MLB:

• #28 Alvarez finally got promoted and had a great MLB debut. Lets see if he can continue.
• #38 Millas finally got some PT in the majors as some have clamored for … and frigging broke his finger, ending his season. They’ve already put him on the 60-day DL, icing him even if he could come back in a few weeks.

In AAA:

• All props to Cornelio for now making it to AAA and holding his own. he’s probably the Nats Pitcher of the year, following in Alvarez’s footsteps.

In AA:

• #25 Made: remember when i was all excited b/c he hit the crap out of the ball one month? well, he remains cold, hitting just .209 in August.
• Jackson Kent, 2024 4th rounder, is now in AA. That’s awesome to see. He’ll make a big jump from his preseason prospect ranking.
• Brandon Boissiere is finally holding his own at the plate, maintaining a .800 OPS in AA this season.
• The team keeps giving Schultz and Huff spot starts/opener duties when the rotation needs a break; maybe these are possible conversions back to starters? Schultz in particular seems really effective this year, maintaining a .179 BAA all season.

In High-A:

• #39 Sam Peterson last played on Aug 13th, and sat for a week before that. No DL trip, no news. He’s been one of our best hitters all year but its curious why he would just get benched like this w/o a DL trip for so long.
• Like Peterson, High-A has also buried Yoel Tejeda on the “non playing, non DL list” for the basically the entire month. I guess they just don’t need the roster room.
• 2024 draftee starter Davian Garcia got moved to High-A deservedly, but has struggled since arriving.

In Low-A:

• Every time I see 2024 10th rounder Luke Johnson have a successful start, i’m ecstatic. Reminder: he signed for exactly $2,000. He could have refused to sign and gotten ten times that as an NDFA; why he agreed to sign for that is kind of beyond me, but he’s holding his own and I hope he continues.

In FCL:

• Season Complete: a few guys have been moved to Low-A, most done for the year.

In the DSL:

• Season complete, and I havn’t seen a single promotion state-side from the 2025 roster. Probably not a huge surprise since FCL is done too and none of these guys can go straight to F-burg.

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That’s August. One more of these to go at the end of the season.