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USA Today
19-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Longhorns closer named Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist
Longhorns closer named Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist Dylan Volantis rewarded for his stellar play Following an impressive regular season, Dylan Volantis is earning national recognition for his play. The Longhorns star has been named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award. During his first year as the closer, the Longhorns freshman was a human highlight reel while etching his name into the record books. In 43.1 innings, Volantis posted a 1.66 ERA and struck out 64 batters. He also showed excellent control by only walking 11 batters and allowing three home runs. As he frustrated opponents on a nightly basis, the Westlake High School product was one of the Longhorns' most used arms. Additionally, the talented lefty was one of the best in the country in high-pressure situations with 12 saves. 11 of those came in conference play, which was the most by a freshman in SEC history. He thrived with a 1.59 ERA in conference play while holding opponents to a .160 batting average. What stood out about Volantis was his ability to dominate a lineup regardless of the opponent. His diverse pitch mix and ability to attack the zone made him a matchup nightmare. That is bad news for the rest of the conference, as Volantis is just getting started. While his ultimate goal is to help the Longhorns win a championship, Volantis could not have asked for a better start to his college career. Just being a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes award is an impressive accomplishment. If he can continue to build on his play, it would not be a surprise to see him in the mix for the award next year. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @LonghornsWire.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What to expect from the Top 100 and ‘Just Missed' prospects on MLB Opening Day rosters
Nine players from my Top 100 prospects made MLB Opening Day rosters this year, along with two players who were on my list of prospects who just missed the top 100. I've compiled all 11 of their preseason scouting capsules here, along with a sentence or two on each player with what I think they might do in the majors this year. Age: 23 | Ht: 5-11 | Wt: 203 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 7 2025 outlook: Crews hasn't looked like a future star in his year-plus in the minors, but does make a lot of contact and should manage to get to a .320-.330 OBP this year with 15-20 homers if he plays all season. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Crews was the second pick in the 2023 draft and made his major-league debut about 13 months after signing, advancing quickly through the minors as expected but without the dominance that most people anticipated. Crews hit .274/.343/446 in Double A, in a good hitters' park in Harrisburg, and .265/.340/.455 at Triple-A Rochester. It was a solid performance, boosted by above-average defense in center field, but he's not just any prospect — he won the 2023 Golden Spikes award after starring at LSU and beating up on SEC pitching for three years. The good news is that his batted-ball data points to better results going forward, as he ran into some bad luck in the majors despite hitting the ball pretty hard in a small sample; his hard-hit rates in Triple A (43.3 percent) and the majors (44.7 percent) were both above the median, even though he was just 22 and young for both levels. He's closed off some of the trouble he had in 2023 with fastballs up in the zone, and missed just 10 percent of the fastballs he swung at in the majors. He hit lefties fine in his brief sample in the big leagues as well, struggling mostly against breaking stuff from righties, especially down and away. Advertisement Even with the tepid performance in the high minors, he still shows the underlying characteristics of an above-average hitter in the big leagues, and that coupled with what is probably grade 55 defense in center — or plus if he moves to a corner at any point — would still make him at least a consistent 3-4 WAR player right now. I'm still hopeful there's more upside here with the bat than he's demonstrated in his year-plus in pro ball. Age: 23 | Ht: 6-3 | Wt: 191 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 9 2025 outlook: I won't predict a hot start for any hitter making his MLB debut, but if the Red Sox give him a long ramp, Campbell is a good bet for an above-average OBP, maybe a dozen homers, and above-average defense at second base, too. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Campbell was my minor league player of the year for 2024 after he posted a .330/.439/.558 line across three levels, from High A through Triple A, in his first full year in pro ball. The Red Sox took him in the fourth round in 2023 as a redshirt freshman at Georgia Tech, betting on the makeup and the athleticism, and that good scouting work paid off as he not only hit at every level but did so while playing four positions — second, short, third, and center. He's a plus runner who's fast enough to play any of those spots, but his fringy arm probably limits him to second or center, with second his best position right now and in the long run as well. His swing has a little funk to it and he can get flat through contact, resulting in a 60 percent groundball rate in his brief time in Triple A, but he has an incredible eye at the plate and gets the bat to the ball consistently enough for hard contact. He does have some holes he'll have to work on, including four-seamers up and anything moving down and in under his hands or at his front hip, some of which may just be a function of his limited experience before getting to Triple A. He's also already gained 10-15 pounds of further muscle this winter, which could help with bat control and getting some more loft through contact. He could easily be a plus defender at second and at worst should post high OBPs with 20-30 steals and 50+ extra-base hits a year. Age: 22 | Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 190 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 11 2025 outlook: Jobe's going to miss a lot of bats, and he's probably going to walk too many this year, so even with the ceiling of a front-line starter, he's probably going to be closer to league average this year — or even a little below it. Advertisement 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Jobe is the best pitching prospect in the minors right now, although every candidate for that list has missed some time with injuries in the past two years, Jobe included, so buyer beware. He's got a four-pitch mix highlighted by a high-spin four-seamer that sits 94-98 when he's starting and an elite changeup, one of the best in the minors, that has tremendous late tumble, and that he can throw to both sides of the plate and uses against left- and right-handed batters. He's also got a sweeper-slider and a hard slider, both of which are more weapons against righties, although the sweeper is probably going to be the fourth pitch in his arsenal in the majors. He has cleaned up his delivery somewhat since 2023, so he should be better positioned to repeat it and throw both more strikes and better strikes going forward, as high walk rates have been one of the only negatives on his report to date — he walked 12.6 percent of batters he faced in Double A and Triple A last year, which is a giant gift to batters given how hard his stuff is to hit. He's also had a lot of non-arm injuries, missing the first half of 2023 with a lower back injury and two months of 2024 with a hamstring strain, so he's thrown just 252 2/3 total innings in three full pro seasons, including time in the AFL in 2023. That may point to a limited workload in 2025, especially since he's likely to spend most or all of it in the majors. It's No. 1 starter upside if he can go from 45 control to 55, which he certainly should given his athleticism and where the delivery stands now. Age: 23 | Ht: 5-9 | Wt: 185 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 14 2025 outlook: Shaw's got a great swing and a history of making hard and frequent contact, so while his two-game debut in Japan wasn't great, I'm still projecting above-average offensive performance from him this year, more from average and OBP than from power. Advertisement 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Shaw might be the Cubs' starting third baseman this April, and he's earned the shot after reaching Triple A in his first full pro season and hitting better as the season progressed. Shaw started 2024 in Double A, where he overcame some bad luck on balls in play to hit .279/.373/.468 with just a 17.5 percent strikeout rate, and then bumped up to Triple A and hit .298/.395/.534 with a 19.7 percent strikeout rate. He makes very consistent hard contact, averaging 89.3 mph in Triple A with a 90th percentile exit velocity of 106. He utilizes a very rotational and clean swing that tends to put the ball in the air. He's a shortstop by trade but has played second and third as well in the minors, a reflection of the Cubs' needs, with second base probably his best position and his third-base defense playable if not quite average yet. He's a 55 runner with excellent instincts and could probably handle center or left if needed. Shaw is one of the best bets to hit for a high average of any prospect in the minors, and should add another half-grade of power to get last year's 21 homers up into the 25-30 homer range in his best years. Depending on his position and how much he can improve his defense, he could be a 5-WAR player at his peak. Age: 22 | Ht: 5-9 | Wt: 190 | Bats: S | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 22 2025 outlook: Domínguez is going to start in left field, which isn't his best position, so his defensive numbers might not be good this year. He's got now power and could hit 20 homers this year in a full season, doing most of his damage from the left side, probably with a strikeout rate worse than league average. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Domínguez may never quite be the Mickey Mantle-esque star that the earliest hype around him indicated, but he's going to be a very good player — more so if the Yankees just leave him in center field and let him hit. Signed for a $5 million bonus as a 16-year-old in 2019, Domínguez was very physically mature for his age then, and showed plus power early on in his career as a result. He's also a 70 runner and has 30/30 upside if he hits enough to get to it, and so far, he has hit for contact and average up through Triple A, hitting .287/.363/.465 there last year in his return from 2023 Tommy John surgery. He's a switch-hitter with really good swings from both sides of the plate, but has always been better from the left side and has struck out 29.3 percent of the time when batting right-handed over the last two years, one thing that bears watching as he moves to the majors. He's a natural center fielder and a good one, with range from that plus speed along with solid instincts to read balls off the bat. There's some hit tool risk, especially against southpaws, and he doesn't have the same room for physical projection that most prospects his age still do. I see enough present strength and power — his EV50 in Triple A was 101.6 mph, which would have ranked fourth on the Yankees last year — to project him as a 25-30 homer guy as is, and with the speed and defense that still makes him a well above-average regular and occasional All-Star. Advertisement Age: 24 | Ht: 5-10 | Wt: 210 | Bats: L | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 27 2025 outlook: If there's a name on this list who's getting underestimated by projection systems and, I think, by fans, it's Baldwin, who keeps improving as a hitter with more playing time and is more than good enough defensively to hold the job. If he gets enough reps, he's going to hit well enough to give Atlanta a real conundrum about who their actual catcher of the near future is. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Baldwin is such a good defender behind the plate that he's almost certainly going to be someone's everyday catcher, and if his raw power keeps showing up in games as it did after a midseason promotion to Triple A, he's going to make some All-Star teams. He was Atlanta's third-round pick in 2022 out of Missouri State, where he wasn't a full-time player until his draft year, and he's improved substantially as a hitter since entering pro ball, loosening up at the plate to try to get to more of that plus power. He had a slow start in Double A but Atlanta promoted him to Gwinnett in early June, after which he took off, hitting .298/.407/.484 at the higher level with 12 homers in 72 games. He hits the ball extremely hard — his average exit velocity in Triple A was 92 mph, his EV50 was 103, and his 90th percentile EV was 107 — so there's every reason to think the power is real. He whistles the bat through the zone with excellent bat speed, and even with a pretty high starting position he hasn't had trouble getting to pitches at the bottom of the strike zone so far. He's an outstanding blocker and receiver with plus arm strength but just fringy accuracy so far, leading to a career 20 percent caught stealing rate in the minors. A 20-homer catcher with plus defense will rank among the best backstops in the majors, and Baldwin looks like he can be at least that, and probably will debut this year. Age: 22 | Ht: 6-3 | Wt: 224 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 43 Advertisement 2025 outlook: Smith destroyed the Grapefruit League, and the expectations for him are through the roof, which is unfair for a kid who's barely nine months out of college. He should hit well enough to stay on the roster, maybe not getting to power until later in the year, although I'm worried he'll struggle while learning a new position as he's also trying to make the huge jump to the majors. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Smith was a draft-eligible sophomore last year who reworked his swing and his body to surge to a .387/.488/.654 line in his sophomore year at Florida State, raising his average by over 100 points, and landing with the Cubs at the No. 13 pick. He then had the best pro debut of any prospect in the draft, hitting .313/.396/.609 across three levels and finishing up in Double A. That ended his Cubs career, as they traded him to Houston in the Kyle Tucker deal this offseason, immediately making him the Astros' No. 1 prospect. Smith's swing gets the bat to the zone quickly, and he makes a lot of very hard contact, topping out over 115 mph in the spring for Florida State, and the Cubs already managed to get him to lift the ball more often to turn that loud contact into more power. He's only played third base since signing and that's his best long-term outcome; that seemed like wishful thinking as recently as 2023, but his improved conditioning gives him a chance to stay there, with first base or right field also possibilities. He looks like he can flat-out hit, and might get to 25 homers too. If he does that as a third baseman, he might be able to fill Alex Bregman's shoes in Houston and make a few All-Star teams. Age: 23 | Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 200 Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 48 2025 outlook: Lowder is starting the year on the injured list and probably comes back slowly to protect his elbow; when he's ready to rock, he's got an out-pitch in the changeup and the fastball should play, but he might be very homer-prone given his flyball tendencies and that home ballpark. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Lowder reached the majors just over a year after the Reds took him with the No. 7 pick out of Wake Forest, showing three pitches with a ton of movement albeit a little less velocity than he had shown in college. His best pitch as an amateur was his changeup, which is hard to pick up out of his hand and has both fading and tumbling action to it, but it was actually less effective at generating whiffs than his 92-95 mph four-seamer or his high-spin slider in his six big-league starts, even just against lefties. All three of his pitches should be above-average, with the run helping the fastball play up and sharp downward break to the slider, so it was surprising that he gave up so much contact, with a 41 percent hard-hit rate, in his debut. Even with that high contact rate, Lowder was very lucky in the majors, with a 1.17 ERA but a 3.10 FIP, and even that latter figure doesn't adjust for the improbability of allowing 0 homers in 30 innings. Advertisement He's major-league ready and probably a league-average starter given his current velocity and what looks like 55 control and maybe 45 command, with of course the chance to get beyond that if he starts working less in the heart of the zone with his fastballs. (You may not give a damn, but he's the first player named Rhett in big-league history.) Age: 25 | Ht: 6-5 | Wt: 245 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 51 2025 outlook: Rocker and former Vanderbilt teammate Jack Leiter both made the Rangers' rotation this spring; Rocker's going to rack up strikeouts around the 25 percent mark, and probably walk 10-12 percent of batters, while dealing with what I assume will be an innings limit in his first full year back from Tommy John surgery. 2025 Top 100 scouting report: Rocker's road to the majors was … uh, rocky? Sorry, I'll work on that. He was the No. 10 pick in 2021, but the Mets didn't like something in his post-draft physical, so he went to indy ball and pitched well enough to go No. 3 to Texas in 2022, but blew out his elbow six starts into his pro debut the next year. He returned in 2024 and the Rangers kept moving him up as he kept posting, eventually getting him three starts in the majors in September where he looked as good as he had since his freshman year at Vanderbilt. He had lowered his arm slot back in 2022, but it's back to its original position, which allows him to get more depth on his slider. The slider is easily plus and might be a 70 once again, and keeps him on top of his 94-97 mph four-seamer. His path from here is largely about him — he has succeeded in the past by out-stuffing guys, and being very aggressive with those two main pitches (he has a curve and changeup, but uses them less), but in the big leagues he's going to have to show better command to get ahead of hitters and to avoid a lot of four-inning, 85-pitch starts. This is a bet that he'll make those adjustments and end up at least a mid-rotation starter, perhaps someone who pitches at a higher level than that but needs to skip some starts here and there to keep him healthy. Age: 25 | Ht: 6-6 | Wt: 230 | Bats: R | Throws: R Advertisement Top 100 ranking: 'Just Missed' list 2025 outlook: Burke won his rotation spot on the basis of his plus stuff, even though he walked nine in 12 innings in spring training. He's likely to be highly volatile, with some high-strikeout starts alternating with three-inning ones where he runs up his pitch count too quickly. He's also had a lot of arm injuries and probably isn't going to make more than 15-18 starts. 2025 'Just Missed' scouting report: You'd be forgiven for wondering if I made Sean Burke up, as he's thrown 252 total innings since he was drafted in July 2021 and spent time on the 60-day injured list in both 2023 and 2024. He did make his major-league debut in September, however, and despite all of his arm woes, the stuff was electric: He sat 94-96 with life up on the four-seamer, topping out at 99, and showed a plus curveball that could be a 70 with a ton of two-plane break. He also throws a mid-80s cutter/slider hybrid — Statcast calls it a slider, it looks more like a cutter, but that's probably just semantics — and a changeup that's a clear fourth pitch and that he will have to improve, as he already showed a modest platoon split in the minors last year. His delivery is good enough for him to have at least average control, and he gets excellent extension over his front side. If he stays off the injured list, and just improves the changeup a little bit through repetitions, he's a potential No. 3 starter. I worry that it's either that or nothing, given his checkered health history. Age: 23 | Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 190 | Bats: R | Throws: R Top 100 ranking: 'Just Missed' list 2025 outlook: Wilson might hit .270-.280 with above-average defense at shortstop — even though his defense in the majors last year was less than that — but I don't expect more than single-digit homers or an OBP above .320. Advertisement 2025 'Just Missed' scouting report: Wilson reached the majors last year, almost exactly a year after the Oakland A's (they were still Oakland then, I'm not letting that go) took him with the No. 6 pick. He suffered a hamstring injury in his first game, but returned to hit .250/.314/.315 with a 9.7 percent strikeout rate — pretty much in line with expectations. He's an extreme contact hitter with no power, with low average and peak exit velocities that back that up, averaging 85.8 mph in the majors and just 84.0 mph in Triple A. He had 186 balls in play between Triple A and the majors; only 24 of them were hard-hit (95 mph or harder), and only four were above 102 mph. The one surprise in his MLB debut was that his defense was worse than advertised; scouting reports on him in college (including my own) had him as a plus defender at short, with excellent hands and at worst above-average range, but his range was just average in Triple A and below that in the big leagues, especially moving to his left or right. I had him as a soft or second-division regular in last year's reports, and I'm sticking with that — I think he's a little better than he showed in the majors, but I'm concerned that we all overrated the defense, and the bat isn't going to make up for that. (Top photo illustration of Dylan Crews and Cam Smith: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images; Reinhold Matay / Imagn Images)
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Washington Nationals 2025 top 20 prospects: Dylan Crews, Seaver King lead the way
A great draft class in 2024 massively boosted the Nats' system, which was pretty top-heavy before that and graduated one of those top prospects, James Wood, last season. They're a little lighter on up-the-middle position players, stronger on the corners and now on the mound with some high-ceiling arms who carry some bullpen risk. (Note: Tools are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale; ages as of July 1, 2025.) Advertisement Crews was the second pick in the 2023 draft and made his major-league debut about 13 months after signing, advancing quickly through the minors as expected but without the dominance that most people anticipated. Crews hit .274/.343/446 in Double A, in a good hitters' park in Harrisburg, and .265/.340/.455 at Triple-A Rochester. It was a solid performance, boosted by above-average defense in center field, but he's not just any prospect — he won the 2023 Golden Spikes award after starring at LSU and beating up on SEC pitching for three years. The good news is that his batted-ball data points to better results going forward, as he ran into some bad luck in the majors despite hitting the ball pretty hard in a small sample; his hard-hit rates in Triple A (43.3 percent) and the majors (44.7 percent) were both above the median, even though he was just 22 and young for both levels. He's closed off some of the trouble he had in 2023 with fastballs up in the zone, and missed just 10 percent of the fastballs he swung at in the majors. He hit lefties fine in his brief sample in the big leagues as well, struggling mostly against breaking stuff from righties, especially down and away. Even with the tepid performance in the high minors, he still shows the underlying characteristics of an above-average hitter in the big leagues, and that coupled with what is probably grade 55 defense in center — or plus if he moves to a corner at any point — would still make him at least a consistent 3-4 WAR player right now. I'm still hopeful there's more upside here with the bat than he's demonstrated in his year-plus in pro ball. King spent two years at Division II Wingate University, then transferred to Wake Forest for his junior year and excelled for the Deacons despite the huge jump in competition, hitting .308/.377/.577 with just a 12 percent strikeout rate. He mostly played third base and center field for Wake, occasionally moving to shortstop when Marek Houston was hurt or needed a day off, but the Nats took King with the No. 10 pick and only played him at short in his pro debut. He's a 55 defender there now and could still improve given his lack of experience and limited instruction. He's got a quick bat and is very aggressive at the plate, especially early in counts, because he can put so many pitches in play, even ones out of the zone — for now, at least, as that doesn't always work as you get farther up the ladder. He's got sneaky pop, maybe good for 15 homers a year, but his game is going to be much more about hitting for contact and average, since his current swing doesn't get a ton of lift on the ball. His 55/60 speed makes him a solid defender in center if shortstop doesn't work out, but he's most valuable at short and I think he's going to hit more than enough to be a very good regular there. Advertisement Sykora was the first pick on Day 2 of the 2023 draft, and signed with Washington for a first-round bonus. All he did in 2024 was pitch like a first-rounder, as he struck out 39.2 percent of Low-A hitters he faced and walked just 8.2 percent in 85 innings across 20 starts, posting a 2.33 ERA. He's a giant already, and his delivery has arms and legs flying everywhere, so it must be terrifying for hitters to see all of that mass coming toward them, followed by a small projectile that might be moving at 99 mph. He sits more 93-96, with a slider that ranged from the upper 70s to the mid-80s with short but abrupt downward break, and a heavy split-change around 83-85, with both of the offspeed pitches missing a ton of bats this year. The arm is still kind of late relative to his front leg, and all the moving parts in the delivery make me suspect it'll always be more control than command for him. He also doesn't seem to pitch down with his four-seamer at all, which might not be an issue but strikes me as unusual. Sykora pitched like a future ace last year, and he has two pitches that could get him there. He may have simply out-stuffed Low-A hitters, however, and I would like to see him do it against more advanced hitters before buying in completely. I've been a Brady House believer since his pro debut, more or less, but his Triple-A debut last year was scary because it confirmed all of the concerns I'd had and heard about him before: in 236 PA at that level, he struck out 68 times and walked (Count von Count voice) one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times. That's a walk rate under 3 percent, with a strikeout rate of almost 29 percent. House was young for the level at 21 and spent less than a full year in Double A — he only had 641 pro PA before 2024 — so there are reasons to dismiss or at least deprecate what he did in Triple A, but his propensity to chase pitches out of the zone was always there; he got away with it at lower levels because he's so strong and his bat is so quick. House swung at fastballs out of the zone 50 percent of the time in Triple A, and his overall chase rate of 43 percent is just unsustainable. His exit velocities at the level were strong, but not elite, and he still played solid defense at third. He has to calm way the heck down at the plate to be the Nats' third baseman of the future. Susana sits 99-101 as a starter and can hold 97+ deep into outings, with a hard slurve at 88-91, and that's how he struck out 35.3 percent of the batters he faced between Low A and High A last year — 157 strikeouts in total in 103 2/3 innings. He comes from a low three-quarters slot that makes him deadly to right-handers, but gives lefties a long look at the ball and makes it hard for him to locate to his glove side. He allowed a .407 OBP to left-handed batters last year, walking them 17.6 percent of the time. He just turned 21, giving him time to find a third pitch and develop his command and control; right now I think he's a high-upside reliever, with maybe a 5-10 percent chance that he ends up a starter — but a very good one if he does. Advertisement The Nats got a steal in the third round when they took Bazzell out of Texas Tech, where he'd hit .307/.401/.473 with a 10 percent strikeout rate, announcing him as a catcher after he'd split time between there and third base as an amateur. He doesn't chase pitches out of the zone and has excellent feel for contact, whiffing on pitches in the strike zone just 5 percent of the time last spring. His swing doesn't have a ton of loft in it and he projects to 45 power, so he has to catch, and with limited experience there he has to work to catch up, with maybe 45 defense at the moment but good enough actions to project him to average. If he gets there, even without much power, he'll be a regular. Acquired from Cleveland with José Tena and Rafael Ramirez Jr. in the Lane Thomas trade, Clemmey is a big, athletic lefty who has a chance for two plus pitches but right now has 40 control. He was up to 100 as an amateur with a violent delivery, working more 93-95 mph last year after Cleveland tried to reduce some of that effort so he could throw more strikes. His mid-80s slider is a 55 and could end up plus if he was more consistent with it, while his changeup is still a work in progress that he'll have to throw more this year. He has huge upside in the rotation, with no real floor given his walk rates to date (16.1 percent last year), meaning there's a chance he doesn't see the majors at all. Cavalli blew out his elbow right after making his big-league debut in 2022, returned last year to make three rehab starts where he looked a lot like he did pre-injury, but then he caught COVID-19 and was unable to return to pitching after June. He's got big velocity, a 12/6 curveball, a straight changeup, and a short slider, with the potential for a solid four-pitch mix that gets righties and lefties out. He's lost essentially two full years now, however, and will need more time to ramp up, so while there's still mid-rotation starter potential he might not get there until he's 27 or 28. Dickerson was the Nats' second-round pick — third Nationals' pick overall — last year, taking home a first-round bonus to sign him away from his commitment to Virginia. He's got a powerful right-handed swing and is a plus runner underway, a shortstop for now who would probably slide to center field if he can't stick at his current position. He projects to above-average to plus power as he fills out, with more questions about his ability to hit good velocity; scouts had questions about his bat speed before the draft. He's an excellent athlete who should be able to make adjustments on both sides of the ball as needed. He's an interesting upside play in a draft where the Nats otherwise were heavy on good college picks, and he has an above-average regular ceiling at short or in center. Stuart was the Mets' sixth-round pick in 2022 and came to the Nats in the Jesse Winker trade this past summer, after which he was dominant in four starts in Double A and then struggled with the strike zone in four starts in Triple A. He works with a 55 slider and 50/55 changeup along with a mid-90s four-seamer that doesn't have much life, plus a two-seamer and cutter he doesn't use much, with most of his stuff playing up a little because he's 6-9 and gets some extra deception from it. He doesn't extend well at all over his front side, however, which seems like a giant waste of being that tall; if he finished better out front, the slider would probably be plus, and hitters would have so little time to react to what he's throwing that he'd probably miss a lot more bats. Right now he looks like a back-end starter. I just see the potential for a lot more. The Nats took Lomavita with their second pick in 2024, a selection they acquired the day before the draft in the trade that sent Hunter Harvey to the Royals. Lomavita is a plus defensive catcher who can run and is an excellent athlete, with the defensive foundation to catch in the big leagues for a long time, but the guy swings at absolutely everything. He rarely walked in college and chased stuff out of the zone way too easily, and he has to cut that down to have any shot at being a regular or even more than an emergency backup. He does have contact skills and enough strength for 10-12 homers a year, so it all comes down to developing a real plan at the plate, rather than just swinging regardless of where the pitch is going. Morales missed about half of 2024 after injuring his thumb on a slide into home, and he was off to a rough start in Double A before the injury, hitting just two homers in April and May combined. He's strong enough to drive the ball out of the park, and the Nats worked with him on loosening up his hands and getting his lower half more involved. His bigger issue remains his propensity to chase pitches out of the zone, which limits his ceiling to that of a .300 OBP guy who splits time around the corners. There's more potential here if he cuts down on the chase — and gets his power back, which he seemed to, briefly, in his return in August from the injured list after the Nats helped him make some of those adjustments to his swing. Wallace came over from the Royals in the Hunter Harvey trade while he was already dealing with a nagging oblique injury, and then broke a rib after the deal, playing just 15 games in the Nats' system after they acquired him. He hits the ball pretty hard, but his tendency to chase pitches out of the zone — all pitch types, but even more so on offspeed stuff — is killing him at the plate. In parts of two seasons in Double A, he's hit .248/.311/.367. He's a 50/55 defender at third with plenty of arm. He's got to make better decisions at the plate to turn his strong exit velocities into actual production. Last time I checked, no team ever won a game just by scoring higher EVs. Advertisement Lile might be a tweener, lacking the power for an outfield corner and with just a fringe-average defense in center, leaving him in Fourth Outfielder Town, which is only two stops away from DFAville. He does hit a lot of low line drives and makes great swing decisions, leading to a lot of contact but mostly singles rather than extra bases. He did improve his approach significantly from 2023, even with a bump up at midyear to Double A, and is only 22 this year, so he has time and some foundation to be more, and maybe get himself back to Everyday Junction. I'll stop now, sorry. Lara made incremental progress in 2024, although it's increasingly likely he's going to end up a fastball/slider guy out of the 'pen. His slider is his best pitch, probably his only above-average weapon, while his four-seamer is light at 90-93 and his changeup isn't good enough to get lefties out consistently. He allowed a .467 slugging percentage to left-handed batters last year, giving up 12 homers to them against just four to righties. The slider misses enough right-handers' bats to give him potential as a short reliever, especially if the role brings his fastball velocity up toward average. Hassell is going to end up the least valuable of the six players the Nats acquired from the Padres for Juan Soto — not counting the only veteran in the return, Luke Voit, and assuming C.J. Abrams decides to get some sleep — as he's probably just a fourth or fifth outfielder who can hit right-handers a little and plays strong defense in center. He's a plus runner and has above-average plate discipline, at least against righties. He didn't have a single extra-base hit off a lefty in 76 PA last year, and had just three (all doubles) off them in 2023, for a .218 slugging percentage off southpaws over two years. He also doesn't hit the ball that hard off righties, so his best shot at any kind of major-league role is to get on base more and use his legs. I was way too high on him at the time of the trade; he kind of stopped hitting entirely the moment he got to the Nats' system and hasn't resumed. Made has to get stronger, full stop. He looked better at shortstop last year, his pitch selection is good, but he pulls off the ball a lot and that seems like a consequence of the lack of strength; he slugged just .300 last year, with two homers in 386 PA between High A and Low A. He could tighten up his recognition of breaking stuff somewhat, but nothing else matters if he can't hit the ball harder. Last year was his fourth straight season at either level of A-ball, and he finally debuted in Double A in July. This is almost a placeholder — he has enough of a base of other skills to be a utility infielder, as long as he starts to hit the ball harder. If he doesn't do that, he's not a prospect. Bennett had Tommy John surgery after the 2023 season, missing all of last year, and should be ready to go this spring. Prior to the injury, he worked with a 55 changeup, average fastball, and average-ish slider, with the last pitch improving over the course of 2023, and he showed plus control and 55 command of everything. It was a high-probability fourth starter package before he got hurt; I wouldn't be shocked to see the Nats move him quickly if he shows the same kind of stuff on his return. The Nats' fifth-round pick in 2024, Diaz was undrafted out of high school in Puerto Rico and ended up at Indiana State, where he bounced back last spring from a broken hamate bone to hit .360/.437/.632 with 18 homers for the Sycamores. He's a plus defender at short as well, and just hasn't faced much quality pitching yet, skipping the summer of 2023 due to the hamate issue and not playing in the minors after he signed due to another injury, although he was on Puerto Rico's roster for the WBSC Premier12 tournament. If he hits in the minors, he'll move way up this list. Cranz was the Nats' seventh-round pick last year off a spring where he dominated out of Oklahoma State's bullpen with his 92-94 mph fastball and above-average slider. He has four pitches, however, and a good enough delivery that he should at least get to try to start in pro ball, with the bullpen an obvious fallback option for him. Outfielder Sam Petersen was their eighth-rounder last year and hit well in half a season for Iowa around injuries, with 70 speed and 60 raw power along with some questionable recognition of offspeed stuff. It's a great tools package for that late in the draft … Shortstop Angel Feliz signed last January for $1.7 million and had a solid debut in the DSL, with some power and a surprising 27 steals given that he's maybe a 45 runner. He's probably going to outgrow shortstop and move to third or second, with some power even to go the other way and a little too much swing and miss right now … Rafael Ramirez Jr. was part of the Lane Thomas trade as well, a raw infielder, better at second than short, with some tools but also a swing that needs some help to keep him on plane … Cuban outfielder Cristhian Vaquero is tooled up, with potential 60s in speed, power, and arm strength, but he hit .190/.291/.303 in Low A last year with a 34 percent strikeout rate … Sir Jamison Jones, OBE, is an 18-year-old catcher from outside of Chicago, drafted by the Nats in the 15th round last year. He's probably a long ways off, but there's a chance for both defense and feel to hit here — just a fun name (in both ways) to remember. Advertisement Crews is going to be their everyday rightfielder to start the year, and should be among the Rookie of the Year favorites in the NL. Elijah Green was the No. 5 pick in the 2022 draft out of IMG Academy, but he's looked lost at the plate since he first went to Low-A Fredericksburg to start 2023. He repeated the level last year and was worse, striking out 206 times, for 44 percent of his plate appearances. He may end up the poster player for the harm done by the death of short-season leagues. Clemmey has top 50ish stuff and a great frame, with plenty of athleticism to get that walk rate down. Scouts love what they see; he just has to work on repeating the delivery to get to even fringy control to take the leap. GO DEEPER Top 100 MLB prospects 2025: Keith Law's rankings, with Roman Anthony at No. 1 GO DEEPER MLB prospects who just missed Keith Law's top 100 ranking: Caissie, Saggese and more GO DEEPER MLB 2025 farm system rankings: Keith Law ranks all 30 teams, Mariners are new No. 1 (Top photo of Crews: Sam Hodde / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
