Nationals Arm Race

This is a running post with all star notes for the team, updated for 2026. It includes a complete history of our All Star selections dating to the franchise’s beginnings in 2005, and may look familiar as I recycle the old content every year.

Nats All Star Game Trivia: updated for 2026.

• All-time leader in Nats all-star appearances: Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer, both with 6 appearances with the Nats.  (these numbers are only appearances with us, not including other franchises)
• All-time leader in All-Star Game starts: Harper, who had 5 starts.
• Total number of Starters in the history of the Franchise: Now is 12; Harper 5 times, Scherzer 3 times, and one each for Soriano, Murphy, Zimmerman and Abrams with his 2026 selection.
• Most all-star players named in a single year: 5 in both 2016 and 2017.
• Least all-star game players named in a single year: 1 in multiple years during the “dark years” of 2006 through 2011, and again in the early 2020s as the team rebuilds.
• Most unlikely All-Star: Probably Dmitri Young or Cristian Guzman, both being the “someone has to make the all star team” nominations in our 100 loss period in the late 2000s.

(* == All-Star game starter)

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2026

• Nationals All-Star Representative: CJ Abrams*, James Wood, Foster Griffin (late addition)
• Snubs: none.
• Narrative: Abrams is named the starter after beating out Mookie Betts in a final fan vote to be the starter. It is the first time we’ve had a starting SS all-star in the history of the franchise, and just the 12th time we’ve had a starter since the franchise moved to DC. Wood was in the running for starting as well but eventually fell behind in the race. There really wasn’t any other obvious snubs: the next best performing player on the roster is the unheralded off-season FA signing from Japan Griffin, who sits in the top 10 of most pitching categories at the halfway point and whose last start prior to the All Star Break got him to 10-2 with a 2.77 ERA. He was deservedly added as an injury replacement in the week leading up to the event. Ironically, all three players have been the subject of heavy trade rumors both leading up to the season and through out the season, as the team stays within shouting distance of the last wild card spot well into July.

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2025

• Nationals All-Star Representative: James Wood, MacKenzie Gore (both 1st timers)
• Snubs: CJ Abrams
• Narrative: No surprises here; both Wood and Gore have been near league-best this season. Is it surprising the team got two ASG representatives as a last-place team? Absolutely. Last year’s AS rep Abrams, if we were a 1st place team instead of last place, likely would have gotten his 2nd AS naming since he enters the AS break with a 144 OPS+ figure but is skipped due to the deep SS field in the National League. Wood also got into the HR derby (which we didn’t separately cover this year) but went one-round and out.

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2024

• Nationals All-Star Representative: CJ Abrams, Kyle Finnegan (both 1st time)
• Snubs: Trevor Williams (on dl)
• Narrative: Abrams was initially our sole representative until Finnegan was added at the last minute as an injury replacement. Williams should have been the named representative, sitting in the top 10 in most pitching categories, but got hurt a few weeks before the ASG and probably won’t return for weeks afterwards. We have a couple other players putting up decent seasons (Winker, Irvin) but none really All Star worthy.

Four Ex-nats appeared in the 2024 ASG, three of them starters (Harper, Turner, Soto). Amazingly Reynaldo Lopez represented Atlanta. Erick Fedde didn’t make the ASG but is considered one of the best trade prospects of the year. Wish we could have gotten these two guys to pitch like this for us.

2023

• Nationals All-Star Representative: Josiah Grey (1st)
• Snubs: None really
• Narrative. The Nats were bad this year, and were one of those teams that had to dig deep to find a sole representative. Grey was our opening day starter and was our best starter for the bulk of the year. We had some other players who ended up having decent seasons (Candelario, Thomas, Harvey) but they would have too much competition in their respective positions to earn a spot.

2022

• Nationals All-Star Representative: Juan Soto (2nd)
• Snubs: Josh Bell
• Narrative. Soto gets his 2nd ASG appearance, probably more on reputation than performance for 2022. He’s only hitting .243 as of the naming, but is getting on base at nearly a .400 clip thanks to his league-leading walk figure. Meanwhile, the best hitter on the team by far is Bell, who is snubbed from making his own 2nd ASG appearance likely a couple of weeks before he’s traded to a contender. Well, when you’re a last place team, you’re only getting one guy on the roster. Soto also gets into the Home Run Derby, which he wins. However, the story of the week was the leaking of contract talks breaking down, with Soto turning down a $440M deal and the team announcing they’re entertaining trade talks. Soto was traded a few weeks after the All-Star game, in a deal so monumental it has its own wikipedia page. We end up getting MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III, C.J. Abrams, James Wood, Jarlin Susana, Luke Voit for Soto and Josh Bell package; Gore, Abrams, and Wood become all-stars within just a couple of years.

2021

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber, Max Scherzer* (substitute addition)
• Possible Snubs: none
• Narrative: The Nats scuffle into the all-star week on fumes thanks to losing 7 of 9 against NL West teams and suffering perhaps one too many injuries. Scherzer was not initially named, which I immediately listed as a huge snub. But then not only was he added as a replacement player … he was then named the damn starter. How is that possible? Anyway, among our other named players Schwarber’s injury prevents him from playing, but Soto gets into the Home Run derby, where he upsets #1 seed Shohei Ohtani before losing in the next round.

2020

• Nationals All-Star representatives: (No Game)
• Who would have made it: Juan Soto
• Narrative: Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the ASG and the shortening of the season from 162 to 60 games. Nonetheless, the season that Juan Soto put up should have been recognized, even un-officially. He hit .351/.490/.695 in 47 games for an astounding 221 OPS+ figure, the 33rd best ever season posted by this figure. But, since Soto got hit with Covid and had to miss the first two weeks … he did not qualify for batting titles and was left out of the ASG and MVP conversations.

2019

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Max Scherzer, Anthony Rendon
• Possible Snubs: Juan Soto, Stephen Strasburg, Howie Kendrick, Trevor Rosenthal (just kidding)
• Narrative: Rendon finally is named to an all-star team, having played in the shadows of other more well-known NL third basemen for  years.  Arbitrary Endpoints: Rendon is 7th in baseball among hitters in total fWAR since 2014.  7th.  In the entire league.  And this is his first ASG.  Meanwhile Scherzer is the obvious pick, though i’m not sure he gets the start this year.  Scherzer leads the NL in bWAR … but Hyun-Jin Ryu is having an amazing season and could get the nod (indeed, he has).  Soto’s numbers are solid, as good as his rookie campaign, but he started slow and the story-line surrounding the Nats this season has overshadowed his production.  Strasburg actually has more bWAR than Rendon … but his numbers are solid, not all-star good.  Kendrick would never have gotten a nod, but he should be a shoe-in for comeback player of the year for the season he’s having.  Others of note: Sean Doolittle was amazing for most of the first half but has tired and his numbers slipped.  Patrick Corbin‘s debut season has been solid, not flashy, and he has the same issues as Strasburg had.

Post publishing update: neither of our two representatives are actually going to Cleveland.  Rendon staying home to rehab a nagging quad injury, and Scherzer is traveling but will not pitch b/c he threw a start just ahead of the game.  Both players were replaced by non-Nats … which was a shame b/c a like-for-like with Strasburg for Scherzer seemed like the right thing to do.

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2018

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Max Scherzer*, Sean Doolittle
• Possible Snubs: Juan Soto, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon
• Narrative: For the home-town All Star Game, Harper gets the starting nod from the fans despite his abhorrent season at the plate (his slash line on 7/8/18: .219/.371/.475).  However, by making the ASG, Harper now keeps his promise to participate in the Home Run Derby one last time before hitting free agency.   There’s no real “snubs” on this Nationals team; The #2 player on the team in terms of seasonal bWAR is Trea Turner but he’s not exactly having a head-turning season.  He was named to the “last 5 ballot” but was a huge long-shot to make it (update; he didn’t: the very deserving Jesus Aguilar did).  Anthony Rendon is having his typical under-rated season and got no love from the voters over the more famous Nolan Arenado (a common refrain when it comes to Gold Gloves/Silver Sluggers too).  None of our starters besides Scherzer are really deserving; Stephen Strasburg was having a decent but not spectacular season but missed a month and is on the D/L.  Nor is any of the bullpen past Doolittle.  Its an odd-season where a team-wide malaise is contributing to the team hovering at .500 at the All Star Break.  Only Juan Soto really is deserving … but he was never going to make the ASG (not when recent more spectacular rookies failed to make it) and thanks to his missing all of April and most of May he wasn’t on any ballots and may struggle to win the RoY over guys who have played longer this season.  Scherzer is named to the team on 7/8/18 was named the  NL starter for the 2nd year running on 7/16/18.

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2017

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Daniel Murphy*, Ryan Zimmerman*, Max Scherzer*, Stephen Strasburg
• Snubs: Anthony Rendon, Gio Gonzalez
• Narrative: For the second  year in a row, the Nats are well and properly represented in the All Star Game.  We have three starters named in the field, including Zimmerman who beats out a slew of 1B sluggers in the NL to not only make the team but get his first start.  Its also likely i’ll be editing this post and adding in Scherzer as an additional starter; he is the obvious choice to start the game for the NL given his first half production (7/10/17 update: yes indeed we did).  Rendon is having a very quiet solid season and is in the “last 5” popular vote, but he seems unlikely to win given that last year’s MVP Kris Bryant is also in the voting (Update: neither guy got in).  Gonzalez misses out despite having a better first half than Strasburg by nearly any statistic; he’s having a career year but seems unlikely to get rewarded with his 3rd ASG appearance.  There’s no other real snub from our 2017 team; certainly there’s nobody in the bullpen meriting a spot, and Trea Turner‘s torrid 2016 2nd half did not translate into the 2017 season (not to mention, he’s had two separate D/L trips).  Once again i’m slightly perturbed that Harper continues to refuse to participate in the HR derby; why the reticence?  Its a fun event that is quickly becoming better than the actual game itself and practically every other slugger is participating.  Is he afraid to lose?  On a larger scale, i’m really happy to see (finally) that deserving rookies are named: Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are both named and are both on the inside track for ROY awards; too many times in the past we see deserving rookies unnamed.  On July 10th, the fourth Nat starter was named: Scherzer got the starting pitcher nod, a first for the Nats.  August Update: Rendon’s omission is looking even more ridiculous; he’s top 5 in the league in bWAR.

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2016

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Stephen Strasburg, Daniel Murphy, Wilson Ramos, Max Scherzer (named as replacement for Strasburg on 7/8/16),
• Possible Snubs: Danny Espinosa, Tanner Roark
• Narrative: The four obvious candidates from the Nats this year were all initially correctly selected, though voting shenanigans out of Chicago elected Ben Zobrist over Daniel Murphy by a scant 500 votes.   I thought perhaps Strasburg would have a chance to start the game, given his 12-0 record, but it seems the team pre-empted any such thought when Scherzer’s naming occurred.  For the first time writing this post, I can’t really name any “snubs” and the team has (finally?) earned the proper respect it deserves in terms of naming its players properly.  Espinosa had a week for the ages just prior to the end of voting but really stood little chance of selection in the grand scheme of things.  He’s not really a “snub” but is worthy of mention based on his resurgent year.  At the break, Espinosa ranked 3rd in NL fWAR but 7th or 8th in bWAR thanks to differing defensive value metrics, so maybe/maybe not on him being a “snub.”  As pointed out in the comments, even I missed the sneaky good season Roark is having; he’s 12th in the NL in bWAR at the break and 9th in fWAR but was left off in favor of any number of starters that stand below him in value rankings.  Unfortunately for fans (and for Harper’s “Make Baseball Fun again” campaign, he opted to skip the Home Run Derby again.  I guess its kind of like the NBA superstars skipping the dunk contest; the Union should really do a better job of helping out in this regard.  The new format is fantastic and makes the event watchable again; is it ego keeping him from getting beat by someone like Giancarlo Stanton?

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2015

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Max Scherzer
• Possible Snubs: Yunel Escobar, Drew Storen
• Narrative: Harper not only made it in as a starter for the 2nd time, he led the NL in votes, setting a MLB record for total votes received.  This is no surprise; Harper’s easily in the MVP lead for the NL thanks to his amazing first half (his split at the half-way point of the season: .347/.474/.722 with 25 homers and an astounding 225 OPS+).  I guess he won’t be earning the “Most overrated player” award next year.  That Harper is electing to skip the Home run derby in a disappointment; his father is nursing an arm injury can cannot throw to him in the event.  In a weird year for the Nats, the only other regular worth mentioning is newly acquired Escobar, who is hitting above .300 and filling in ably at multiple positions that, prior to this year, he had never played.  Storen is having another excellent regular season … but at a time when mandatory members from each team often leads to other closers being selected (there are 5 NL closers and 7 AL relievers), the odds of him making the All-Star team were always going to be slim.  Scherzer deservedly makes the team and probably would have been the NL starter; he’s got sub 2.00 ERA and FIP and leads all NL pitchers in WAR at the mid-way point of the season.  But his turn came up in the final game of the first half, making him ineligible for the game and forcing his replacement on the roster.

As a side note, the 2015 All-Star game will go down as the “Ballot-Gate” game thanks to MLB’s short-sighted plan to allow 30+ online ballots per email address.  This led to severe “ballot stuffing” by the Kansas City Royals fans, led to MLB  having to eliminate 60 million+ fraudulent ballots, but still led to several Royals being elected starters over more deserving candidates.

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2014

• Nationals All-Star representative: Jordan Zimmermann (Update post-publishing: Zimmermann strained a bicep, and had to withdraw from the ASG.  For a bit it looked like the Nats wouldn’t even have a representative, until Tyler Clippard was named on 7/13/14).
• Possible Snubs: Adam LaRoche, Anthony Rendon, Rafael Soriano, Drew Storen
• Narrative: Zimmermann’s been the best SP on the best pitching staff in the majors this year, and thus earns his spot.  I find it somewhat odd that a first place team (or near to it) gets just one representative on the team (as discussed above).  Rendon tried to make the team via the “last man in” voting, but historically Nationals have not fared well in this competition (especially when better known players from large markets are in the competition, aka Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs), and indeed Rendon finished 4th in the last-man voting.  LaRoche is having a very good season, almost single handedly carrying the Nats offense while major parts were out injured, but he’s never going to beat out the slew of great NL first basemen (Joey Votto couldn’t even get into this game).  Soriano has quietly put together one of the best seasons of any closer in the game; at the time of this writing he has a 1.03 ERA and a .829 whip; those are Dennis Eckersley numbers.  But, the farce that is the all-star game selection criteria (having to select one player from each team) means that teams need a representative, and deserving guys like Soriano get squeezed.  Then, Soriano indignantly said he wouldn’t even go if named as a replacement … likely leading to Clippard’s replacement selection.  The same goes for non-closer Storen, who sports a sub 2.00 ERA on the year.  Advanced stats columnists (Keith Law) also think that Stephen Strasburg is a snub but I’m not entirely sure: he may lead the NL in K’s right now and have far better advanced numbers than “traditional,” but its hard to make an argument that a guy with a 7-6 record and a 3.50+ ERA is all-star worthy.

2013

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Jordan Zimmermann
• Snubs: Stephen Strasburg, Ian Desmond
• Narrative: Harper comes in 3rd in the NL outfielder voting, ahead of some big-time names, to become only the second Nationals position player elected as an All-Star starter.  He was 4th in the final pre-selection vote, so a big last minute push got him the starter spot.   Harper also becomes the first National to participate in the Home Run Derby.   Zimmermann was 12-3 heading into the game and was on mid-season Cy Young short lists in July in a breakout season.  Strasburg’s advanced stats are all better than Zimmermann’s, but his W/L record (4-6 as the ASG) means he’s not an all-star.  It also probably doesn’t help that he missed a few weeks.  Desmond loses out to Troy Tulowitzki, Everth Cabrera and Jean Segura.  Tulowitzki was having a very solid year and was a deserving elected starter, while Cabrera and Segura are both having breakout seasons.  Desmond was on the “Final vote” roster, but my vote (and most others’ I’m guessing) would be for Yasiel Puig there ([Editor Update: Desmond and Puig lost out to Freddie Freeman: I still wished that Puig finds a way onto the roster but ultimately he did not and I believe the ASG was diminished because of it).   Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmerman, and Rafael Soriano are all having solid but unspectacular years and miss out behind those having great seasons.

2012

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper
• Possible Snubs: Adam LaRoche, Craig Stammen
• Narrative: The two SPs Strasburg and Gonzalez were the obvious candidates, and my personal prediction was that they’d be the only two candidates selected.  Gonzalez’ first half was a prelude to his 21-win, 3rd place Cy Young season.  The inclusion of Desmond is a surprise, but also a testament to how far he’s come as a player in 2012.  Harper was a last-minute injury replacement, but had earned his spot by virtue of his fast start as one of the youngest players in the league.  Of the “snubs,” LaRoche has had a fantastic come back season in 2012 but fared little shot against better, more well-known NL first basemen.  Stammen was our best bullpen arm, but like LaRoche fared little chance of getting selected during a year when the Nats had two deserving pitchers selected.

2011

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Tyler Clippard
• Possible Snubs: Danny Espinosa, Michael Morse, Drew Storen, Jordan Zimmermann
• Narrative: While Clippard was (arguably) the Nats best and most important reliever, I think Zimmermann was a more rightful choice.  He was 10th in the league in ERA at the time of the selections and has put in a series of dominant performances.  Meanwhile Espinosa was on pace for a 28-homer season and almost a certain Rookie-of-the-Year award (though a precipitous fall-off in the 2nd half cost him any realistic shot at the ROY), and perhaps both players are just too young to be known around the league.  Lastly Morse is certainly known and he merited a spot in the “last man in” vote sponsored by MLB (though he fared little chance against popular players in this last-man-in voting).

2010

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Matt Capps
• Possible Snubs: Adam Dunn, Josh Willingham, Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg
• Narrative: Capps was clearly deserving, having a breakout season as a closer after his off-season non-tender from the Pirates.  The 3-4-5 hitters Zimmerman-Dunn-Willingham all had dominant offensive seasons as the team improved markedly from its 103-loss season.  But perhaps the surprise non-inclusion was Strasburg, who despite only having a few starts as of the all-star break was already the talk of baseball.  I think MLB missed a great PR opportunity to name him to the team to give him the exposure that the rest of the national media expected.  But in the end, Capps was a deserving candidate and I can’t argue that our hitters did anything special enough to merit inclusion.

2009

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Ryan Zimmerman
• Possible Snubs: Adam Dunn
• Narrative: The addition of Dunn and Willingham to the lineup gave Zimmerman the protection he never had, and he produced with his career-best season.  His first and deserved all-star appearance en-route to a 33 homer season.  Dunn continued his monster homer totals with little all-star recognition.

2008

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Cristian Guzman
• Possible Snubs: Jon Rauch
• Narrative: The first of two “hitting rock-bottom” seasons for the team; no one really merited selection.  Zimmerman was coming off of hamate-bone surgery in November 2007 and the team was more or less awful across the board.  Rauch performed ably after Cordero went down with season-ending (and basically career-ending) shoulder surgery.   Guzman’s selection a great example of why one-per-team rules don’t make any sense.  Guzman ended up playing far longer than he deserved in the game itself by virtue of the 15-inning affair.

2007

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Dmitri Young
• Possible Snubs: Ryan Zimmerman, Shawn Hill (though I wouldn’t argue for either)
• Narrative: Young gets a deserved all-star appearance en route to comeback player of the year.  Zimmerman played a full season but didn’t dominate.  Our 2007 staff gave starts to 13 different players, most of whom were out of the league within the next year or two.  Not a good team.

2006

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Alfonso Soriano*
• Possible Snubs: Nick Johnson, Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero
• Narrative: Soriano made the team as an elected starter, the first time the Nats have had such an honor.  Our pitching staff took massive steps backwards and no starter came even close to meriting a spot.  Cordero was good but not lights out as he had been in 2005.  Soriano’s 40-40 season is a poster child for “contract year” production and he has failed to come close to such production since.  The team was poor and getting worse.  Johnson had a career year but got overshadowed by bigger, better first basemen in the league (a recurring theme for our first basemen over the years).

2005

• Nationals All-Star representatives: Livan Hernandez, Chad Cordero
• Possible Snubs: Nick Johnson, John Patterson.
• Narrative: The Nats went into the All Star break surprisingly in first place, having run to a 50-31 record by the halfway point.  Should a first place team have gotten more than just two representatives?  Perhaps.  But the team was filled with non-stars and played far over its head to go 50-31 (as evidenced by the reverse 31-50 record the rest of the way).

So, one of the challenges of having a draft on a Saturday is, it’s awfully hard to find time to do a full comprehensive reaction in a timely manner. So, this will be somewhat brief, but wanted to get a conversation out there real quick.

In this year’s first round, the Nats at #11 take Chris Hacopian, 2B from TAMU. He’s a DC area native; born in Gaithersburg, grew up in Potomac, went to Churchill, and spent his first two college seasons locally at Maryland (click here for his PG profile). He was at UMD with his older brother, and upon his graduation Hacopian entered the transfer portal and went to TAMU. Hacopian was ready for better competition than what UMD gave him; he destroyed big 10 pitching his sophomore year. He wasn’t awful in the Cape Cod league after his sophomore year (he destroyed the NECL after his freshman year).

His junior season at TAMU he slashed .319/.405/.578 with more walks than Ks and some power (11 homers). He played 3B and SS for Maryland, and initially was set to play SS for Tamu as well, but ended up at 2B instead thanks to some limitations in his arm strength and lateral motion. I think he’s profiling as a 2B/LF type in the pros. His leading tool is his Hit tool, where he was one of the best pure hitters in the draft and has a 60 grade from MLBpipeline.com. They give him a current 50 power grade, but something tells me this guy can improve on that as well. I think he’s a pro hitter who won’t chase, hits the ball hard, can power it up when he wants to, and who should move through the ranks quickly. He had some injury issues this year, and by most accounts is a stiff, awkward athleticism guy who may struggle to stick even at 2B.

Hacopian was mocked to the Nats pretty frequently in the end, with the major pundits all over the pick. The way the 1st round worked out, if the Nats were after a college hitter, then they got the one that made the most sense; Burress, Gracia, and Bell all went just before Hacopian, and the next three picks were all HS guys (Gringlinger, Condon, Lombard). They passed on the toolsy Lebron, as well as Ace Reese, who went 24th and was clearly not in the near-top10 level. They also passed on all the prep projects, which is interesting and indicative of what this new front office is thinking after last year’s prep-heavy draft.

My judgement: the way the draft worked out, he was the “right” pick if the target was a College bat, with all the other candidates going before him. He could be a fast mover, maybe in the majors by end of 2027.

I published the “way too early” Phase 1 Mock draft post in April, covering all the very early mocks plus those that hadn’t really taken into account a big chunk of the spring season. Then, I published Phase 2 mock draft review on 6/8/26, with a deeper dive into analysis and some macro draft thoughts. That Phase 2 post ended up being rather lengthy; we’re still technically in that “weeks leading up to the draft” portion of the Mock Draft season, without a ton of movement. However, by the time you read this HS is done, College is done, and top prospects are sitting at home fielding phone calls from interested teams (1st rounders aren’t likely to go spend a couple weeks playing summer wood bat, but lesser players may in order to get some last minute impress-the-scouts views).

Since the mocks continue to roll in, here’s another post. This time, I’m separating out the “Draft Class Ranks” from the “Mock Drafts” since they have different aims. I’ve captured these draft boards mostly so that I can reference them in my 2026 draft class post, to kind of show where players were ranked that we ended up picking.

I’ll just be adding all the “final” mocks to this post since the draft starts two days after I posted.

Draft Board/Draft Ranks by major Pundit:

• The Athletic/Keith Law Draft top 100 5/14/26, updated on 7/3/26 to his final Draft top 100 big board.
• ESPN/Kiley McDaniel top 150 Draft Ranks 5/17/26, updated on 7/8/26 to be his Final 250 ranked board
• Baseball America Top 500 Draft Board 5/27/26, then updated Baseball America top 500 Draft Board 6/24/26. This board was finalized pre-draft at 500 on 7/8/26.
• Baseball America published a Top 500 Prep-only list 6/5/26
• Baseball Prospectus Draft board 5/28/26: (paywall), and their final Draft board 7/8/26 (paywall)
• MLBPipeline Top 200 Draft Prospects 5/29/26, updated to Top 250 on 7/5/26
• D1Baseball Top 250 College-Only Draft Prospects 6/4/26, then their final Top 250 College-only draft prospects 7/4/26
• D1Baseball All American Teams 6/25/26: not draft related, but nearly the entire 1st team has been mentioned in these mock draft posts.

Also, I’m collecting 2026 Draft Reference material here for eventual use in my Draft recaps.

• MLB.com’s Draft Guide, with links to all MLB and MLBpipeline’s resources
• MLB Draft Tracker: the best guide to the draft as it occurs.
• Baseball America’s Draft Tracker: which often times gets signings and bonus dollars faster/more accurately than MLB
• MLB Draft Order: at MLB.com
• Total bonus Pools and Bonus value of every pick
• The Nats Draft Tracker, with a new 2026 Draft Tab that i’ve already pre-populated with slot values.
• MLB Draft Order at my own resource, which shows all the picks as they’ve evolved, been traded, lost.
• The Athletic’s 2026 Draft guide
• The Athletic’s 2026 Draft Tracker
• D1Baseball Draft Tracker

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Here’s the mocks, starting with those released right after my last post

• The Athletic/Keith Law Mock 2.0 6/10/26: Lackey, Bell, Cholowsky, Emerson, Flora. This is a crazy departure from basically every other mock we’ve seen in the cycle. Nats at #11 are on Chris Hacopian, the TAMU 2B with ties to the DC area (Churchhill HS then two years at Maryland), though he also mentions Jared Grindlinger as a name that the Nats are tied to at this pick. In Law’s mock, other names we’d like to see like Burress are gone.
• CBSSports/Mike Axisa 6/12/26 mock: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Flora. Pretty standard. Nats at #11 on Grindlinger, saying that the Nats were heavily scouting his last few HS games.
• MLBPipeline/Jonathan Mayo One-month away Mock 6/12/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Flora. No real change for Mayo over the last few mocks for the top 5. Nats at #11 he now has Justin Lebron, the very tooled up Alabama SS who has been all over the map this draft season, from an early top 5 pick to late 1st round. In this scenario, both Burress, and Hacopian are gone, as is Bell (who Law has going super early), the Nats leave Grindlinger alone, and pass on college guys like Curiel, Flukey, and Reese.
• Baseball America Staff Draft 6/15/26: Lackey, Cholowsky, Emerson, Booth, Curiel. Nats “GM” at #11 got Ryder Helfrick, C from Arkansas. The guys just after the Helfrick pick: Gringlinger, Hacopian, Gracia, Reese, and Lebron… basically 5 guys who I think are better picks than Helfrick. BA warns that this is not a “mock draft” but instead what their staff picking at those spots would do, but Curiel in the top 5 seems crazy.
• ESPN/Kiley McDaniel Who they should pick Mock 6/18/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Lombard. So, the classic top 5 we’ve been seeing for months. McDaniel says the top 3 are a tier, then the next two, then 6 and up. He’s got the Nats at #11 on Liam Peterson, the RHP friday starter from Florida. First time i’ve seen anyone project Peterson to the Nats, who would be leaving Flukey, Gringlinger, and Curiel on the table with this pick. McDaniel points out that the Boston-alum heavy front office was “good at identifying pitching it could optimize” and Peterson could slot in. I have to tell you, I don’t hate getting a top college pitcher at this point in the Nats farm system development … which is super SS heavy.
• MLBPipeline/Jim Callis Mock on 6/18/26: Cholowsky, Lackey, Emerson, Lombard, Booth. First guy that I can think of that inserts Booth into the top 5 (he has Flora 6th). He has Nats on Hacopian, though notes that the industry knows that the team is “in” on Gringlinger. This mock has the two-way prep star falling to #19.
• MLBPipeline Callis & Mayo tag team a Mock 6/26/26: Cholowsky, Lackey, Emerson, Lombard, Flora. Pretty standard. Nats at #11 they have Kentucky SS Tyler Bell, who is picked over the likes of Gringlinger, Hacopian, Reese, and Lebron in this mock.
• CBSSports/Mike Axisa 6/26/26 mock: Cholowsky, Lackey, Emerson, Lombard, Bell; from his last mock he moves up Lackey a spot, and puts Bell at #5 after a strong CWS finish. He also describes Bell as an underslot guy at this position, which seems fair given that he’s got a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder that he’s played with all year that will require immediate surgery . Nats at #11 still on Gringlinger, saying the Nats would let him be a 2-way player to start his pro career.
• BA Mock 5.0 post CWS and Combine 6/29/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Flora. Standard top 5, though he says Cholowsky isn’t certain 1-1 anymore, and that Pittsburgh at 5 could do an underslot deal instead of picking the obvious Flora. Nats at #11 on Ace Reese, the power-hitting 3B from Mississippi State. He recognizes the industry all says Gringlinger, but BA says the Nats are moving more towards college bats now. Grindlinger falls to #20 as a result.
• Prep Baseball Report Staff Mock (via D1baseball) 7/2/26: Lackey, Emerson, Cholowsky, Flora, Lombard. Sorry, but this just seems out of touch with reality. There’s zero chance Tampa passes on Cholowsky if he somehow doesn’t go 1-1, and there’s little chance the Giants pass on Lombard. There’s a reason these mock drafts look similar; its because the pundits have relationships with GMs and know who they’ve been sending cross checkers out to see. They also put a guy at #6 who I’ve literally never heard of. Nats at #11 take prep lefty Gio Rojas, leaving a slew of top 10 names on the board.
• MLBPipeline’s Jonathan Mayo Mock 7/2/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Booth; Booth jumps Flora in this mock. Nats at #11 get Reese. They leave Curiel, Bell, Hacopian, Lebron, and Gringlinger on the board to take Reese, which seems unlikely.
• Keith Law’s Mock 3.0 7/6/26: Emerson, Lackey, Cholowsky, Lombard, Flora. Law’s research now shows CWS at 1-1 have Cholowsky “a distant third” for the pick, At #11 he has the nats taking Hacopian, as he did a month ago, saying that the Nats staff loves Grindlinger but is concerned about the amount of dev time needed for a 2-way 17 yr old.
• Not a mock, but Kiley McDaniel posted the “one big question” each team faces with its 1st round pick on 7/6/26. The Nat’s conversation talks about how recent Boston draft proclivities at the top may show up in the Nats draft this year.
• Baseball America Staff Draft v4.0 7/6/26: Cholowsky, Lackey, Emerson, Flora, Booth. Nats at #11 got Reese.
• Prospects1500 Mock Draft 7/7/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Booth. At #11 they mock Carson Bolemon, a prep LHP from Southside Christian (HS) in South Carolina to the team. This seems crazy; he’s ranked in the 20s and has not once appeared in any mock draft conversation for the team.
• ProspectsLive team did a podcast/video mock 7/8/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Booth. Nats at #11 they go with Grindlinger.
• Baseball Prospect Journal Staff Mock Draft 7/8/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Lombard. nats at #11 get Trevor Condon, OF, Etowah (Ga.) HS, another name that basically nobody is mentioning to the Nats in particular, or this high. At least the boards have him reasonably within the realm of the #11 range.
• Fangraphs/Longenhagen Mock v1.0 7/8/26: Emerson, Lackey, Cholowsky, Flora, Booth. Like other major pundits, he’s reading the tea leaves and seeing that Cholowsky may be slipping and that Booth has taken over Lombard’s spot int he top 5. In this draft, Drew Burress drops to the Nats at #11, and if this happens I’d think the team would be ecstatic.

Final Mocks from Pundits

• Baseball America Mock 6.0 final mock 7/8/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Booth, Flora. We’re seeing Lombard with some late slippage, and Booth seems to be the name now stepping into the top 5. As with their previous mock, they have Nats on Reese. Gringlinger drops to #19.
• Baseball America Final, no really Final Mock 7.0 7/11/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Booth, Flora. Nats Reese. No change.
• ESPN/McDaniel Final Mock Draft 7/10/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Booth, Burress. Wow, first time we’ve seen Drew Burress in the top 5; just a day before Longenhagen had him dropping to us at #11. In this mock, Nats at #11 get Derek Curiel, the famous hitter from LSU. I’d be a-ok with this scenario.
• The Athletic/Keith Law’s Final Mock 7/10/26: Emerson, Lackey, Cholowsky, Lombard, Flora. Nats get Hacopian.
• Fangraphs/Longenhagen Final Mock 7/11/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Booth. Nats get Bell.
• MLBPipeline/Jonathan Mayo’s Final Mock 7/11/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Booth. Nats get Lebron
• MLBPipeline/Jim Callis Final Mock 7/11/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Curiel. Nats get Hacopian
• CBSSports/Mike Axisa Final Mock 7/10/26: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Lombard, Booth. nats get Gracia.
• Baseball Prospect Journal/Logan Quinton Final Mock: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Booth, Flora. Nats get Condon (BPJ is the only shop that is on Condon here)

The draft runs from July 11 to 13th this year, so we’re just a few days away.

My predictions right now?

• Top 5: Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey (in some order), then Booth, Flora.
• Nats at #11: It’s looking like a college bat: whoever is left from Reese, Curiel, Burress, Hacopian.

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Actual Draft Results post draft:

Top 5 went Cholowsky, Emerson, Lackey, Flora, Curiel. Nats get Hacopian.

Jim Callis nailed it perfectly; only guy to have Curiel in top 5, he had the top 5 in order, and he got Nats pick right. Only Keith Law besides Callis got Nats/Hacopian.

Since we’ve been talking about Baseball America ranks this week … and since BA just named the Nats overall system 4th best in the sport, lets see how they’re ranking our prospects in this Mid July update.

Baseball America does the best job of reshuffling prospect lists during the season, and I’m here for it. They did a mid May update that we covered here, and now we get a July 1 update just before the draft (where we’ll presumably add in at least a few more top 30 system prospects).

For now, this is a great way to gauge these players’ 2026 seasons… in some cases. After a point (as we’ll see) BA just kind of gave up and cut-n-pasted from the previous ranking.

Here’s their current top 30, with ranks pulled in from 2 months ago and from January to show evolution in 2026:

7/1/2026	5/18/2026	1/7/2026	First Name	Last Name	Position
1	1	1	Eli	Willits	SS
2	4	7	Seaver	King	SS
3	2	2	Jarlin	Susana	RHP (Starter)
4	5	Pre-Acqu	Devin	Fitz-Gerald	SS
5	3	21	Ronny	Cruz	SS
6	7	5	Travis	Sykora	RHP (Starter)
7	6	4	Luis	Perales	RHP (Starter)
8	8	Pre-Acqu	Gavin	Fein	SS
9	9	19	Miguel	Sime Jr.	RHP (Starter)
11	20	15	Jackson	Kent	LHP (Starter)
12	11	13	Ethan	Petry	1B/OF (Corner)
13	15	11	Landon	Harmon	RHP (Starter)
14	12	6	Alex	Clemmey	LHP (Starter)
15	10	3	Harry	Ford	C
16	22	16	Yohandy	Morales	3B
17	17	12	Sam	Peterson	OF (CF)
18	28	30+	Cayden	Wallace	2B/3B
19	14	9	Coy	James	SS
19	13	Pre-Acqu	Yeremy	Cabrera	OF (corner)
20	16	8	Luke	Dickerson	SS/CF
21	18	Pre-Acqu	Alejandro	Rosario	RHP
22	21	25	Riley	Cornelio	RHP (Starter)
23	23	10	Angel	Feliz	SS/3B
24	24	18	Caleb	Lomavita	C
25	25	Pre-Acqu	Samil	Serrano	OF (Corner)
26	26	20	Jorgelys	Mota	SS
27	27	24	Yoel	Tejeda Jr.	RHP (Starter)
28	19	17	Marconi	German	SS
29	30	14	Andrew	Pinckney	OF (Corner)
30	30+	30+	De la Cruz	Marlon	RHP (Starter)

Here’s some thoughts going down the list.

• Having King now ascended to #2 in the system seems appropriate, even with his June swoon. Too bad we have the NL starting All Star short stop blocking his path to the majors. A good problem to have. His dip in performance has slowed the calls for him to get promoted.
• Honestly, I don’t understand why they have Susana so high; he’s got an unspecified injury with no timeframe for return and has been doing “throwing programs” for months. I don’t think anyone thought his injury would cost him an entire season, but it’s leaning that way.
• Ronny Cruz’s trajectory has dipped slightly, but he’s still top 5 after his torrid 2026 start.
• They’re holding firm on Gavin Fein, and I hope he pays off. Moving him off SS lowers his value, and i’m surprised he’s still in the top 10.
• Based on what you’ve seen in 2026, would you have Luis Perales at #7? I wouldn’t. Raise your hand if you want Jake Bennett back.
• I like the recognition that Jackson Kent is now nearly a top 10 prospect, flourishing in AAA.
• Clemmey taking a dive, as we’ve discussed a ton, going from #6 in January to #14 now. Honestly, that seems fair given what he’s struggled to do since his AA promotion.
• What the heck is going on with Harry Ford? #3 in January, now #15.
• Great to see Cayden Wallace showing up; he was just promoted to AAA where, I guess, he’ll play short stop? I mean, House is the 3B, Glasser has played the entire season at 2B. Maybe Glasser (listed as a SS) will move over and Wallace plays 2B. I can’t imagine the team will sit one of them on the regular so that Lipscomb (the only true SS on the AAA roster) can play at this point.
• Both Coy James and Luke Dickerson were top 10, now nearly out of the top 20. Both are young, and have some time, but not a good pro career start really for either.
• Lomavita’s excellent June apparently too late for him to get any change from the last ranking; he sits at #24 still.
• Marlon De La Cruz gets the last spot, pushing out Davian Garcia (the only player ranked 6 weeks ago not listed). Fun fact; this is the first time he’s been ranked by any shop for this team, ever. He’s a 2024 IFA who signed for so little that they didn’t bother to register it, and now he’s in the LowA rotation.

Here’s a monthly check in on our 20 prospects plus other notables in the system. Stats are for just June 2026 unless otherwise noted.

(Note: I wrote this before the July 4th holiday, with its slew of moves/DFAs/promotions, so I know i’m missing some details).

I’ll be using my own personal top 20 to drive the rankings, the ones I posted right after the season started and which are a bit outdated. If I was to re-rank the top 10 right now versus what’s below, i’d probably go Willits, King, Fitz-Gerald, Sykora, Susana, Cruz, Kent, Petry, Sime, and then maybe a wild card like Morales or Lomavita.

All the stats links I use are at my Nats Links page, which I visit every day for various reasons. I won’t repeat all the stats links and transactions pages and what not; just go to the Links page.

1. Eli Willits SS, High-A: Slashed .246/.418/.590 for an OPS north of 1.000 and the continued streaking up prospect boards (he’s now #3 on MLBPipeline’s overall minor league list). Reminder: he’s 18, doesn’t turn 19 until December. Also named to the Futures game roster along with Sime. Temperature: red hot, POTY candidate, another promotion candidate.
2. Henry Ford, C AAA: had a .244/.426/.415 split for the month, good for a halfway decent looking OPS figure, thanks to a slew of walks bolstering the OBP. Still not impressing, which is why his prospect stock is falling fast. He’s now at least down to 7th or 8th in the system. Temperature: still cool.
3. Jarlin Susana, RHP (starter) AA: On the 60-day DL to open the season, and is still there. Per the Nats injury report, the last update was 6/12 reporting that he was throwing off a mound. What gives here? It took him 5 weeks to go from throwing on flat ground to the mound. Did the team hide the severity of his injury? Temperature: still on ice.
4. Travis Sykora: RHP (starter) AA: out for the season, the injury report lists his return as 2027. Temperature: on ice.
5. Gavin Fien SS/3B, Low-A: Finally had a good month at the plate, .294/.380/.529. He’s still entirely playing OF, despite all the middle infielder promotions out of low-A, which lowers his value a little bit. He’s splitting time between CF and RF. Temperature: warming up.
6. Alex Clemmey, LHP (Starter) AA: Clemmey had another mediocre month; 5.53 ERA, too many hits, too many walks. I’m not sure what to do here; is it possible he’s hit a ceiling? Temperature: pretty cold.
7. Seaver King, SS AAA: After a torrid start to the season, King cooled this month, slashing just .256/.323/.389. he’s playing a lot of 2B, presumably in case the Nats want a stretch bat to take over. But, unless he continues to hit, he’s not coming up anytime soon. Temperature: cooled for a bit.
8. Luis Perales, RHP (starter) AAA: Perales reverted to earlier bad form, and continues to remind us that the Bennet-for-Perales trade sucked. 20/11 k/bb in 21 innings and a 6.53 ERA. Temperature: cold.
9. Devin Fitz-Gerald, 2B/SS, AA: AA has been a wake-up call for Fitz-Gerlad; he hit just .132 this month. Temperature: Hot to get to AA, now cold.
10. Landon Harmon, RHP (starter): Low-A: He remains on the 7-day DL in Low-A with an oblique strain that continues to be described as “not serious.” He hasn’t thrown since April 24th, meaning he’s now working on 9 weeks out of action. Temperature: On Ice, starting to be concerning.
11. Ronny Cruz: SS High-A. After a tough first month, he’s picking it up. 263/.314/.400. Not awesome, but not terrible. Temperature: luke warm?
12. Luke Dickerson, SS/CF Low-A: .253/.451/.413. Dickerson took a TON of walks this month, ironic since our discussions on this platform included criticism of the amount of Ks he was taking. Well, this month he still struckout a lot, but only hit one out to go with 27 BBs in 22 games. Interesting. At least he’s back on the dirt, playing mostly middle infield now, moving around all three skill positions. Temperature: meh. Not sure what to think here.
13. Ethan Petry, 1B AA: his promotion to AA has not gone well: he hit just .172 in June Temperature: Hot to get to AA, now cold.
14. Coy James, SS/3B, Low-A: No real change here; .243/.360/.365 for the month. Not really living up to the prospect hype so far. Temperature: still cold.
15. Angel Felix, SS High-A: Meh slash line of .265/.315/.422 . Showed a little bit of pop. May be impacted by being moved of SS thanks to Willits. Temperature: cool.
16. Yoel Tejeda Jr. RHP (starter) High-A: He cleaned up this month: 1.38 ERA and 33/11 K/BB in 22 ip and probably merited a promotion; perhaps another month of work and he’ll be up.  Temperature: hot.
17. Jackson Kent, LHP (Starter) AAA: . Jackson Kent’s first full month in AAA went swimmingly: 3-2 with a 3.70 ERA and solid K/BB numbers (28/7 in 24ip). Is it possible that Kent will be the first 2024 class draftee to get to the majors? Temperature: Pretty warm
18. Miguel Sime Jr. RHP (starter): High-A: Sime’s first month in High-A was … interesting. 5 starts, 17ip, 2.60 ERA and 27ks in 17ip, so he still is throwing it by people. But, he also has 16 walks in those 17ip, which has bloated his Whip a bit to 1.50. Named to the Futures game roster. Temperature: hot.
19. Davian Garcia, RHP (starter) AA; On the full-season DL, hopefully to return in 2027. Temperature: on ice.
20. Yeremy Cabrera CF High-A: has struggled upon his promotion; hit just .205 this month. Temperature: hot to get to High-A, now cold.

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Notables #20 and above by level:

in AAA:

• #27 Yohandy Morales 1B/3B in AAA finally had a bad month: .230/.287/.437.
• #31 Phillip Glasser 2B in AAA had a great month: slashing .438/.491/.500. He’s back on track. .
• #33 Albimec Ortiz 1B/DH in AAA is hitting just .225.
• Also, not for nothing: 40-man members Hassell (.203) and especially Weimer (hitting just .125) are not doing themselves any favors.

In AA:

• #21 Sam Peterson is struggling, hitting just .221 this month.
• #26 Caleb Lomavita had a monster June; 8 homers powering his slash line to .286/.352/.762. Too bad Ford blocks his path to AAA.
• #30 Cayden Wallace is producing at a very high clip once again: .329/.346/.633. He can play 2B, 3B, and has even been playing a bunch of SS this season.
• #60 TJ White, newly promoted to AA this month, hit just .154 for the Senators in June.

In High-A:

• #40 Kevin Bazzell continued to hit this month, slashing .300//.345/.440. Not bad for a catcher, but see above; Lomavita in AA is crushing, and Ford in AAA can’t be sat. So there’s a log jam.
• #41 Cristian Vaquero remains on the DL, but has started rehab. Somehow he’s been on the DL since early May and I never saw it; he’s been on the “active” roster on the Big Board for weeks.
• #61 Randal Diaz played well this month: .304/.420/.411, somehow getting playing time in a crowded middle infield in Wilmington.
• Elijah Green cut down on his K’s this month once again, down to 34 for t he month (in 21 games). His astounding figures for the season? 67 games, 243 ABs, and 127 Ks. He’s striking out at a 52% clip for the season. I’ve just never seen anything like it before.
• Unranked but recently promoted Jacob Walsh hit just .206 for the month.
• Unranked but recently promoted Jack Moroknek hit just .125 upon his promotion.

In Low-A:

• #38 Sir Jamison Jones hit just .125 this month.
• #39 Rafael Ramirez Jr took a step back slashing .226/.368/.371.
• #51 Dashyll Tejeda, newly promoted, held his own his first month in full season ball: .246/.364/.393
• #94 Manual Cabrera got promoted up from FCL and has been hitting well: .288/.377/.458. He’s playing mostly 3B
• Unranked Hunter Hines got demoted, then destroyed Low-A with an OPS > 1.000. may want to put him back up.
• Unranked Jordan Williams, a 26yr old NDFA signed earlier this year, has been cruising: .349/.472/.512. Williams is an interesting one: he didn’t finish his NCAA eligibility until he was 25.
  

In FCL, here’s hitting stats for some of our notable hitting prospects recently moved up from the DSL.

• #23 Marconi German; .238/.432/.413 in june.
• #36 Brayan Cortesia: .288/.447/.288. that’s not a lot of power.
• #42 Daniel Hernandez: .222/.323/.259. Not good.
• #46 Browm Martinez: .259/.474/.389. Nots of walks.
• #47 Victor Hurtado struggled in june: .237/.387/.271
  

In DSL, here’s hitting stats for the four marquee 2026 IFA signings:

• Isaias Suarez OF (corner): .207/.452/.207 in 11 games
• Angel Ramirez OF (corner): 211/.333/.649 in 38Abs so far.
• Samil Serrano OF (cf): 310/.397/.517 in 58ABs so far.
• Juan Duran 1B: 357/.438/.956

In the DSL, the remaining big money 2025IFA signings who are still there:

• Ronny Bello SS: .294/.387/.412; big improvement over last year.
• Esnaider Vargas: Of/DH: .278/.371/.519: providing some more pop this year for sure.
• Jonierbis Garces: OF (corner): hitting just .184

Here’s the June 2026 check-in on rotations. I’ll return to a bit of bullpen-commentary this month, because we have just gotten some significant bullpen news in the majors.

Each team section analysis will have the same items: current rotation, changes in the last month, observations, next guy to get promoted (if its in the minors), next guy to get cut, etc.

Important Pitching stats links for this analysis (I like the Fangraphs stats when looking up Fip, Babip, etc).

• Big Board, Draft Tracker, and IFA Tracker
• Nats MLB stats: at baseball-reference.com, Nats MLB stats at fangraphs.com
• AAA Rochester stats at milb.com. AAA Rochester Stats at fangraphs.com
• AA Harrisburg stats at milb.com, AA Harrisburg Stats at fangraphs.com
• High-A Wilmington stats at milb.com, High-A Wilmington Stats at fangraphs.com
• Low-A Fredericksburg Stats at milb.com, Low-A Fredericksburg stats at fangraphs.com
• FCL Nationals Stats at milb.com
• DSL Nationals Pitching Stats at milb.com

All Stats quoted are as of 6/30/26’s games.

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We’ll start with the Majors.

• Opening Day 2026: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas, Littell, Irvin
• End of April 2026: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas (with Poulin opening sometimes), Littell, Irvin
• End of May 2026: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas (still with openers), Littell (also with openers), Alvarez.
• End of June 2026: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas, Littell, Alvarez. Still using Openers in key spots

Changes since end of last Month: No changes; the same 5 guys are still making all the “starts” and we still are seeing the likes of PJ Poulin being an Opener here and there.

Rotation Observations: After one bad outing in May, Foster Griffin’s been unhittable for a month: 5 starts, 1.15 ERA, 33/4 K/BB. If we bail on the season, he’s back to being a major trade bait. Speaking of unhittable, Cade Cavalli had his best career start, and one of the better starts in the history of the franchise (non-Max Scherzer category) last night in Boston: 7ip, 1hit, 13 Ks, 0 walks, and one inexplicable sh*t talk to Wilson Contreras that got everyone all riled up. It was enough to really paper over an other wise “meh” month for Cavalli. He’s still holding onto a sub 4.00 ERA for the season. Littell was so good in May, and was right back to being awful in June: 6.10 ERA for the month. Mikolas held it together in June, even if his K/9 rate keeps plummeting (just 15Ks in 34 IP in June). Lastly Alvarez continues to be more than an effective 5th starter: 5 starts, 3.00 ERA even if his WHIP is a little elevated. He continues to show he belongs in a MLB rotation, even if he’s not throwing 95. Alvarez is exactly the kind of low-cost, under the radar starter that can make a team suddenly a play off contender, by giving confident, solid innings from the back of the rotation instead of replacement level production like most 5th starters bring to the table.

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April 2026: Mikolas
• May 2026: Irvin (but he got hurt)
• June 2026: Littell but they’ll never cut him and his salary, so i’ll go back to Mikolas

Quick bullpen thoughts: I opined in general about the Philly collapse a week ago. We just got word that Mitchell Parker has a grade-3 strain of his UCL, and likely needs Tommy John surgery. This surgery, combined with his service time and overall struggles, will be presenting the team with a major decision this coming off-season, as is detailed in the MLBtraderumors.com article. He’ll be super-2, but will be basically out all of 2027; do you even tender him a contract? His production this year has been abhorrent out of the bullpen (6.58 ERA) but wasn’t a ton better last year as a starter (5.68 ERA across 33 games/30 starts). You hate to part ways with a home-grown guy, but I see little evidence he can be an effective starter or reliever at this point, and his 40-man spot may be better served by a pending rule5 eligible guy this coming off-season. Maybe we can offer him a MLFA/NRI deal so he can remain in the org and rehab with the only team he’s known, then give him a shot in 2027.

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AAA Rochester

• Opening Day 2026: Alvarez, Parker, Perales, Lara, Cornelio
• End of April 2026: Alvarez, Perales, Lara, Cornelio, Champlain (with Ogasawara and Penrod spot starts)
• End of May 2026: Perales, Lara, Cornelio, Champlain, Kent
• End of June 2026: Perales, Lara, Champlain, Kent, Penrod as an opener

Changes since end of last Month: Cornelio spent most of the month, including the end of it, in the MLB bullpen and had his “starts” replaced by middle-reliever Zach Penrod, who had four opens in the month. Reinforcements are arriving, as we’ll discuss in the AA promotion section.

Rotation Observations: Perales reverted to form, and continues to remind us that the Bennet-for-Perales trade sucked. 20/11 k/bb in 21 innings and a 6.53 ERA. Maybe we move this guy to the bullpen and see if he can max it out effectively as a late-inning guy? Lara was average: 4.00 era, 1.53 whip, and a .265 BAA. Newly promoted Champlain got a full month’s run-out and was meh: 5.56 ERA, 13 Ks in 22 ip, an a .292 BAA. Jackson Kent’s first full month in AAA went swimmingly: 3-2 with a 3.70 ERA and solid K/BB numbers (28/7 in 24ip). Is it possible that Kent will be the first 2024 class draftee to get to the majors? The only other 2024 draftee to get to AAA thus far is Seaver King, who we’ll certainly talk about in the July 1 prospect post coming up soon.

Next guy to get promoted:

• April: Alvarez and Cornelio. Verdict: both have been promoted, Alvarez is staying there.
• May: Perales and his sub 2.00 ERA could play in the majors.
• June: Kent the only deserving candidate right now, but he’s not getting promoted anytime soon.

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April: none really, Champlain had the least investment
• May: Lara clearly.
• June: Back to Champlain, who looks like he may be stuck at a ceiling of effectiveness in AA

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AA Harrisburg

• Opening Day 2026: Clemmey, Garcia, Luckham, Ogasawawara, Swan
• End of April 2026: Clemmey, Garcia, Luckham, Ogasawara, Kent
• End of May 2026: Clemmey, Luckham, Ogasawara, Lyon, Randall (spot starts from Van Scoyoc)
• End of June 2026: Clemmey, Luckham, Lyon, Randall, Van Scoyoc

Changes since end of last Month: Ogawawara was released so he could return to Japan, ending our first (?) foray into the Japanese FA market with a thud. He was replaced by promoted long-man/spot starter Van Scoyoc and a slew of openers/bullpen games; 10 different guys had “starts” in June, but we’ll just talk about the ones making the longest stints per night.

Rotation Observations: Clemmey had another mediocre month; 5.53 ERA, too many hits, too many walks. I’m not sure what to do here; is it possible he’s hit a ceiling? At Age 20? Hopefully not. Luckham was actually effective this month; a sub 3.00 ERA and good peripherals pitching behind openers for the most part. Lyon’s ERA was bloated in comparison to his excellent numbers: a 1.02 whip and a .183 BAA; he’s pitching very well for a 2025 draftee in AA. Randall’s first full month in AA was solid; 4 ERA, nearly a 1 whip, .229 BAA, a K/inning; that’s great. Van Scoyoc’s month was so-so, a 3.94 ERA in just 16ip but for some reason was the one they chose to promote up to slot into the rotation spot in AAA. Maybe it was social promotion, in that he’s a 26 MLFA who spent the entirety of 2025 in the AAA bullpen of Colorado.

Next guy to get promoted:

• April: Ogasawara, then Kent. Kent was promoted over Ogasawara
• May: clearly Ogasawara.
• June: Van Scoyoc (and he was promoted on 7/1). After that it may be time to see if Luckham can make it “third time a charm” in AAA; he had starts there in 2024 and 2025.

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April: Luckham.
• May: still Luckham.
• June: Chemmey

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High-A Wilmington

• Opening Day 2026: Bruni (Sullivan), Maddox, Randall, Tejeda, Polanco
• End of April 2026: Maddox, Randall, Tejeda, Polanco, Lyon
• End of May 2026: Maddox, Tejeda, Polanco, Bruni, Meckley
• End of June 2026: Maddox, Tejeda, Meckley, Sime, Tepper

Changes since end of last Month: Polanco was dumped out of the rotation when Sime was promoted up. Similarly, Bruni went back to LR/SS duties when Tepper came off the DL officially after a long rehab stint in Low-A.

Rotation Observations: Riley Maddox had another solid month; 3.25 ERA, 1.10 whip, which led to his promotion at the end of the month. If it were me, I probably would have promoted Tejeda, who cleaned up this month: 1.38 ERA and 33/11 K/BB in 22 innings. Meckley struggled badly this month, with 9 Ks and 15BBs in 16ip and a 6.06 ERA. Sime’s first month in High-A was … interesting. 5 starts, 17ip, 2.60 ERA and 27ks in 17ip, so he still is throwing it by people. But, he also has 16 walks in those 17ip, which has bloated his Whip a bit to 1.50. Finally Tepper, back after 6 rehab starts in lower minors, had a solid first month back but is walking too many guys. Interestingly, after finally being relieved of starter duties, Polanco in a long-man role had a decent month; ERA in the 3s, decent peripherals. Maybe he just needs to be an innings eater in the middle of the bullpen.

Next guy to get promoted:

• April: Randall: he did indeed get promoted
• May: None. Tejeda if I had to name one.
• June: Maddox (Promoted on 7/1), should have been Tejeda.

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April: Polanco
• May: still Polanco but likely Bruni makes way for Sime. (Polanco indeed finally dumped to bullpen)
• June: Meckley

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Low-A Fredericksburg

Low-A spent most of the first 6 weeks of the season doing tandem starts, but as players hit the DL or hit ineffectiveness, we’ve seen the rotation really settle into something more conventional.

• Opening Day 2026: Portorreal, Hughes/Meckley, Sime/Lyon, Harmon/Beck, Fischer/Conradt
• End of April 2026: Portorreal, Meckley/Hughes, Sime/Johnson, Harmon/Conradt, Fischer/Sullivan
• End of May 2026: Portorreal, Sime, Johnson, Fischer, and Tepper doing rehab the whole month
• End of June 2026: Portorreal, Johnson, Fischer, Manning, De La Cruz plus rehab starts from Herz, Williams, Tepper.

Changes since end of last Month: Sime was promoted, replaced by De la Cruz. When Tepper’s rehab ended, they put Manning into the starting rotation.

Rotation Observations: Portorreal reverted to his earlier season form and put up an 8 ERA for the month; that’s just not going to cut it, with the huge number of MLFAs pouring into the system that the team may want to try out as starter. Luke Johnson, who the team signed for exactly $2k in 2024 as a 10th round throw away pick, dominated last month to the tune of a 1.86 ERA. Fischer had a solid month, turning 4 starts into a 3.60 ERA and a promotion (like with Maddox above, not sure why it was Fischer to move up and not someone else). Manning struggled in the rotation for the first time, with a 5.60 ERA for the month. Lastly De la Cruz, the first 24IFA arm to get out of rookie ball (Angel Feliz is in High-A, also a 24IFA), had an abhorrent k/bb ratio 10k/18bb in 15Ip but somehow kept his ERA at 2.30 for the month.

Taking a quick peek at some of the guys still doing “tandem” or long relief work at this point in Low-A: Travis Sthele threw a donut this month: 5 games, 16ip, 0 runs. All in “rehab” appearances. Clearly he needs to go back home to High-A.

Lastly, DJ Herz made one rehab start, then got diagnosed with a left flexor strain, so he’s back to being shut down, and who knows now when he’ll be back.

Next guy to get promoted:

• April: Meckley; indeed he was promoted
• May: Fischer
• June: Fischer, who was actually promoted 7/1. Should be Johnson

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April: Portorreal: he has turned it around greatly.
• May: Probably Johnson if we had to pick someone; they’ve already settled the tandem starters and demoted guys to the pen
• June: Portorreal

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Rookie FCL

Reminder: The Milb.com FCL site can’t do month splits, so this is kind of running full-season analysis.

• Opening Day 2026: Weaver, Reyes, Martina, De la Cruz, Robles
• End of May 2026: Reyes, De la Cruz, Robles, Lopez, Bothwell
• End of June 2026: Reyes, Robles, Lopez, Bothwell, Gillis, Millikan

Changes since end of last Month: De la Cruz promoted, replaced by Gillis.

Rotation Observations: Reyes continues to hold a respectable 4.09 ERA.as a 21yr old 23IFA. Robles has 20 walks in 24IP and needs to tighten up. Lopez has 17 walks in 21 innings; same story. Bothwell is a 26yr old MLFA with an ERA north of 9.00, but he does have 34 ks in 26ip. Nonetheless, not sure why he’s still rostered after having been demoted from Low-A earlier this year. In Gillis’ two starts; 5 runs on 10 hits. Too early to tell. Lastly we have Millikan, the sole bright spot on the starters: in 5 games and 17IP he has a 0.53 ERA. Time to move up the 23yr old MLFA.

Next guy to get promoted:

• May: Reyes (ended up being De la Cruz)
• June: Millikan

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• May: Robles
• June: Bothwell

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Rookie DSL

Reminder: The Milb.com FCL site can’t do month splits, so this is kind of running full-season analysis.

• Opening Day 2026: Manzueta, Medina, Sarit, Reynoso, Carela
• End of June 2026: Manzueta, Medina, Sarit, Carela, Salas

Changes since end of last Month: Reynoso made 3 starts, then hasn’t appeared since 6/19 (but isn’t on the DL). He seems to have been replaced by LR/SS Salas for the time being.

Rotation Observations: The first month of a DSL rotation is always fun, with 17yr olds coming face to face with pro hitters for the first time and sometimes putting up astronomical numbers. Manzueta: 11+ ERA. Medina: 0.96 ERA. Night and day. Sarit’s 6.48 ERA a little inflated when looking at peripherals. Reynoso got shelled for 3 outings then hit the non-DL bench. Carela looks good so far in 4 starts, but it’s just 10 innings. Salas has 4 appearances and 9ip and has struggled so far.

Amongst those also getting longer outings/tandem starts: Jesus Carrasco has a 7.71 ERA in 11ip and Manuel Ruiz has a 5.23 IP in 10innings. Everyone else in the DSL seems to be more in the 1-2 IP/appearance range right now.

In the bullpen, Rafael Mejas gave up 0 runs in 7 middle relief innings for a good start.

On the other end of the spectrum, here’s a line for you: Aldemaro Sevilla, signed in January, had 4 apperances, threw 6 2/3 innings. In those 4 games, he gave up 14 runs on 8 hits and 14 walks. That’s a 17.55 ERA and a 3.30 whip.

Next guy to get promoted:

• June: Medina

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• June: Manzueta

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That’s it for June 2026.

It’s always fun when Philadelphia comes into town. Three of their best hitters are former Nats (Turner, Harper, and Schwarber) and a massive number of DC area residents are PA transplants more than willing to scarf up cheap seats, drink beer, and make noise.

This week’s trip though had a somewhat ominous feeling. That’s because this week may finally have been the breaking point for the cobbled together bullpen for this erstwhile wild card contender.

• On Tuesday, the bullpen gave up three in the 8th and eight in the 9th to blow two leads in two innings.
• On Wednesday, they gave up 2 in the 9th to blow another lead.
• On Thursday, they turned a 5-0 lead into a 10-5 loss, this time giving up five in the 9th, including a F-You homer from or former prodigal son Harper.

That’s, not good. Those are debilitating losses for an offense that did its job and demoralizing for starters who put the team in position to win. Nearly every guy in the bullpen over the last three days showed the kind of ineptitude that would lead to demotions or outright releases on a real team.

• Tuesday it was Lovelady for 3, Lord for 6, and Schultz for 2
• Wednesday it was Ribalta and Lovelady for 1 apiece
• Thursday it was Parker for 3, Varland for 5

The only relievers not named for ineptitude this week were Poulin (the opener on Tuesday who also got a hold Wednesday) and our closer Beeter (who blew saves on both Tuesday and Thursday but somehow avoided having any ERs).

Fun fact, and a reason I began writing this post: I read someone on twitter point out that the Nats relievers now have had 48 Save Opportunities this season and have blown HALF of them. Half! Mitchell Parker has as many blown saves by himself as the entire Houston Astros team this season, and our closer Beeter isn’t far behind, having padded his stats this week. Pretty awesome statistic.

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I’ve been kind of beating the drum on this bullpen for a while, having been thrown together primarily with MLFAs, Waiver claims, and low-level trade acquisitions. Somehow the team has remained above .500 for weeks thanks to an amazing offense in spite of the pitching staff deficiencies. But this week, it finally collapsed.

There’s five 40-man relievers in AAA right now, four of them down there because they weren’t even as good as the crew we have in the majors. Henry has a 6.00 ERA in the majors this season, Granillo a 9.64 ERA, Kent a 6+ ERA in limited innings, and Schulz at 5.87. We also have a just-acquired waiver claim in Justin Lawrence, who may be next in line for the firing squad if the team decides to demote one of these guys before the weekend series.

On top of that, the team has spent most of the last 2 months grabbing every MLFA they could find looking for reinforcements. This team now has 35 MLFAs in its system signed this year, all up and down the system, many of them arms. They’ve got 26yr old MLFAs in rookie ball, they’ve got Indy league castoffs up and down the system, they’ve got a 29yr old MLFA from the Mexican leagues in AA. All looking for found gold apparently. Havn’t really found it yet, but we’re running out of time.

Is this week’s results the end of our Wild Card dreams? Well, no, but they’re not looking good. We lost 3 games to a Wild Card competitor and now sit 3 games out of the last wild card spot. We can get healthy fast; our next six games are away to AL East competition that normally would be competitive, but are not this year (Baltimore and Boston). However, these two teams are not easy to beat, especially on the road. Then we host Pittsburgh and Houston, both hovering around .500 like us. Our last series before the ASB is hosting the Yankees, which could be a telling series to take us into the break.

If this team scuffles through its next few series, then gets pulverized by the Yankees, that could be the signal to the front office to Sell, Sell, Sell. We’ll see.

This past weekend Oklahoma took on UNC in the CWS finals to win.

Here’s a quick game by game recap.

• Game 1: Oklahoma got to UNC’s starter Jason Nicaro fast, knocking him out in the 4th and building a 7-3 lead they wouldn’t give up. Their own starter Cord Rager settled down after giving up 3 in the first to keep his team in the game, and Oklahoma’s Jaxon Willits (brother of Eli) hit 4th for the sooners and helped drive the offense.
• Game 2: OK scored early, but UNC hung in and got 5 one-hit shutout innings from its star long reliever Glauber, which gave the offense time to win the game 6-2 and send it to the Monday finale. Oklahoma let their starter Xander Mercurious throw FIFTY (50) pitches in the third inning… and then brought him back out for the 4th! Yeah, that’s not good.
• Game 3: Oklahama’s offense just would not stop, knocking out UNC arm after arm and eventually winning by the lopsided score of 13-2 to win the national title. In the “not to be outdone” category, UNC brought in their freshman stud Glauber, who threw 65 pitches on Sunday, with zero days rest into the highest of high leverage situations in this game. That’s serious coaching malpractice, and I hope Glauber’s arm didn’t suffer any permanent damage.

Your 2026 College World Series Champion: Oklahoma Sooners

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Final list of all 2026 CWS coverage this year:

• CWS Finals recap: this post.
• Omaha Group Recap and CWS Final preview
• Super Regionals Recap and CWS Field Preview
• Regional Recap and Super Regional Preview
• Field of 64 announcement and Regional preview

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Here’s some links to past years of CWS coverage here. I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years now! Each link below is the blog post covering that CWS final.

• 2026: Oklahoma wins
• 2025: LSU Wins again
• 2024: Tennessee wins
• 2023: LSU Wins
• 2022: Ole Miss wins
• 2021: Mississippi State wins
• 2020: Covid: no season
• 2019: Vanderbilt wins
• 2018: Oregon State wins
• 2017: Florida wins
• 2016: Coastal Carolina wins
• 2015: Virginia wins
• 2014: Vanderbilt wins
• 2013: UCLA wins

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That’s it for the 2026 CWS tournament. It was a weird tournament, losing the two top seeds early and then the odds-on favorite quickly in Omaha. There was very little star power, unlike the previous few years when the eventual champions were led by 1-1 draft candidates.

Up next: the draft season kicks into gear; we’ll post more mocks and more analysis, do the July 1st recaps of prospects and pitching, and then see who we pick 11th overall in mid July.

After a couple of frenetic weeks of tracking CWS regional and super regionals, we’re through the pedestrian-paced group play in Omaha and have reached the final of the 2026 CWS tournament; here’s a recap of group play in Omaha for the 2026 CWS.

Resources/links I use heavily during CWS time:

• Your final top 25 heading into the post-season according to d1baseball, baseballamerica, and usatoday Coaches poll.
• WarrenNolan’s RPI rankings (Note: these are dynamic and change with every game, so a team’s RPI two weeks ago won’t match what it is now).
• Here’s D1Baseball.com’s Tournament Central, my favorite place to track the tourney.
• Here’s the NCAA.com field of 64 Bracket with some great data points at NCAA.com

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In the Top Bracket (#16 West Virginia, Troy, #5 North Carolina, Ole Miss )

• In the opening games, as they’ve had a habit of doing, WVA got two runs late to win it 7-5 over Troy, while UNC scored 5 runs in the 7th and 8th innings to sneak past Ole Miss and put themselves into a great position, having passed the first test by beating the sole SEC participant in the group.
• In the first elimination game, Troy got a historic program win, ousting the SEC’s Ole Miss with a two-and-out, to stay alive.
• In the winner’s bracket game, UNC took control of the group with a solid 5-2 win over West Virginia.
• In the play-in game, West Virginia waxed Troy 12-0 (as one might expect) to put themselves into the group final.
• In the group final, UNC jumped ahead early and the game was never in doubt, eventually winning 12-7 to wrap up the group without a loss and move to the CWS final.

Final Group standings: UNC, WVA, Troy, Ole Miss

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In the Bottom Bracket (#3 Georgia, #6 Texas, #7 Alabama, Oklahoma)

• In the opening games, #7 Alabama could do nothing with Oklahoma’s starer Cord Rager (7ip, 3h, 0r) and lost 9-0. Meanwhile, Georgia’s Joey Volchko threw a complete game with 15Ks, 4 hits and one unearned run as Georgia dominated Texas.
• In the first elimination game, #6 Texas destroyed #7 Alabama, scoring 7 runs on their starter in the first two innings to send them home 2 and out.
• In the winner’s bracket game, Oklahoma stunned #3 Georgia with 3 in the first, then made the lead stick as they took control of the bracket.
• In the play-in game, two Georgia arms tag-teamed for a 4-hit shutout to send Texas home and give themselves a shot at living up to pre-CWS predictions
• In the group final, Oklahoma never trailed, and blew out the game late to win 11-4 and move to the CWS final.

Final Group standings: Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, Alabama

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Analysis/commentary

UNC winning the Group A isn’t much of a surprise, given the weakness of the group. But Oklahoma beating three top-8 seeds and fellow SEC members is a shock, and a testament to the depth of the SEC. Oklahoma finished 14-16 in the SEC and was the 11th ranked team in the conference. And now they’re in the CWS final. That’s why they play the games, eh?

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CWS Preview and Prediction:

Thanks to clean weather and no extra games, both squad’s pitching staffs will be on full and regular rest. The potential third game “starters” would be slightly rushed back; they’d have 4 days rest instead of the normal 6-day cycle in college baseball, but that’s certainly not going to kill anyone’s arm, especially if its the final game of the season.

The CWS national series starts on Saturday 6/20/26.

• Sat 6/20/26: UNC’s Jason Decaro (10-2, 2.35 ERA) vs Oklahoma’s Cord Rager (6-3, 4.69 ERA)
• Sun 6/21/26: UNC’s Ryan Lynch (4-4, 4.53 ERA) vs Oklahoma’s Xander Mercurius (1-2, 5.51 ERA)
• (if needed) Mon 6/22/26. UNC’s Jackson Rose (5-0, 2.15 ERA) vs Oklahoma’s Nick Wesloski (2-1, 3.63 ERA)

Suffice it to say, neither team is known for lock down pitching necessarily. A couple of these “starters” are actually the staff’s long relievers, and some of these games may turn into bullpen games, or use openers, or other creative pitching plans. Look for a high-offense final set.

Prediction? UNC in three.

As I write this post on 6/17/26, the Washington Nationals baseball team sits at 39-35. Four games over .500 for the first time since the 2019 season, and if the season ended today they’ve be the last NL Wild Card.

To say that I’m generally shocked the team is in this position is putting things lightly.

When the team cut bait on its pre-FA stars in July 2021 (Schwarber, Turner, Scherzer) and then again in Aug 2022 (Soto), I figured we were on another 5 year rebuilding path, not unlike the one we endured as fans starting in 2008. That rebuild plan ran into a bit of a snag though, as ownership turned over and the new group refused to spend money to augment the roster when injuries took out key planned contributors. A real gap in player development thanks to basically 5 straight blown drafts from 2016-2020 doomed the team from really having any chance to compete without those FAs, and we drifted for years.

The new regime, marked by its openness to analytics and its youth, seemed like it was preparing the 2026 season to be a 60-win team, trading away its best arm for prospects, grabbing a half a dozen waiver claims throughout the beginning of the year, and starting the 2026 season with fully 1/4 of its opening day roster being comprised of Rule5, Waiver claims, or MLFAs while sending down a slew of guys who ended the 2025 season on the MLB roster.

I was convinced this was a “bottoming out” technique, just grabbing spare parts off the waiver wire to see who stuck at the expense of guys like Crews, or Hassell, or Parker.

Well, damned if it doesn’t look like its working. We’re nearly to the halfway point of the season and the team is at 39-35. How? Well, somehow this team leads the league in Runs scored, and they sit 3rd (behind only the LAD and NYY) in terms of total team wRC+. That’s patently amazing. Wood and Abrams of course, but Ruiz is crushing the ball all of a sudden, Garcia is holding his own, Lile continues to be productive, found-gold Mead is hitting for a ton of power, and even most of the fringe infielders are holding their own.

The starters collectively aren’t great for the season… but after weathering the April storm, the starters have gone from dead last in multiple metrics to middle-of the road. The Relievers are still awful, but just less awful as the manager has used openers freely (a first for the organization), has not been afraid to call up guys to give innings, and we have a few guys who we can now count on when the chips are down. The team continues almost weekly to sign additional veteran MLFAs, who are waiting in the wings like army reinforcements, ready to come up and help out and see who can stick.

It’s amazing really. They’ve won 10 of their last 11 series! How is that possible?

Now for the big question; you can’t possibly sell at the trade deadline if you’re in playoff contention, can you?? The entire off-season was talking about flipping Gore and Abrams … you can’t possibly break this team up now, can you? Now, if they go on a swoon and go on a 10-20 stretch … sure. That’s probably be too big of a gap to overcome. but, again, they’ve won 10 of their last 11 series; they’re more likely to go 20-10 than 10-20 right now.

Anyway. It seems like I rarely write about the big league team since .. well, tracking prospects and dreaming on guys in Low-A is more fun than hyper analyzing a second division team, which they’ve been basically from the moment they won the 2019 World Series. But fair is fair; this rag tag team seems like it could absolutely be in the playoffs in October. Amazing.