Nationals Arm Race

Here’s a monthly check in on our 20 prospects plus other notables in the system. Stats are for August 2026 for the full season shops, the full-season for FCL and DSL, unless otherwise noted.

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my own personal top 20 to drive the rankings, the ones I posted right after the season started and which are a bit outdated at this point.

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: Continues to struggle in High-A, hitting just .232 for the month. Despite that low BA, he managed to have the 2nd highest OPS figure on the team, which should tell you all you need to know about the state of Wilmington’s offense. Willits was given the Nats Baserunner of the Year award earlier this week, in recognition of his 57 SBs and his draft pedigree. It’s probably fair to point out at this point that he’s at the tail end of a 140 game season as an 18yr old who probably has never played more than 30-35 games in a season in his life, and he may be ready for a break. Temperature: luke warm
2. Harry Ford, C MLB: has stayed in the majors since his call-up/Millas’ injury and will remain there. MLB stats so far: .188/.300/.391. So, that’s not necessarily great, and his numbers havn’t improved in month 2. Temperature: cold, looks like he needs more AAA time.
3. Jarlin Susana, RHP (starter) AA: Finally off the DL; made one August start. September should be telling; hopefully we get 5 starts, then an AFL stint. Temperature: ready to warm up hopefully.
4. Travis Sykora: RHP (starter) AA: out for the season, the injury report lists his return as 2027. No new news for months. Temperature: on ice.
5. Gavin Fien SS/3B, Low-A: took a step back in August in terms of production: .263/.358/.351 with just 1 homer. If he’s stuck as a corner OF, we’re going to want more here. Temperature: cool.
6. Alex Clemmey, LHP (Starter) AA: Clemmey was awful this month. 7.99 ERA, a ton of walks. I’m not sure what to do here. Reports are that his velocity is way down, and so now his BAA is .319 but he’s still walking a ton of guys. Something has to give here. Temperature: ice code once again.
7. Seaver King, SS AAA: Blowing up again after getting off the DL and missing most of May and all of June; .330/.417/.640 for August in AAA. With CJ Abrams moving to 2B, I just have to wonder if a call-up is imminent here. He was also just named the Nats Minor league hitter of the year. Temperature: red hot.
8. Luis Perales, RHP (starter) AAA: was in the middle of a month where he was striking out tons of guys but still not being that effective when he got the call up for some reason. He was the last 40-man member dating to opening day to get called up. I watched his 8/31 appearance, when he came in after Dion’s 3 scoreless innings. Walk, Strikeout, Single, Single, Wild Pitch, Single, Strikeout, Single, Ground out. All over the place; no control. What the f*ck? It took him 34 pitches to labor through this inning, where he wasted a solid opening outing from Dion. Amazingly the offense bailed him out, but if he’s not on a plane back to Rochester soon I’ll be pissed. This trade is not aging well, at all. The team traded a lefty starter on the cusp of the majors for a guy they’ve turned into a reliever who can’t find the plate. Nice work. Temperature: ice cold
9. Devin Fitz-Gerald, 2B/SS, AA: He had a nice month actually: .310/.390/.493. I’ll take those splits any day. He’s still splitting time mostly between 2B and SS, but his size (5’10”) probably means 2B longer term. That’s fine: as long as he hits like this he can be my 2B any day.. Temperature: heating up.
10. Landon Harmon, RHP (starter): Low-A: Harmon did five 3-inning starts and is rock solid; he gave up 2 earned runs for the month, one via a solo homer in early August. Its too bad he’s not more stretched out thanks to injury, else he’d be ripe to promote. I wonder if he’s an AFL candidate: he’s kind of young for that AA-AAA level league. Temperature: heating up nicely.
11. Ronny Cruz: SS High-A. Blasted 6 homers to jack up his slugging, but hit just ..226 for the month. Like Willits, his offensive spree ended the moment he arrived in Delaware and the pitcher’s parks of the Carolina league. Temperature: luke warm.
12. Luke Dickerson, SS/CF High-A: Promoted to High-A in early August and got 3 weeks in Wilmington: intro to High-A? oof. .154/.276/.200. Let’s see if he rebounds in September. Temperature: cold.
13. Ethan Petry, 1B AA: he bounced back to have a 6-homer month with a solid OPS: .292/.344/.573. that will do wonder for his seasonal slash line in AA and is good to see. Temperature: heating up.
14. Coy James, SS/3B, Low-A: Very solid month at the plate: .250/.347/.476 showing both power and speed (4 homers, 6 SB). I’m happy to see him improving month over month in his first pro season as a 19yr old. Temperature: warming up.
15. Angel Felix, SS High-A: Not good. .179 BA for the month and just a .674 OPS for the season. Temperature: cold.
16. Yoel Tejeda Jr. RHP (starter) AA: Tejeda got pulverized this month; ERA in the 9s and a .345 BAA. Yikes. Temperature: super cold.
17. Jackson Kent, LHP (Starter) AAA: had one solid AAA start then got promoted to the majors. His first few starts were rough, but his last MLB start was solid. He’s clearly getting a run-out for the rest of the season Temperature: hot for making the majors in just his 3rd pro season
18. Miguel Sime Jr. RHP (starter): High-A: Sime continues to strike guys out at ridiculous rates (26 ks in 14ip in August) but is still walking guys at a walk an inning. Somehow he maintained a 1.26 ERA for the month. He was named the Nats Minor league Pitcher of the Year earlier this week. Temperature: still hot.
19. Davian Garcia, RHP (starter) AA; On the full-season DL, hopefully to return in 2027. No new news. Temperature: on ice.
20. Yeremy Cabrera CF High-A: Halfway decent slash line for this squad: .241/.306/.391. Not great overall. Temperature: cool.
    

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Other Notable players by level this month:

in AAA:

• Graduated prospect Trey Lipscomb continues to rake in AAA; .333/.350/.675 for the month with 11 homers. He exhausted his rookie eligibility more than 2 years ago, but his production cannot be ignored for much longer. Or, maybe it can, as they’ve ignored Morales’ production all year. Could the AAA team end the season with two 30-homer guys, neither of which are on the 40-man or even in consideration for promotion?
• (Note: the moment I wrote this, the team called up Morales, but before I had a chance to publish).
• unranked 2026 MLFA Leandro Pinedo continues to rake since his AAA promotion and now has maintained an 1100 OPS figure in Rochester for the last two months. We seem to have an abundance of bats in AAA this year.
• #30 Cayden Wallace, who has really fallen off the radar of a lot of prospect shops, also bashing the ball in upstate NY. .337/.391/.624 for the month. I mean, are Vivas and Tenas going to be part of the future of this club? Is Nunez? What’s holding these hitters back?
• Jack Cebert, who probably slots in now as our #12 prospect or so, was bumped up to AAA at months end; its his 3rd level promotion since the beginning of 2026. This may be pretty aggressive, especially since he wasn’t lighting the world on fire in AA for the Yankees before coming to us, but he was solid in 3 AA starts. We’ll see.
• Isaac Lyon also got promoted to AAA with Cebert, and has also now been promoted three times just this season. He had workable numbers in AA and is also just 22, drafted last year in the 10th round, so this seems like found gold. He was the 2nd player in the Jose Ferrer trade in January along with Harry Ford.
• #21 Sam Peterson got promoted to AAA to cover for other promotions (not based on merit) and hit just .184 for the month. tough jump for the 2024 draftee .. but he’s also in AAA in his 3rd pro season.
• Trade Acquisition Ben Grable, who probably slots into the mid 20s prospect wise, blew through AA and was promoted to AAA where he is working as a SU/CL type high leverage reliever. Hmm. Maybe an alternative for our beleagured bullpen.

In AA:

• #26 Caleb Lomavita had just an .617 OPS figure, and now the team promoted 2024 3rd rounder Kevin Bazzell to be his backup and play a handful of games a month. I’m not sure I like this development; Bazzell is no slouch.
• Elijah Green watch: he “only” had 30 Ks in 20 AA games in August. Season totals: 110 games, 393 ABs, 198 strikeouts. that is greater than a 50% strikeout rate. I wonder what the MiLB record is for Ks in a season (googling did not immediately find a credible source).
• Trade acquisition Josh Hartle, who would probably slot in as the #29-30 ranked prospect, was excellent: 1.83 ERA in four appearances with a 1.02 whip and 20/8 K/BB in 19.2 innings. That’s better than I expected for a #29-30 prospect.
• Trade acquisition Joe Glassey (who we traded Franklin for even up) has this month: 9 games, 10 IP, 1 (one) hit, 10/1 K/BB. He had a 0.20 whip and a .031 BAA for the month. I’ll take that.
• Trade acquisition Kendeglys Virquez, who has a name that seems purposely difficult to write, was the 3rd guy in the Griffen trade. He’s been not good for us since arriving in AA: 8ip 5/7 K/BB in that time
  

In High-A:

• Jacob Walsh continued to mash the ball, following up on July’s 8-homer month with a 9-homer August. Slash line for the monhth: .315/.371/.708. He’s in line for 30 for the season, a great feat for the 2025 draftee.
• 2026 1st rounder Chris Hacopian, who probably slots in as the #6-#7 prospect, got half a month in Wilmington with a solid start: .275/.396/.350.

In Low-A:

• Hunter Hines, demoted mid-season from Wilmington, had the best slash line of the month; .319/.410/.694. He may be a Low/High A tweener.
• #38 Sir Jamison Jones had his second straight solid month at the plate, great for the young catching prospect. .286/.380/.452. We have a MLFA and an NDFA catching in High-A, so not much blocking him from promotion.
• #39 Rafael Ramirez Jr improved once again, showing some power and pushing his slugging into the 6s: .286/.379/.653. That’s major production for a middle infielder. Remember, he was dumped back to Low-A earlier this year; maybe its time to push him back up.
• #41 Cristian Vaquero posted an .817 OPS figure for the month on the back of some power, but it’s kind of empty given that he’s repeating the level for the FOURTH year.
• Our two 2026 drafted hitters pushed to Low-A (Ortiz and Dugger) are both struggling so far.
• Our two 2026 drafted pitchers pushed to Low-A (Howard and Konstantinovsky) haven’t really had enough results to judge.
  

FCL ended at the end of July. We seem to have promoted just a couple of guys at that point; both RHP starter types:

• Leodarlyn Colon has served as a swing man for Low-A with decent numbers: 1.38 ERA in 13ip.
• Juan Reyes: Reyes’ first three full season starts went well: 1.74 ERA in 3 games/10ip.

None of the rest of the prospects from FCL have yet to merit promotion, so no German, Cortesia, Hernandez, Martinez, Hurtado, etc.

DSL ended at the end of August. Here’s the seasonal hitting stats for the four marquee 2026 IFA signings:

• Isaias Suarez OF (corner): .197/.374/.308; a big disappointment for his $$ bonus so far. Should repeat DSL.
• Angel Ramirez OF (corner): .215/.349/.393; not the best BA but has some power and a good eye: may repeat DSL.
• Samil Serrano OF (cf): .310/.430/.538 for the season. 5 homers leading the team. There’s a reason he’s rocketing up prospect ranks
• Juan Duran 1B: .331/.438/.474 for the season: those are very solid numbers and he should be moving stateside.

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

• Ronny Bello SS: ..291/.404/.455 for the year. After repeating DSL, he’ll be in FCL for sure.
• Esnaider Vargas: Of/DH: .301/.361/.466; that’s pretty good too and he has nothing left to prove in DSL.
• Jonierbis Garces: OF (corner): .250/.373/.286; just 4 XBH all season, not good enough for a corner, but has a ton of speect (27 SBs in 46 games this year). Maybe he profiles as a plus-defender CF/speedy baserunner type. He’s either FCL or released after 2 seasons in the DR.

So, this looks like at least 4-5 DSL->FCL promotions for next season from this group.

There’s not a lot to mention out of the DSL from the pitching side: the pitching staff in the DSL was pretty bad this season. Squinting, here’s maybe a couple of guys who showed a little promise this season:

• Ranger Sarit: starter: 4.50 ERA but a .176 BAA and about a K/inning. He’s already 20 and just finished his 2nd DSL season, so its up or out probably.
• Manuel Ruiz was a LR/SS with a 4.41 ERA and a bit more than a k/inning, but he walked 21 and hit another 15 in his 32IP.

Here’s the August 2026 check-in on rotations. It has been a pretty bad month for the big-league team, but we’ve seen an interesting churn in the minors. Let’s get to it.

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 8/31/26’s Nats-Marlins game, 8/30/26’s games for the Minors.

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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
• End of July 2026: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas, Littell, Irvin (with frequent openers)
• End of August 2026: Cavalli, Irvin, Alvarez, JKent, and bullpen games

Changes since end of last Month: We traded Griffen, released Mikolas the day after he got his 10 years, released Littell finally, called up JKent, and in the absence of any other obvious starter candidates have been doing bullpen games for the 5th slot since everyone else on our 40-man roster is a reliever and Early is now on the 60-day DL.

Rotation Observations: Cavalli is turning himself into an Ace in front of our eyes: 6 August starts: 1.75 ERA, 0.88 Whip, and just 7 ER in 36ip. After years of injury issues, he’s now tied for the MLB lead in Games Started and has become our most dependable arm. Alvarez continues to defy expectations of a 12th round pick: 6 August starts, 2.45 ERA and a 0.970 whip. His BABIP for the month was not sustainable, but his impact and arsenal are inarguable. When we start talking about the 2027 rotation, his name needs to be in that discussion. Irvin remains in the rotation despite ongoing middling numbers; another 5-something ERA month. To cover for (finally) released veterans, they called up Jackson Kent, our 2024 4th rounder. He struggled in his first three starts but was excellent over the weekend. The 5th “starter” has been bullpen games, with mostly Lord and Dion doing the heavy lifting.

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
• July 2026: turned out to be Alvarez, should have been Mikolas.
• Aug 2026: With both Mikolas and Littell whacked, next in line is Irvin.

Quick bullpen thoughts: Interestingly, the team choose to cut Trevor Williams just a couple weeks after he finally came off the DL at the same time they had a gaping hole in the rotation. Why? Williams missed half of 2025 and most of 2026 and got tens of millions of dollars of Nats money to do so; he’s finally healthy so… we cut him at a time when we can’t find a bullpen guy who can get 3 guys out in the 9th?? I don’t get it; yeah maybe they’re trying to “do right” by the veteran to cut him in mid August so he can hook up with a possible playoff team, but why do we “owe” him that after we paid him $14M to give us less than 100 innings over the last two years and essentially paid him to rehab and prepare for his next contract? Perhaps this sounds callus, but I disagree with this move completely. Mikolas and Littell? yes. Williams? no.

The rest of the bullpen thoughts are repetitive: we have perhaps 2-3 relievers who are reliable, and the rest are trash. One bright spot: Will Dion, who was kind of a throw-in in the Griffen trade with Cleveland. He’s an undersized lefty who was a starter for most of his minor’s career and was pretty effective until he got to AAA, when he got moved to the bullpen. Now for us, he’s regularly giving the team 3-4 innings of nearly spotless long relief. Why don’t we look at him as a starter? As it turns out, between Lord and Dion doing 3-4 inning stints, the team hasn’t needed a real 5th starter since they whacked Littell on August 5th.

One last interesting item of note: at the present moment, the ENTIRE 40-man roster that’s not in the majors are relievers. As of this writing: we’re at 39/40. Take away 26 active players and 2 more 15day dl guys that’s 11 guys left. They’re entirely relievers in AAA. Talk about throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks.

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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
• End of July 2026: Perales, Lara, Champlain, Kent, then a slew of openers/rehab starts/bullpen games.
• End of August 2026: Champlain, Cebert, Lyon, Herz doing rehab, then 9 different openers/bullpen games.

Changes since end of last Month: The AAA rotation has been rather difficult to keep track of. Going from August’s relatively stable rotation to now: Perales converted to reliever, Lara the same, and JKent promoted. In their place, towards the end of the month the team promoted Cebert and Lyon to be “conventional” starters, but the rest of this “rotation” has been openers and bullpen games. Fair enough; the major league team needs bullpen arms more than it needs Cornelio going 5 innings, so that’s where we are and perhaps we revisit everyone next spring.

Rotation Observations: Champlain held his own: 5 “starts” with a 3.00 ERA and decent numbers. Cebert and Lyon only got one start each upon promotion so too early to tell. Herz had just one rehab start in AAA so not really worth talking about. Sorting the stats by pure IP for the rest of the long men of note: Simpson had 8 appearances and 21ip; 2.30 ERA and good K/BB numbers. Cornelio has been pretty unhittable since going down; 8 games, 14IP, 27/4 K/BB in that time; not sure why he’s not getting called backup ahead of others. Zak Kent has struggled badly; he’s a 28yr old waiver claim with a 7 ERA in AAA and i’d have to think he’s #1 on the “Next guy to get DFA’d” list when needed.

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 and our terrible bullpen
• June: Kent the only deserving candidate right now, but he’s not getting promoted anytime soon.
• July: Perales; had a good month and is on 40-man so no roster move.
• Aug: Cornelio should go back up; both June and July’s candidate are now in majors.

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
• July: Back to Lara.
• Aug: Zak Kent

Quick bullpen thoughts: In the “weirdest stat lines i’ve seen in a while,” here’s Justin Lawrence’s August splits: 12 appearances and 11.1 IP with a 6.35 ERA (ok that’s bad). In those 11.1 IP he’s given up just 6 hits (good) and another 8 walks for a WHIP of 1.24 (ok that’s ok). He has 21 Ks in those 11.1 innings (wow) and his BAA is just .150. Somehow, he gave up 8 Earned Runs along the way of these stats. Amazing. He gave up more ERs than he gave up HITS this month.

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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
• End of July 2026: Clemmey, Lyon, Randall, Maddox, Tejeda (along with 3 rehab starts and a couple of bullpen games)
• End of Aug 2026: Clemmey, Randall, Tejeda, Hartle, Susana (Cebert, Lyon for a bit, 2 rehab starts from Herz)

Changes since end of last Month: Lyon and Cebert promoted, Maddux demoted. In their place we have Hartle (trade acquisition) and Susana (finally off the DL). Swan is off the DL but is doing short inning stints for now.

Rotation Observations: Clemmey was awful this month. 7.99 ERA, a ton of walks. I’m not sure what to do here. Reports are that his velocity is way down, and so now his BAA is .319 but he’s still walking a ton of guys. Something has to give here. Randall had a 6.27 ERA this month with meh peripherals; nothing much to cheer for here. Tejeda got pulverized this month; ERA in the 9s and a .345 BAA. Trade acquisition Hartle was excellent: 1.83 ERA in four appearances with a 1.02 whip and 20/8 K/BB in 19.2 innings. Lastly we have the return of Susana; just one game so too early to tell, but I can’t imagine he’ll be doing anything else but finishing the season in AA and then heading to the AFL to get more innings.

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, but was then demoted back mid-month).
• July: Nobody is ready, but Clemmey probably pitched the best and is the longest-serving AA guy. Maybe another month of this and they could consider him, but at his age, there’s no reason to push him to AAA right now.
• August: Hartle

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• April: Luckham.
• May: still Luckham.
• June: Chemmey
• July: Luckham, who got removed from rotation. Now likely Randall.
• Aug: Randall still isn’t good, but Clemmey and Tejeda are concerning.

Quick bullpen thoughts: There’s definitely a couple of arms to point out in AA since we acquired a bunch of them in the trade deadline. In particular: Joe Glassey (who we traded Franklin for even up) has this month: 9 games, 10 IP, 1 (one) hit, 10/1 K/BB. He had a 0.20 whip and a .031 BAA for the month. I’ll take that. Our other received asset was Virquez, who was the 3rd guy in the Griffen trade. He’s been not good for us since arriving in AA: 8ip 5/7 K/BB in that time. Lastly a mention of Holden Powell, who got demoted from AAA earlier this year but who is pitching well in what could be his last year here; the 2020 draftee is inching up on 6years with us.

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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
• End of July 2026: Sime, Tepper, Fischer, Sthele, Sullivan (plus 3 rehab starts, and a slew of one-offs).
• End of Aug 2026: Maddox, Sime, Fisher, Sullivan, Biven (likely Sales coming back into the rotation in Sept)

Changes since end of last Month: Maddox was demoted down from AA, Tepper hit the DL, and the team released Sthele. Biven has been doing openers in the interim, plus Susana got 3 rehab starts before returning to the AA rotation.

Rotation Observations: Maddox is clearly in a difficult tweener spot: he gave up 1 run in 23 innings for the month. Honestly, he wasn’t really that bad in AA and I think he needs to go backup there. Unfortunately for him the team acquired an entire rotation of AA starters at the deadline, so there’s a bit of a log jam. Sime continues to strike guys out at ridiculous rates (26 ks in 14ip in August) but is still walking guys at a walk an inning. Somehow he maintained a 1.26 ERA for the month. Fischer continues to hang around despite being an NDFA last year. Sullivan struggled badly in August with an ERA in the 9s. Biven has been operating as an Opener and had 5 “starts” for the season, mostly giving way to others. RJ Sales had a few rehab starts in Fredericksburg and is back on the active roster; i’d imagine he’ll take either Sullivan or Biven’s spot.

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 (who was also promoted on 7/22)
• July: Sime
• Aug: Maddox

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 (indeed he was demoted on 7/8)
• July: Tepper
• August: Sullivan

Quick bullpen thoughts: In the organization’s continual efforts to find relievers, High-A’s bullpen is now filled with MLFAs. Montero, Roberts, Stuart, Dannelly, Jimenez and Hughes all in this category, to go along with a minor league Rule5 guy in Huizi. Hopefully they find some diamonds in the rough here.

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Low-A Fredericksburg

• 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.
• End of July 2026: Johnson, De La Cruz, Harmon, Meckley, Millikan, Reyes (with a bunch of openers)
• End of August 2026: De La Cruz, Harmon, Meckley, Reyes, Portorreal (plus rehab starts from Sales and Herz)

Changes since end of last Month: Johnson released (more on that in a second), Millikan turned more into a long-relief guy. Replaced by Portorreal, who came off the DL after 5 weeks or so.

Rotation Observations: Luke Johnson, 10th rounder out of UMBC who has been more than holding his own, was inexplicably released mid month. He had a 3.35 ERA this season as a 24yr old swing man repeating Low-A. For a team that has multiple players with ERAs in the 7s or higher, it makes zero sense to release this guy at this point in the season … unless there’s a dreaded “off the field” reason for it. I’m sure someone knows something, but that’s what that had to be.

De la Cruz struggled once again; a 7ERA for the month on top of an abhorrent July. Harmon did five 3-inning starts and is rock solid; he gave up 2 earned runs for the month, one via a solo homer in early August. Its too bad he’s not more stretched out thanks to injury, else he’d be ripe to promote. Meckley was just ok, he should be better having been demoted down from High-A. Reyes’ first three full season starts went well: 1.74 ERA in 3 games/10ip. Portorreal’s return from the DL was solid: lets see if he can continue.

Next guy to get promoted:

• April: Meckley; indeed he was promoted
• May: Fischer
• June: Fischer, who was actually promoted 7/1. Should be Johnson
• July: None. The low-A rotation is a mess. Gus Hughes as a long reliever is best option to promote this month and indeed he was.
• Aug: Harmon

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 (put on Dev list mid-month in July)
• July: Meckley or De la Cruz. Probably Meckey since he’s 3 years older.
• Aug: Meckley again, and De La Cruz again.

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Rookie FCL

The FCL season ended on July 23rd.

• 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
• End of Season 2026: Reyes, Robles, Lopez, Bothwell, Millikan, Medina

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Rookie DSL

The season ended mercifully on August 29th. Our DSL Nats finished 14-40 for the season, 3rd worst in the DSL.

Reminder: The Milb.com DSL 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
• End of July 2026: Manzueta, Sarit, Carela, Reynoso, Thomas
• End of Season 2026: Manzueta, Sarit, Carela, Reynoso, Thomas

Changes since end of last Month: No changes really; a couple of guys were “Long relievers” probably doing tandem starts with some of these guys (Carrasco, Salas, and Ruiz).

Rotation Observations: Some big ERA numbers in this group: Reynoso and Manzueta both had double digit ERAs for the season. Reynoso walked 40 and sruck out 25 in 25innings; that’s hilarous. Manzueta struck out 39 and walked 39 in his 35 innings. Thomas not much better with an 8.71 ERA. Sarit had a solid BAA of .176 but couldn’t find the plate. Carela had more walks than Ks (22 to 21). Long Relivers Carrasco and Salas had ugly ERAs; Ruiz was the best of them with a 4.41 figure

Best stat line of the season: Edinson Hernandez. 10 games, 8innings. He walked 23 guys in 8 innings and gave up 19 runs for an ERA figure of 19.13 and a 3.75 whip. It’s like he’s in a slow pitch softball league.

Next guy to get promoted:

• June: Medina (indeed, promoted mid July)
• July: none.
• Aug: Nobody; i wouldn’t promote a single arm off this team.

Next guy to get cut/demoted:

• June: Manzueta
• July: Manzueta or Sarit, who’s a year older and repeating the level with no good results.
• Aug: I’ll be shocked if Manzueta and Reynoso are on the team come June next year.

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That’s it for August 2026.