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Quick Reactions to Four Full Season Rosters

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Andrew Alvarez got the opening day start for AAA Rochester. Photo via Fred Nats

Today on April 1st, we got the three remaining full-season rosters for our affiliates. This is not an April Fools Prank 🙂

Here’s quick links to the data (though Luke Erickson has already done a great job of distilling the information for us at this post for AAA and this post for the other three).

Here’s the direct links to official Press Releases and/or other social media roster announcements:

The Nats Big Board is now up to date for all four rosters. I’ve slotted in all the players in the roles I think they’re set to take for now (will adjust this as we get real games to see who’s actually in what job), and moved all others to XST.

Here’s some random thoughts of each roster, from AAA to low-A

AAA

  • There’s not enough playing time to go around for our 40-man middle infielders. One from Baker, Nunez, and Lipscomb (all of whom are 2B/SS guys) has to sit. Opening day it was surprisingly Baker not starting.
  • They only really have 3 true outfielders on this roster: their bench bats/DH types are 1B only (Yepez, Cordero) or backup middle infield (Cluff) thanks to the team keeping a 3rd catcher.
  • They’re carrying a 3rd catcher in Lindsly, and Knizner declined his option to leave and now is the backup in AAA. Interesting. Maybe he’s actually the starter in AAA since he was kept in MLB camp longer than Millas. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
  • Paul Witt was a catcher, then an outfielder, now he’s being called a 3B. What’s more amazing is that he’s made it to AAA despite a career .210 batting average as a NDFA from the Covid 2020 year.
  • With the team finally acknowledging that Adon and Rutledge can’t start, the rotation was pretty easy to figure out. Alvarez, Lara, Ogasawara got the first three slots, and (we’ll find out the rest soon) but the other two starters kind of have to be Choi and Solesky. They already threw Plinkington and Adon in middle relief … so perhaps that was their “throw day” and they’ll start later this week, but we’ll see. Likely starter Stuart starts on the DL, otherwise rule-5 pick Choi may be in AA.
  • I like Solesky pushed to AAA. I was worried about exposing him to Rule5, perhaps a dumb take, but now he’s got an opportunity to shine in Rochester.
  • It’s go-time for back-end relievers Sinclair and Romero; if they can continue to light it up while MLB’ers falter, they’ll get promoted in no time.

AA

  • As it turned out, the team kept Wallace in AA, meaning there’s no 3B push for playing time split in AAA with House.
  • (Yes, I know some of you readers think that’s dumb, that House hasn’t proved he’s the man yet, etc etc, just trying to think like a Nats player development executive who gave House $5M of the team’s money three years ago).
  • AA seems to have four guys who all play basically the same position now: Wallace, Glasser, Lawson, and Arruda. All four seem to be the kinds of players who played SS in the past but who now are better suited to be 2B/3B types. I wonder how the playing time will shake out. Does the team keep Wallace at 3B, or do they have him start to work on 2B with the assumption that 3B is blocked?
  • Maxwell Romero now starting Catcher in AA. I may have to push him up my prospect rankings.
  • The AA roster shows that we have somewhat of a “gap” in our player dev pipeline. No fewer than 8 of the 28 rostered players in AA are MLFA signings from last off-season or the one before. That’s a lot.
  • Where is Kevin Made? Is he hurt?
  • Just one 40-man guy in AA: the converting to relief Cole Henry. I would imagine he’ll move up to AAA as soon as he shows he’s got it.
  • The rotation in AA should be: Shuman, Luckham, Saenz, Susana, Atencio. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Susana holds up here. He did not look good in the breakout game. Saenz and Luckham probably have the most to prove.
  • Knowles on the 60-day to start, otherwise he’d be in the SP mix. Cuevas lost his rotation spot last year and could replace a faltering guy. We’ll see.

High-A

  • Three of our more important prospects start in High-A: 2024 1st rounder King, 1st-Supp Lomavita, and 4th rounder Kent (who makes his pro debut).
  • Wilmington’s lineup is YOUNG. 5 of the 9 guys who I think start opening day are 20 or 21 in High-A. Cruz, King, Green, Cox, and White. Wow; all five of those guys have single-syllable names like me. 🙂
  • Both Green and Cox get “socially promoted” like the Football coach’s idiot son.
  • White set to repeat Low-A for the third time.
  • Both the above sentences exhibits #1 and #1A why drafting HS players is risky.
  • I wonder if LSU-product Gavin Dugas could be a player. I was listening to the new Nats podcast with Dan Kolko and Ryan Zimmerman called 11th inning (it’s actually quite good) and Zimmerman was talking about the his opinion of Dylan Crews from spring training. He talked about how Crews carries himself like a 10year veteran when it comes to preparation and training … making the comment that the LSU program does a great job preparing these guys. Dugas was a monster in college, a guy who stayed til he was a senior and provided a ton of leadership. Would love to see him make it as a hard-contact 2B.
  • The rotation looks like it’ll be Clemmey, Tepper, Davis, Sthele, and 2024 draftee Kent. Cornelio may have run out of rope with his 5.51 ERA last year.
  • We’re missing a couple of big names though who should be in this rotation instead: Bennett and Sykora. Bennett coming off of TJ, Sykora coming off some minor off-season surgery, so both are in XST for a bit. They probably would have replaced Sthele and Tepper.
  • The bullpen is a motley collection of NDFAs, 8-9th rounders, MLFAs and Rule5 guys.

Low-A

  • As expected, Lomavita starting Catcher at one A-ball roster and Bazzell at the other. We’ll see who wins the race going forward. If Bazzell is as good as Keith Law Thinks, we’ll know soon enough.
  • Former decent prospect Quintana demoted from High-A to F-burg to presumably DH.
  • Name to keep an eye on: Carlos Tavares. 2023IFA signing for only $10k, one of the few to even make it to FCL for 2024, where he had an OPS of .869 last year and now is in Low-A as a 19yr old who doesn’t turn 20 til the season is over. Listed as an OF but played mostly 1B last year.
  • 2024 draftee Diaz will slate into the starting lineup here and comprise part of the left side of Fredericksburg’s infield presumably. Diaz getting some prospect buzz.
  • 2024 9th rounder Jackson Ross, a 5th year senior who got just $2k, breaks camp with the Low-A team. Bravo.
  • Big Money signing Vaquero back here, repeating Low-A, seeing if he can improve on .190. Hey, get enough of a signing bonus (ahem Green) and you’ll get promoted eventually.
  • Just like in 2024, the team seems to use Fredericksburg’s 60-day DL as its dumping grounds for injured minor league arms. There’s already 3 guys on there to start 2025 (Sullivan, Agostini, and Camilio Sanchez).
  • The rotation should be Roman, Polanco, Tolman (coming off 60-day dl last year), 2024 6th rounder Davian Garcia, and 2024 7th rounder Robert Cranz. Cranz appeared on both BA and Law’s top 30 list.
  • Most of the bullpen are 2024 middle round draftees, and there’s still a handful more in XST who have yet to get assigned anywhere.
  • There’s not too many players still sitting in FCL who i thought should be in Low-A honestly. The most notable/high profile player there right now is Luke Dickerson, who wasn’t goign to be starting at SS in Low-A anywya.
  • Notables missing from the Low-A roster who were there last year: Rafael Ramirez Jr (we got him in the Lane Thomas trade), Brayan Romero (the random guy who popped up on the BA top 30 list earlier this year), Sykora as discussed before, Starter Pablo Aldonis (who was on the 60-day dl last year), and a slew of middle relievers and bench players who likely are going to comprise the majority of the cuts we’ll start to see as the team starts to add DSL guys to FCL rosters and/or adds the 2025 draft class.

On the Big board, i’m leaving FCL for now, though technically FCL=XST. I went ahead and moved all the 2025IFAs to DSL just to stick them there; DSL now has 42 players on it, which is a ton and we’ll see some churn (promotions to FCL and releases).

thoughts?

Written by Todd Boss

April 1st, 2025 at 2:35 pm

6 Responses to 'Quick Reactions to Four Full Season Rosters'

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  1. I expect Nunez’s defense at short will ensure he gets most of the starts there unless his bat completely craters. But it will be interesting to see if and for how long the team keeps both Lipscomb and Baker getting regular PAs. You have the figure the less highly regarded of the two is very marginal for a roster spot.

    And I don’t think there’s any conflict at all around House and Wallace’s placements. House doesn’t have anything locked up, but he’s ahead in the pecking order. House gets his chance, and if he fails and Wallace thrives, then Wallace will get his chance. House in AAA and Wallace in AA is clearly correct. LG blocks Wallace at 2nd more than House blocks him at 3rd.

    In addition to Made and Ramirez, Sam Petersen is also somewhat surprisingly MIA. I wonder if he’ll show up among the IL moves too.

    SMS

    1 Apr 25 at 5:18 pm

  2. MILB.com rosters/transactions not yet updated for these roster announcements, fyi. So there might be DL placements that explain missing names.

    Todd Boss

    2 Apr 25 at 8:22 am

  3. Fredericksburg dropped their transactions today. Ramirez, Petersen, and B Romero are all on their 7-day IL.

    Made is the only notable name still missing.

    SMS

    2 Apr 25 at 7:52 pm

  4. https://www.milb.com/rochester/roster/transactions/washington-nationals

    There’s all the minor league transactions from today; dozens of them. A slew of players who were in XST now on DLs. Still about 15 players in XST, some of whom may have been released and we just don’t know. Still no word about top 30 prospects Made, Bennett as the two biggest/most near-term imppact names. Jones prep big bonus guy is probably in XST until FCL so no surprise there. The rest of the XST guys are middle relievers and lesser prospects.

    Todd Boss

    2 Apr 25 at 9:31 pm

  5. The Nats seem to be recalibrating on their aggressive promotions, at least concerning where they start players. Last year they pushed draft picks Crews (admittedly, thought to be a high-level prospect), Morales, and Pinckney all the way to AA to start their first full pro seasons. None could be said to have excelled, despite Crews’s promotions (and major struggles starting this season). For 2025, King and Lomavita are at A+ and Bazzell and Diaz at A. Some may see those starting levels as a little disappointing, but I’m hopeful that they’ll be more appropriate and that the players can excel.

    In past seasons, they’ve begun vaunted high school picks like House, Green, White, Lile, and Sykora at full-season A. This year it looks like Dickerson will start in the FCL. Presumably so will Angel Feliz.

    I’m glad that Wallace and Morales will be given a chance for solid starts at AA after injury struggles in 2024. It will be interesting to see if Wallace is at 2B (as he was in the spring) or 3B. SSS, but Garcia’s slow start is concerning. (But not as concerning as Crews’s.)

    The system now has a ton of guys with at least a shot at being major leaguers, so it will be a fun year following to see who is emerging.

    KW

    3 Apr 25 at 7:48 pm

  6. KW, there does indeed seem to be a more cautious approach to the college bats this season, some of which is driven by playing time concerns (Bazzell and Lomavita would presumably ideally both start in Wilmington, but if you want to get them experience behind the plate, something’s gotta give). But I think there’s also an added layer of “readiness” among our 2022/23 picks and our 2024 picks. Crews and Morales were somewhat advanced bats with 3 seasons of top conference experience under their belt, and Pinckney a senior draft pick. While King, in particular, is a much bigger project than college juniors tend to be, only having played one season of top tier college ball, and who was completely off the draft radar in 2023. Lomavita and Bazzell, however, I might have expected a more aggressive approach, but if they’d both have been sent to Wilmington this would’ve been less apparent.

    However, among the HS picks, I don’t recall any HS bat going straight to Fredericksburg. White, Lile, House and Green all spent their first season in teh FCL. The frustrating difference is that you can no longer send your draft picks to the FCL in the same season they’re drafted due to the insanely ill advised change to the FCL’s schedule. This just pushes all HSers development path at least a half season behind, as all of the aforementioned picks then debuted the following season in A ball (though Green had to return there eventually).

    Will

    4 Apr 25 at 4:56 am

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