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my own personal top 20 to drive the rankings, the ones I posted right after the season started and which are a bit outdated.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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Travis Sykora: RHP (starter) AA: out for the season, the injury report lists his return as 2027. Temperature: on ice.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- Davian Garcia, RHP (starter) AA; On the full-season DL, hopefully to return in 2027. Temperature: on ice.
- Yeremy Cabrera CF High-A: has struggled upon his promotion; hit just .205 this month. Temperature: hot to get to High-A, now cold.
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
Thanks for the rundown, Todd. Always appreciate these posts.
As usual, I have a few quibbles.
First, you have Ford as “still cool” despite a 132 wRC+ in June. Fien ran a similar line and earned a “warming up”, for contrast.
(Relatedly, I think it’s wild that Ford not even in your top 10. All because of 150 bad PAs while he’s learning a new org and a new pitching staff. That’s harsh.)
Next, and I flagged this last month too, but “still cold” is way unfair to Coy James. He had a league average line in May and he had a league average line in June. Nothing amazing, but that’s decent for a 19 year old in the SS rotation. He should be lukewarm.
Last, and least importantly, you highlight Ortiz and Petersen for their poor averages, but they both put up league average lines in June thanks to Ortiz’s power and Petersen’s walks. I wouldn’t argue that either is a top prospect (I have them both around 30th in the org), but I do think they’re both playing more “fine” than “bad”.
SMS
6 Jul 26 at 1:53 pm
I posted something similar over at NatsProspects a week ago, but I found it really interesting. No doubt promotions are a big challenge, so you’d expect players’ performance to drop off after promotion, but the degree of drop off among nearly every promoted player is pretty astounding.
As best I can tell 11 prospect hitters have been promoted this season, here’s their wRC+ difference (wRC+ before / after promotion)
1. Willits -13 (147 in A / 130 in A+) Interestingly, after Willits’ red hot start, he’s actually performing worse at Wilmington than he was in Fredericksburg, still a great performance post-promotion.
2. Petry -56 (135 in A+ / 79 in AA)
3. King -59 (162 in AA / 103 in AAA)
4. Walsh -64 (135 in A / 71 in A+)
5. White -77 (125 in A+ / 48 in AA)
6. Hines -95 (143 in A / 48 in A+, but this is after being promoted and then demoted)
7. Moroknek -113 (157 in A / 44 in A+)
8. Cruz -118 (187 in A / 69 in A+)
9. Cabrera -127 (189 in A / 62 in A+)
10. Fitz-Gerald -127 (131 in A+ / 14 in AA)
11. Wallace -238 (LOL! 138 in AA / -100 in AAA, though this shouldn’t be taken seriously as we’re dealing with 6 PA in AAA)
Willits is really in his own tier. King is the only other batter to (just barely) bat above average post-promotion, and the next best is Petry with a 79 wRC+. The drop off from Hines, Moroknek, Cruz, Cabrera and Fitz-Gerald is crazy. They’ve gone from the best hitters in their respective leagues to the worst. Fitz-Gerald in particular has me worried. Since he moved to Harrisburg, he’s been a fundamentally different hitter to the one we saw in his previous 100 pro games. A silver lining is that he’s recently cut down on a worrying spike in his strikeout rate, “only” striking out 8 times in his past 31 PA. But the walks still aren’t bouncing back, only walking 3 times in that same period. In retrospect, they timed his promotion really badly. He was in a bad slump in Wilmington, going 1 for his past 24 with 9 Ks, which he’s obviously carried with him to AA, and hasn’t been able to shake since after almost 100 plate appearances in AA. Unfortunately, I think it was too much too soon for him, and a reset back in Wilmington is needed.
Will
6 Jul 26 at 3:22 pm
from K Law:
seen Willits a few times now…is, in fact, very, very good… clearly stronger than he was last year..looks 10-15 pounds bigger…shown a much better approach at the plate than I think anyone expected…also easily a 70 defender at short.
FredMD
7 Jul 26 at 8:53 am
Fitz-Gerald getting the bump up was also to make room for Willits. with Cruz and Feliz still there he’s not going back
FredMD
7 Jul 26 at 9:06 am
KLAW “70 defender at short” … uhoh. that means actually he’s a 45 from everyone else 🙂
BA just released their Farm system rankigns; we’re up to #4 from #16 on their list in January. That’s fire.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-farm-system-midseason-talent-rankings-for-july-2026/?utm_source=BAPR&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new-mlb-farm-system-rankings&_bhlid=a535bbea51eb43e116b1a7a8ad13918cd169e28a
Todd Boss
7 Jul 26 at 9:28 am
Fitz-Gerald has only played 19 of his 72 games at SS this season. Most scouting reports have pegged him as likely a 2B in the future anyway. Plus, with Toboni’s obsession with positional flexibility, there’s no problem having four guys: Willits, Cruz, Feliz and Fitz-Gerald capable of playing 4 positions: SS, 2B, 3B and DH. A week ago, it would’ve spelled trouble for Randal Diaz, but he’s gone. Now, it might cut into Jorgelys Mota’s playing time, but keeping with the trend, he’s also been playing a lot of OF this season. So that’s also not so much of a problem.
A few guys have already been demoted this season (Hines, for example). But it’ll be interesting to see how long they let Fitz-Gerald flounder before they’re forced into a move. There’s little harm in admitting a mistake and you pushed a guy too soon. Fitz-Gerald is, after all, exceptionally young for even Wilmington (2 years below average) and incredibly young for Harrisburg.
Will
7 Jul 26 at 9:41 am
LOL, Todd, I had the same reaction to seeing that 70 grade!
I don’t have a BA sub, but is that based on the extremely ambitious (and looking increasingly premature) bumps from Ronny Cruz, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Yeremy Cabrera? Did all 3 of them get into the top 100?
After Cruz’s hot start, he’s now got a pretty unremarkable line of .250/.322/.405 on the season, good for a 92 wRC+. Same story for Fitz-Gerald: .232/.328/.432, 99 wRC+. When you consider their ages, it’s a fine performance, but it doesn’t scream top 100 prospect.
Or is the jump based off other teams graduating their top tier prospects (Pirates graduating Griffin/Chandler, Tigers McGonigle, etc.)?
Will
7 Jul 26 at 10:27 am
@will: BA’s top 100 right now: https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2026-top-100-prospects/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new-top-100-top-30s&_bhlid=11ce56414e4e6dd71f450d6f12d4980a5da6e089
Nats in their top 100 (and where they were a month ago):
13: Willits (was 21 a month ago)
38: King (was 50)
54: Susana (was 55)
66. Devin Fitz-Gerald (was 71)
85: Ronny Cruz was 93
So, that’s a top 100 that doesn’t have former top 100 guys like Sykora, Ford or Fein. So that’s 5 in the top 100, 8 in the top 125-150 or so, which is a huge number and why they’ve gone from #16 ranked system in january to #4 right now. I don’t think its an unreasonable jump frankly. And, it could be even higher: MLBPipeline has Willits all the way up at #3 right now!
Todd Boss
7 Jul 26 at 12:12 pm
I am pleased that the new suggestion is that the organization promoted prospects prematurely, given that for the first couple of months the primary complaint was that the organization wasn’t promoting prospect fast enough.
I’m at least open to the possibility that they are doing this correctly. The early results are not how a promotion should be judged, it’s whether the player and coaching staff can make the adjustments to the higher level of competition. It would be more surprising if none (or even most) of the prospects did NOT struggle at some point.
John C.
7 Jul 26 at 4:02 pm
@Will: agree that drastically changing a player’s trajectory/ranking based on a month’s work is folly. Then again, without these rankings to argue about, what would we do all day? 🙂
@JohnC: I do feel like this organization is promoting aggressively as compared to last regime. We used to expect the same pattern with players: they’d get promoted once, mid-season, finish out the year at the aggressive higher level, start there the next season, then when they prove they solve it get another mid-season promotion. We’re not seeing that; we’re seeing much faster movement. I’m ok with it. When it became clear that Sime was unhittable in Low-A when he threw it across the plate (54ks in 26innings), you move him up to a point where hitters aren’t just getting blown away and he’s forced to rely on secondary offerings, command, control, etc. Honestly, so far in High-A it’s more of the same: 30ks/20bb in 19ip, though this time through 6 starts he’s keeping runs off the board somehow (3.26 ERA). If he keeps up a 14 K/9 rate i’d promote him again. At some point he’ll hit a level that he needs to work at.
Todd Boss
8 Jul 26 at 9:20 am