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.
Carrying forward our thread from the last post. I’m continually fascinated by which players get hyped and which don’t. I’ve ranted ad nauseum about this in the inverse with Morales, so I won’t go there. But we’re witnessing first hand players getting irrationally hyped without necessarily the performance to back it up with Cruz and Fitz-Gerald. Its super interesting, because I can’t recall in recent years any Nats prospect getting undue attention. But I’m realizing guys who start slowly get unfairly penalized here. Not just Morales, but House routinely pendulated off the lists and around #60 overall across like 4 seasons. He, like Morales, started slowly, and got knocked by these mid-season check ins. Ford is now getting destroyed in the same way.
I think BA, and prospectors more generally, making this a year long endeavor rather than an annual reflection runs the risk of becoming too reliant on small sample sizes. Ronny Cruz is indeed very young, a 19 tear old in A+, but he’s on the whole this season been below average (combined 92 wRC+ and a miserable 69wRC+ in A+), but because his hot spell synced up with their May review, he’s now a top 100 prospect and not an unremarkable player in the 20s, like in January.
The other risk is that after another bad month or two from Cruz or someone else – you could make a case for everyone in the top 10 except Willits and Kent – and the Nats rise to #4 system could plummet back to 16 (or even worse) in July or Augusts next review.
Will
7 Jul 26 at 4:01 pm