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my own personal top 20 to drive the rankings, the ones I posted right after the season started and which are a bit outdated at this point.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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Angel Felix, SS High-A: Not good. .179 BA for the month and just a .674 OPS for the season. Temperature: cold.
- Yoel Tejeda Jr. RHP (starter) AA: Tejeda got pulverized this month; ERA in the 9s and a .345 BAA. Yikes. Temperature: super cold.
- 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
- 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.
- Davian Garcia, RHP (starter) AA; On the full-season DL, hopefully to return in 2027. No new news. Temperature: on ice.
- Yeremy Cabrera CF High-A: Halfway decent slash line for this squad: .241/.306/.391. Not great overall. Temperature: cool.
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.