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my own personal top 20 to drive the rankings, the ones I posted right after the season started and which are a bit outdated at this point.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 2025 IFA 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.
Pretty much agree with all these grades. Maybe I’m a little more forgiving on Ford, who ran an adequate 91 wRC+ in August (though it was front loaded, which makes it feel like a worse month than it was).
And, on Perales, not to disagree with the grade, but I think the write up is too pessimistic. I was against the Bennett trade from the jump and it only looks worse today, but I think we have to read Perales’s shift to relief as short term innings management and not a long term shift. I’m pretty sure the team still considers him a high variance SP prospect, not too dissimilar to how he was evaluated on the day of the trade. Also, he’s a strong candidate for a 4th option, so he can work on his control in AAA next season and not be forced on to the active roster.
Re Elijah Green, the most strikeouts I’m seeing is Lazaro Armenteros who racked up 227 in 2019. That might not be the record, as FG’s MiLB stats only go back to 2006, but Ks have generally increased over time, so it’s as good a guess as any. Green is pacing to a pretty similar mark, so it will be a fun milestone watch. (Green’s personal best was 206 in 2024, but I’m pretty sure he’ll best that.)
SMS
3 Sep 26 at 12:56 pm
On Perales: I have no hope for him, clearly. Wasn’t a fan of the trade at the time, and every time the guy takes the mound he makes the trade look worse.
Todd Boss
3 Sep 26 at 5:03 pm
What kills me is that it would have been easy for our OD rotation to have been: Gore, Cavalli, Griffin, Bennett and Irvin. And Alvarez taking over SP5 when Irvin got hurt (approx 6/1).
That rotation doesn’t have an ace, but it combines to 12.8 fWAR, which would rank 5th in majors.
You pair a top 5 rotation with a top 5 offense, and we’re in a wild card spot even with this waiver wire bullpen. And if you also imagine them spending just $20M AAV on 2 or 3 decent relievers. Man, what a season it could have been.
SMS
3 Sep 26 at 6:09 pm
It’s really nice to see Fitz-Gerald, Cruz and Cabrera finally show some signs of life. The former two have already fallen off most top 100 lists, so maybe the late mini-resurgence will give the remaining believers some pause.
I’d suggest adding one more to the notables section: Juan Cruz in Fredericksburg. He is an easily overlooked 20th round pick last year, and has had a very good season, posting a 120 wRC+ overall, and a solid August (.726 OPS). He appears limited to 1B. But he’s still only 21 years old (turns 22 next week), and almost the exact same age as teammate Cristhian Vaquero, and less than a year older than other guys we think of as young, like Luke Dickerson and Yeremy Cabrera.
On Lomavita: what an awful season. His bat has been okay. Disappointing, since his bat was meant to be his carrying tool, but fine, at a 102 wRC+ in AA. But his glove has been a disaster, and if he can’t stick at catcher, then that 102 wRC+ looks a lot less interesting. He committed his 26th and 27th errors last night, and we thought his 21 from last season was bad… But worst of all, he’s been almost completely unable to stop baserunners, something he was quite good at in past seasons. He’s caught only 14% of stolen base attempts this year (19 of 140), compared to 25% last year and 39% the year before… Somehow Bazzell, after his own struggles to start his career, might be the better prospect. It’s sad that the 2024 draft class is already looking quite bleak. After Jackson Kent and Seaver King, there’s a lot more theoretical talent than actual results.
We’re now up to day 11 since the last Gavin Fien sighting. Keith Law even did a write up on a Fred Nats game and commented on how Fien didn’t play, but didn’t have an explanation for his absence either. At this point, what’s stopping the Nats from just retroactively applying the 10 day IL tag? There’s no shortage of guys on the development/XST list who could benefit from those ABs.
Will
4 Sep 26 at 6:21 am
SMS, it’s actually an interesting thought experiment to imagine how good this team would’ve been if we just did nothing at all.
Major league FA/trade additions:
Mikolas – -0.9 WAR
Littell – -0.5
Griffin – +1.9
Mead – +1.5
Vivas – +0.9
Ford – +0.4
Perales – -0.1
Trade subtractions:
Bennett – +2.4
Ferrer – +0.1
Gore – +2.8
Net: -1.2 WAR, which doesn’t touch upon the dozens of numerous MiLFAs and waiver claims we’ve made. But the depends on a pretty heavy serving of retrospection. (I liked Bennett, but didn’t expect him to be THIS good. And I didn’t think both Wood and Abrams would be this good either.)
But what irritated me the most at the time and in retrospect was the total disregard of the bullpen all offseason. Even if you don’t want to spend $20-30m on relievers, there’s still lots of talent to be had. Relievers due to their fungibility are exactly the sort of player bad teams can recruit and then flip the ones that put together a positive season at the trade deadline to replenish the farm system. Good teams are happy to pay the bad teams to figure out who turns out to be good, as evidenced by the surprisingly high returns for RPs each year at the trade deadline. In addition, without having a closer, the Nats should have also been an extremely enticing destination for at least one non-Tier 1 reliever.
Instead, we didn’t just sit on our hands, but we actively undermined our already awful bullpen depth, by adding superfluous players (like an 8th OF (Joey Wiemer) and an 8th middle infielder (Jorbit Vivas)), at the expense of reliever spots. I’d love someone to quantify the added value of Joey Wiemer instead of Christian Franklin or Jorbit Vivas instead of Trey Lipscomb at the expense of an actual usable roster spot.
Instead of “getting by” with only 7 OFs or 7 MIFs on the 40 man, we opted to release or give away Jake Eder, Julian Fernandez, Richard Lovelady, Drew Smith, George Soriano (though we turned him into Andre Granillo), Zack Brzykcy and Konnor Pilkington this winter. Are they stars? No. But many are better options than Max Kranick and Tom Cosgrove. And if you’re not going to spend money on quality relievers (we did not; we did not sign a single reliever to a major league contract this winter), then you need to play the quantity game, and the team was very clearly caught unprepared for this. So in the end we not only accidentally torpedoed our season by assembling one of the worst bullpens in history, but we ALSO missed an opportunity to improve our farm system, by flipping a few of them at the deadline (such trades in the recent past brought in guys like Cayden Wallace, RJ Sales, Andres Chaparro and Josh Randall).
If Toboni only invested a bit more time in a bullpen with the view to flipping the best pieces at the deadline (imagine having 2026’s version of Dylan Floro, Kyle Finnegan, and Hunter Harvey instead), we might have been frighteningly good.
Will
4 Sep 26 at 7:22 am
Nats run differental improved from -214 in 2025 to +14 in 2026!
Nats farm system ranks in the top 10 after being in the bottom half last year.
somehow when I look up I don’t see the sky falling.
FredMD
4 Sep 26 at 8:16 am
@Will – I agree with you that the disastrous bullpen (1) is the biggest reason we aren’t in the playoff mix and (2) was easily preventable. And I agree that, because of the deadline market, bad teams who sign decent relievers tend to make out pretty well even when things go sideways team-wide. I even agree that the opportunity to close would have been a serious enticement.
But the fix required was paying good players actual money, and not just freeing up a couple more roster spots to play the waiver game a little bit more than they already are. Here are the guys you namechecked, and what the Nats missed out on.
Jake Eder: -0.1 fwAR since leaving the Nats, currently not affiliated with a team
Julian Fernandez: no one picked him up after the Nats released him
Richard Lovelady: still with the Nats, on the 60 day IL, just started a rehab assignment
Drew Smith: picked up by the Twins after we released him, never made it out of AAA and was released by them in June, currently not with any team
George Soriano: -0.3 fWAR for the Cardinals since we traded him, but active and giving them significant innings
Andre Granillo: did not appear in a ML game for the Tigers and, a month after they claimed him, they were able to pass him through waivers and outright him to AAA (where he has a 6+ ERA and FIP, fwiw)
Konnor Pilkington: did poorly for Detroit’s AAA team and got released, currently not with any team.
Zach Brzykcy: pitched 3 decent innings for Miami this year but has spent 95% of the year in AAA (~5.20 ERA/FIP). (My take is that he’s genuinely the one that got away.)
But put Brzykcy and Soriano back on our squad in place of Kranick and Cosgrove and nothing changes. What they needed to do was sign players that could command non-minimum contracts, and a huge part of any potential success next year (assuming there’s a season) rests on whether that lesson has been learned by Toboni and/or the Lerners.
SMS
4 Sep 26 at 3:33 pm
2027 Bullpen: you think we can find 8 guys out of this list?
Beeter, Ribalta, Kranick, Tolman, Perales, Lord, Dion, Simpson, Cornelio, Waldron, Waldichuk, Parker, Lovelady, Poulin, Z.Kent, Cruz, Nicolas, Yean, Bird, Schultz, Mills, Henry, Palmquist?
Because that’s what our 40-man relief corps looks like right now. 23 frigging guys. You’d think they could find 8 competent arms out of that.
Todd Boss
4 Sep 26 at 5:22 pm
Has anyone gotten eyes-on Fitz-Gerald since 8/12? He was otu after 7/26, came back for 3 non-productive games 8/5-7, then sat up to 8/12. It’s after that he started his tear. Law caught 8/5 game and roasted DFG’s hitting approach (it was also a Clemmey start so you can pinpoint the date even though it’s not in the article). Said ” he’s swinging much more uphill now than he was at the start of the year, which is producing more swing-and-miss without more production to balance it out. It’s like watching a completely different player from the one I saw in April.” I am really interested in whether there has been a change in the flaw KLaw picked up and whether his swing reverted to what he did when he had success. I wonder if this was something he worked before being reinserted in the lineup.
jca
4 Sep 26 at 5:29 pm
@Todd – If I squint, for 2027 I think I’m OK with Ribalta, Dion, Lord, maybe Simpson, maybe Tolman, Beeter in a lower leverage spot other than closer, and Cornelio as an up and down long guy. Get closer and some of those other guys with options might be usable cannon fodder. But get a closer, preferably a righty.
Jca
4 Sep 26 at 5:38 pm
Todd, I think many of our best bullpen options for 2027 aren’t yet on the 40 man roster.
Grable, Glassey, Mejia and maybe Virguez.
Then I agree with JCA, that Ribalta, Dion and Lord are locks. Then in addition to Simpson, Tolman, Beeter, Cornelio, I’d add Cruz and Schultz into the mix too. Yean has been good enough to keep a bullpen spot from my perspective, but the team evidently disagrees. And Perales should go back to the AAA rotation.
Then I’d try to keep Waldron, Sinclair and Bird around on the 40 man in AAA if there’s space. Then there’s the rotation, which is a bit messy. Next year, we’ll have Cavalli, Early, Alvarez, Kent, Irvin, Gray, Herz and Perales on the 40 man competing for 5 spots. But Susana, Sykora and Rosario will need to be protected. And Tyler Stuart is a bit of a wildcard too. I wonder if some of those arms get converted to relief. It couldn’t hurt to give Irvin and Gray a chance before DFA’ing them. I think there’s a very good chance they’d go unclaimed and provide some deep depth in AAA. I’d also like to see what sort of shape Herz and Stuart are in post-injury. Their futures might sadly lie in relief.
Will
5 Sep 26 at 9:02 am
the end of September rotation and pitching prospect analysis will be very interesting. 40 man spots will be valuable and we’ve seen that any promotion is going to be tied to looking at those that need to be protected.
FredMD
5 Sep 26 at 11:24 am
You know, not to be argumentative … but I sense that we could cut a quarter of our current 40-man and not … care? I mean, lets take a quick peek at the majors/minors numbers of the non-MLB relievers right now. I’ve been meaning to do this to try to guess who’s the next guy out, so here it is.
This is as of 9/7/26, so right after our record-setting 37th blown save. For each guy i’ve got age, MLB era this year, AAA era this year. Yes I know ERA is simplistic and does not tell the full story and small sample sizes, yadda yadda, this is a quick analysis to prove a point:
– Zak Kent: age 28, 6.75 in majors, 5.08 in AAA.
– Varland: age 29, 6.82, 3.18
– Cruz: age 27, 11.25, 2.57
– Nicolas; age 27, (no MLB appearances), 4.29
– Yean: age 25, 1.80, 3.10
– Bird age 30, 3.24, 0.00
– Schultz age 28: 6.40, 2.28
– Mills: age 31, (no mlb appearances), (no AAA appearances)
– Henry: age 27: 7.90, 6.43
– Palmquist: age 25: 7.71, 2.70
Of those currently on the MLB roster:
– Beeter: age 27; 4.50 (no non-rehab AAA time)
– Ribalta: age 28, 3.77, 2.25
– Lord: age 26, 3.62, (no AAA time)
– Dion: age 26, 3.20 (no AAA time for us)
– Cornelio: age 26: 5.96, 3.68
– Perales: age 23, 14.40, 3.64
– Waldron: age 29, 0.00 (no AAA time for us)
– Simpson: age 26, 0.00, 2.84
– Tolman: age 26, 1.23, 5.23
– Sinclair: age 27, 0.00, 4.03.
So, if you look at all those numbers … there’s half a dozen guys who really have no business being on a roster. Zak Kent 5+ eras across both levels, Nicolas should just get DFA if he’s getting passed up by edge-case replacement players, Mills is a 31yr old waiver claim who’s on the AAA dl? Why did we claim him? Henry, as much as I liked the guy, just cannot perform any more and is on the DL yet again. Though good stories, both Tolman and Sinclair didn’t exactly light AAA on fire before getting called up. Varland, Cruz, Schultz, and Palmquist all had abhorrent MLB ERAs and are probably nothing more than 4-A replacement arms for normal teams.
So, that’s a lot of guys who could make way in the next few weeks, and I can’t imagine any of them getting claimed before an outright (if they’re even eligible for an outright).
Todd Boss
7 Sep 26 at 10:52 am
Todd, keep going:
Irvin: 5.57 ERA (almost identical to 2025)
Gray: hasn’t pitched in 2 years, career 4.84 ERA with one year of team control left
Lovelady: career 5.03 ERA
Parker: 6.58 ERA (career 5.19)
Poulin: 2.70 ERA (AAA: 4.50)
Waldichuk: 6.75 ERA (career: 5.35)
Nunez: 52 wRC+ (2nd worst in MLB) which is so bad that even his good defense doesn’t make up for it: -0.2 WAR overall
Tena: bad hitter, bad defender, overall -0.2 WAR and -0.4 WAR in 650 career PA
Vivas: bad hitter, sloppy defender, lazy player. Somehow that combo has worked out to a 0.8 WAR
Millas: 53 wRC+ in ’26. Not sure the stars will ever align with this guy
Pinckney: has looked bright in limited opportunities, but ultimately he’s only got a 103 wRC+ in 1000 AAA plate appearances, and he’s turning 26 soon. Is that really worth a 40 man roster spot?
I know many of these guys are not PRESENTLY on the 40 man, but in a couple weeks, they will need to be re-added. But it’s crazy how many literal replacement-level players there are on (or temporarily off) the 40 man (nearly 30!)
Will
7 Sep 26 at 2:09 pm
On Millas … did you read the injury update on him from Zuckerman? His finger injury has not healed, and he’s getting advice to open it up and FUSE the finger. Um, how the heck is he supposed to be a major league baseball player with his finger fused permanently? That’s just horrible. I feel terrible for the guy. I hope they can figure out another solution and that it doesn’t impact his career.
Todd Boss
7 Sep 26 at 8:00 pm
for me, what will make things interesting is the inevitable differences in opinion on the players involved. just one example is Kranick.
he can hit upper 90’s and before his injury showed pretty good walk rates. his return this year has not been good and he’s not on the active roster but since he was dfa’d I believe he’ll be a free agent.
does the team think he has value? what if it comes down to him or Cornelio? the latter has never had a decent third pitch and his stuff has not played at the MLB level.
there are others in the same discussions.
FredMD
8 Sep 26 at 9:39 am
Kranick was a major league signing with a 2027 option per cots. Now, a salary wasn’t listed at signing, and there’s no word whether he signed a split contract, but I have to believe the option isn’t negated by his being removed from the 40-man. I could be wrong. He’s also into his Arb years, so i’d bet his 2027 option was with a slight pay increase to avoid arb. But … do arb players have to be on the 40-man? Interesting questions with Kranick all around. I have no idea.
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/national-league/washington-nationals/
Todd Boss
9 Sep 26 at 11:21 am
Eli Willits promoted to AA.
John C.
9 Sep 26 at 3:09 pm
Yeah, saw the Willits promotion when updating some transactions last night. I sense it’s a cascading thing; it was accompanied by Lawson going from AA-> AAA … but then does this mean that King is going from AAA->Major this week? Maybe.
Todd Boss
9 Sep 26 at 3:17 pm