Washington Nationals Top 39 Prospects

This is merely a base-touching update for Crews, whose report (which follows) has existed on the site since the Top 100 list published in February. Crews was ranked third overall and lost rookie eligibility shortly after the start of the 2025 season. Things were not going well — he was hitting .196/.266/.354 through 45 games — when he strained his oblique in late May. This week, Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports reported Crews had begun to hit off a tee and take soft toss in the cage. Crews’ profile definitely has a pimple or two (which is why he was a 60 FV prospect rather than a 65 or 70), but I didn’t think his slow start was damning nor opinion-altering in a major way. The player I’ve compared Crews to for the last couple of years is Jackson Chourio, who has some of the same yellow flags on offense (below-average plate discipline, an inside-out tendency against fastballs with whiffs against ones located up-and-away) and who similarly struggled in the early going of his rookie season. The oblique injury perhaps interrupted and delayed that adjustment period for Crews, but ultimately I think this guy is too talented not to be productive. His contact quality suggests he is already a much better hitter than his surface stats do, and from a visual scouting standpoint, this is an incredibly powerful and explosive athlete whose power and speed stand out even at the big league level. I wish he were a better center field defender, as it would more completely guard against Crews’ leaner OBP years (like the one Chourio is currently having) but again, pimples.

Here is Crews’ pre-season report: Crews went wire-to-wire as one of the best 2023 draft prospects, if not the best. He was the top unsigned high schooler from the 2020 class, a toolshed who swung and missed on the summer showcase circuit more than teams felt comfortable with. He ended up at LSU rather than in pro ball, and from day one was among the toolsiest and most productive college hitters for three straight years. He slashed .380/.498/.689 and had more walks than strikeouts during his tenure at LSU. Crews’ first full pro season also went well. He slashed .270/.342/.451 split between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester, then was called up at the end of August to get his feet wet without exhausting rookie eligibility. His underlying data was much better than his surface-level stats during that stretch.

Crews can punish you to all fields. He’ll get extended on fastballs away from him and crush them the opposite way, and he can also turn on slower pitches on the middle two-thirds of the plate and hit some titanic blasts to left. His best swings feature unbelievable verve and explosion, with Crews’ lower body usage evoking Mike Trout. At times, the depth of Crews’ load will leave him late on fastballs. Early in 2024, he was really struggling with fastballs tailing in on his hands, but by the time he was in the big leagues at the end of the year, Crews had begun to move off the plate against righties (we won’t know how this impacts his plate coverage against sliders until we see more). He also cuts his stride with two strikes, but can still generate power because of how explosive the rest of his operation is. All of this is very similar to Jackson Chourio, and Crews might need a similar adjustment period before he really takes off.

Some of the Chourio similarities extend to Crews’ defense. He can absolutely fly and will show you jailbreak-y, sub-4.1 run times. He easily has the speed to play center field, but his reads, routes, and ball skills aren’t great. His pure speed should enable him to remain in center field, but he’s probably going to underperform out there relative to his pure speed. The opposite is true on the bases, where Crews’ speed arguably plays up because of his feel and acumen. Even if he’s relegated to a corner due to the presence of superior on-roster options in center, he’s going to hit for enough power and make a big enough impact on the bases to be a star.

As I noted on last year’s Nationals list, you can’t help but malaprop Sykora into “Sequoia,” because at 6-foot-6 and 232 pounds, Travis is the size of a tree. He missed the first month of 2025 rehabbing from an offseason hip surgery to address discomfort that he had been feeling for the last couple of years. The fact that Sykora pitched as well as he did during his 2024 pro debut despite being physically compromised is incredible. He made 20 excellent Low-A starts and posted a 2.33 ERA, 1.87 FIP, 39.2% strikeout rate (yow), and 8.2% walk rate in 85 innings. Sykora looked great upon his return, with his average fastball velo up a tick to 96 mph so far in 2025, but in his last start before this update, he pitched just one inning, had reduced fastball velocity at the end of it, and was removed. The Harrisburg broadcasters were surprised by the early removal, which indicates this wasn’t planned. If he’s injured, we wait to hear about specifics and severity.

Sykora has a three-quarters arm slot, but his front side stays tall throughout his delivery. It’s a funky operation that gives him the option of running a two-seamer down toward his arm side or elevating his fastball at the belt. Sykora did much more of the latter in 2024 while holding mid-90s velo all year despite his hip discomfort. Even as a high schooler, his fastball command was fairly advanced for a pitcher his size and age, but a 8.2% walk rate in a 6-foot-6 guy’s debut season is even better than one could have hoped for, and Sykora did that through injury.

Sykora’s slider, which doesn’t spin very much but is aided by its natural downhill trajectory, is often used as a strike-garnering pitch bending into the top of the zone, especially against lefties. It has enough depth to act as a finishing pitch in the dirt, too, though it’s more often deployed in the zone. His splitter combines with the elevated version of Sykora’s heater to attack north and south. The direction of the splitter’s movement has been all over the place since Sykora was in high school, and he’s working on making it more consistent. Both of his secondary pitches generated miss rates north of 50% in 2024 and are back in that area again to start 2025.

This is a young fella who can articulate the what and why of his repertoire and mechanics beyond what is typical of a prospect his age. His pitch mix and command are relatively complete, especially for a pitcher his age, putting Sykora on pace to debut before his chalk 40-man timeline. He’s tracking like an impact mid-rotation starter and franchise cornerstone, both in talent and personhood, who’ll debut late in 2026 and then compete for an Opening Day rotation spot in 2027.

While he was still an amateur, Susana had a very, very late velocity spike and progressed from throwing in the mid-80s to the mid-90s in a very short period of time. Because he popped up late relative to his peers, most of the pool money when he was first eligible to sign had already been committed, and he opted to wait a year so that more teams could pursue him with a meaningful bonus. The Padres signed him for $1.7 million and pushed him to camp in Arizona during 2022 minor league spring training. Susana had only pitched in eight official games on the complex before the Padres traded him to Washington as part of the Juan Soto deal. After a walk-prone 2023 (40 free passes in 63 innings) and a rough start to his 2024, Susana appeared to turn a corner in June. He had five dominant starts in a row, was promoted to High-A Wilmington, and then only had two starts the rest of the year in which he walked more than two batters. Susana ended up working 103.2 innings (40 more than the prior season), struck out 35.4% of his opponents, and generated groundballs at a whopping 60% clip.

It’s easy to point to Susana’s velocity (which he held basically all year) as an impact attribute, but it’s his slider that’s easily his best pitch. There are times when it has cutter-movement, but it has eye-crossing downward bend at its best, in the Brad Lidge slider mold, except as hard as 92 mph. It’s a slam dunk 80-grade pitch that generated misses just over 50% of the time in 2024. Susana’s fastball will touch triple-digits, which is enough for it to dominate A-ball hitters. It lacks great movement or tough angle, and its performance will probably keel off a bit as Susana faces upper-level hitters.

Susana barely used his changeup last year; it’s currently a glorified two-seamer in the 92-94 mph range. One out of every 10 or so of his changeups is any good, but he often casts it and it sails on him; the ones that flash have enough tailing action to miss bats. His slider has enough utility as a strike-stealer and finisher against lefties that he might not ever need a changeup, but some kind of splinker/splitter thing might emerge down the line, as tends to be the case for lots of the pitchers today who have lower arm slots like Susana.

Just when it seemed like Susana had proven that he had the stamina and durability of a big league starter, he suffered a Grade 1 UCL sprain in early May. It’s an injury that was initially going to be treated with rest and rehab, then reassessment. As of this update, it has been about eight weeks since he was shelved and a team source tells me Susana has progressed to bullpen sessions. The injury slid Susana to the back of the 55 FV tier, but his ceiling is still the same. This is a freaky 6-foot-6 Leviathan on track to gobble up NL East hitters in 2027.

House was viewed as a potential first round prospect when he was just a high school sophomore, in part because he was a bit old for his graduating class and his physicality started to mature ahead of his peers. He was drafted 11th overall in 2021, and aside from a stretch when his production dipped due to the fallout from a back injury, he posted a 130 wRC+ or better at every level until 2024, when an over-aggressive approach started to catch up with him.

House’s numbers have rebounded in 2025, though he still has some clear issues that could be barriers to consistent success on offense, chiefly his tendency to chase offspeed stuff. He swings over top of many secondary pitches, all kinds of which are playing like plus offerings against him in terms of miss and chase. It’s likely that House will be a streaky hitter because of this particular issue, and what will likely dictate his role and impact will be whether or not he’s getting to power despite high strikeout totals. He has plus power and destroys mistakes, the way his body rotates about his hips is rare, and his best swings have huge finish. House’s hard-hit rate has been comfortably plus (especially for his age) the last several years he’s been healthy, and has taken a step forward this season. I’m bearish relative to his xSLG and xwOBA because I think big league pitchers will do a better job attacking his weaknesses than he experienced in the minors (he’s been up for a couple weeks as of list publication), but this is the kind of hitter who’ll see enough hanging breaking balls throughout a season to have 20 or so home runs if given enough playing time.

House is also one hell of a defender. His range, footwork, and arm strength are all plus. He makes a lot of tough plays look easy and uncorks some incredible throws from deep in the corner at third. This aspect of House’s game will be slump-proof, but will he hit enough to be a consistent and reliable offensive player? He’s a 45+ FV type, generally a good player and streaky power hitter who’ll make an impact on defense most often. He’s a little too volatile to forecast him as a top 15 third baseman on a regular basis, but he’s a nice part of a talented young team.

Lile was a hit-tool driven high school prospect who the Nationals signed away from a Louisville commitment for $1.75 million. He essentially missed two-plus seasons of relevant playing time in the nascent stages of his career due to the pandemic and a Tommy John surgery. Lile really didn’t get consistent pro reps until 2023, then he totally remade his body and improved his speed and general athleticism entering 2024. Now with the injury to Dylan Crews, he’s in the big leagues at age 22 and trying to get traction.

Lile’s most important attributes are his hand-eye coordination and his bat control. He can flatten his bat path to at least spoil his fair share of well-located fastballs, and he can golf underneath low breaking balls that don’t quite finish. Though Lile has an athletic build, his swing is not especially fluid or explosive. It’s quite static, perhaps as a way of helping him stay on time. His hands fire from a near standstill and he can be late against fastballs (more limiting his contact quality than causing him to whiff), which is mitigated somewhat by ultra-conservative, early footwork. Lile is still very young and could potentially get stronger, something that’s up to him and the Nats’ strength and conditioning folks. He’s already worked to attain one meaningful physical change (and Lile is now a plus runner because of it) and will hopefully be able to make more with an eye on strength.

Lile isn’t a skilled outfielder and is currently a below-average corner guy despite his speed, so power is going to be a necessity if he is going o be a long-term build-around player. Adding to some of the risk here is Lile’s tendency to chase. This isn’t a guy who walks a lot, and he expands the zone too much in later counts. Again, Lile’s profile puts most of its weight on the shoulders of his bat-to-ball skills. His career outcomes still have a pretty wide variance. Will there be more power? Will he become more selective? The Nats are building in such a way that they can give him regular reps the rest of 2025 to hopefully start to adjust and improve the plate discipline piece, and then Lile can live in the weight room during the offseason. Here I have Lile graded as a contact-oriented platoon bat.

Washington gave Dickerson a whopping $3.8 million to forgo his commitment to Virginia, a notoriously tough school from which to pry high school commits. He began his first full pro season in extended spring training and played a week of regular season complex ball before he was swiftly promoted to Low-A Fredericksburg, where he has performed like a league average player on offense for the last six weeks leading to this update.

Teams generally saw Dickerson as one of the more polished hitters in last year’s draft class, a short-levered potential up-the-middle player with plus bat speed. He’s already quite strong for his age and swinging hard, at least when Dickerson cuts loose at something on the inner half. Short-levered hitters with power tend to be fairly stable, and Dickerson has this going for him. Even when he’s late, he’s compact enough to drive the ball the opposite way and has the power to do doubles damage that way. There is some in-zone vulnerability to elevated fastballs here because of how long it takes Dickerson’s bat to enter the zone. This, plus a lot of what’s happening with Dickerson on defense, makes him very similar to Mariners prospect Michael Arroyo.

Dickerson is not a very good defensive infielder. This is a powerful athlete and explosive straight line runner, not a balletic mover who can contort himself to make the plays necessary at short, and his exchange around the bag needs to get quicker. Dickerson has plus straight line speed, approaching 70-grade; he’ll show the occasional 4.1 second jailbreak from home to first. This speed gives Dickerson an avenue to defensive value in center field if the Nationals want to try that down the road. This is a terrific prospect with a couple of warts (defense, in-zone fastball miss) that if remedied will make it easier to project him as an everyday player with exciting power and speed.

King transferred to Wake from Division-II Wingate but had experience against top competition before he arrived on campus. He raked on Cape Cod (16 games, .424/.479/.542 line) and was among the most impressive athletes on that summer’s Collegiate Team USA roster. His lone season at Wake went well (.308/.377/.577 line, 33 extra-base hits), while King played multiple positions (in order of frequency: third base, center field, shortstop, second base). Though he’s played exclusively shortstop in pro ball, defensive versatility could be a big part of King’s eventual big league utility. He has the athleticism and arm strength to play anywhere on the diamond, but he looks tentative catching popups and fly balls. Incredible lower body athleticism and agility allows King to make some nutty plays at shortstop, where he projects as a plus defender.

On offense, King has impressive oppo power for his size, but he’s a narrowly built guy who requires whole-body effort to swing hard, which can make his entire operation tough to time. As he has faced Double-A pitching, it has become clear both that he can’t really turn on the baseball and that he’s chase-prone in excess, and he’ll likely hit for less game power than his raw for these reasons. King is a candidate for swing simplification if he gets stronger and is able to swing hard with less noise; this is his most reasonable pathway to an impact everyday shortstop job since the plate discipline piece of his game seems likely to be a problem in perpetuity. He’s barely 22 and has some late-bloomer characteristics (college transfer, no set position entering pro ball, big time athlete, motor), so added strength seems feasible. More likely, he’s going to be a dynamic multi-positional role player.

Cavalli climbed the minor league ladder quickly in 2021, starting the season at High-A and closing it out at Triple-A, claiming the distinction of being the hardest thrower at that year’s Futures Game (he touched 102 mph) along the way. He notched over 123.1 innings of work without an IL stint, which was a welcome development considering that scouts had some injury concerns surrounding college Cavalli. Cavalli spent 2022 at Rochester and made his big league debut at the end of August, after which he was shut down with shoulder inflammation. This was the start of multiple injuries that have prevented Cavalli from graduating now close to three years since he debuted. He blew out in 2023 and needed Tommy John, which cost him more of 2024 than anticipated and delayed the start of his 2025 campaign as he dealt with a dead arm during rehab. During his narrow healthy window in 2024, he threw more of his power mid-80s curveball than he did his fastball, which signaled a change in his approach to pitching that has continued into 2025.

Cavalli’s fastball (sitting 95, up to 99) plays below its velocity due to a lack of movement and hittable angle, but he’s added a two-seamer this year and his groundball rate is up to just over 60%. Cavalli’s curveball has great depth for how hard it is, usually in the 83-86 mph range. His upper-80s changeup also shows bat-missing ability, and when combined with the vertical curveball, it gives Cavalli two weapons with which to attack lefties. Both of them are playing like above-average pitches at Rochester in 2025; neither has been dominant. When you broaden his data sample to include everything back to 2022 to see how Cavalli’s stuff has played throughout the last several years, his curveball has been closer to plus, and I think it’s fair to say it’ll return to plus as he gets further and further away from surgery. But will his fastball velo return? If not, then Cavalli has more of a no. 4/5 starter look on a good team rather than the mid-rotation star he looked like at peak.

Bennett was good across 15 starts during his 2023 pro debut before he blew out and had Tommy John that September, which cost him all of 2024. He returned to action this May and his stuff is up compared to 2023 (about two ticks), while Bennett’s feel for location appears intact. Bennett doesn’t have monster arm strength, but his size, length, and the line on his fastball created by his drop-and-drive style should allow it to play up a bit. His mid-80s slider has late two-plane break and above-average length. Bennett has feel for landing it in the zone and for chase. Though his changeup isn’t great right now, Bennett lost developmental reps to injury, he can locate it, and his arm action is silky enough to dream on his feel for it improving. He’s built like a big league starter, moves like a big league starter, and throws strikes with the feel and precision of one, too. He’s on track to be added to the 40-man after the season and be a no. 4/5 starter for the big league club relatively soon.

Henry was a Top 100 prospect at this site when he was showing three plus pitches as a starter and on the doorstep of the big leagues in 2022. A litany of injuries, including surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, relegated him to the bullpen and delayed his graduation until 2025.

In 2024, before he was shut down in late June, Henry was sitting 91 but peaking in the mid-90s with uphill angle and tail. This season, Henry’s release point and style have changed. He has lowered his arm slot a couple of inches and the axis of his fastball has been tweaked so that it has more rise/run action than the sink and tail of before. Even though he’s not working with his absolute apex velocity, Henry’s mid-90s heater is still playing like a comfortably plus pitch against big league bats. The arm slot tweak has hampered the effectiveness of his changeup, but that might not be the case as he gets more and more comfortable with his new delivery, which looks kind of like that of Raisel Iglesias. Plus, this new, lower slot has given Henry access to a different flavor of cutter, which has more uphill action than before his slot changed. Especially if Henry’s feel for locating his curveball and changeup to enticing locations returns over time, he’s going to be one of the best two arms in a good bullpen. Injuries seem like they’ll always be part of his profile and that’s impacting his grade here.

Lomavita is a compact, athletic catcher with a plus arm and good pull pop for his position. He was a career .302/.369/.534 hitter at Cal, but the main attraction here is Lomavita’s defense. His agility and hands are sensational, and his framing has already improved since college. His arm is plus more because of accuracy than strength; Lomavita’s release is effortless and consistent, and he gets to it no matter the pitch location.

Lomavita’s offense is flawed and volatile, but it might produce enough power for him to be a primary catcher. His big, slow leg kick requires impressive athleticism to maintain. He toned down this leg kick during 2023 summer ball and it robbed him of some power, but it was reincorporated during the 2024 spring and has been part of his pro look, even with two strikes. Ditching the leg kick may have been with an eye on simplifying things to limit chase, which is an issue (he has a 35% chase rate the last two years combined). Lomavita covers the top of the zone well; his bat-to-ball skills and power are both average, but are likely to play down a bit due to an aggressive approach and late barrel entry, which causes lots of oppo contact. Lomavita is a toolsy long-term dev project on offense with a fair shot to be a low-OBP primary catcher.

Clemmey, a lanky Rhode Island lefty, was drafted by Cleveland and signed away from a Vanderbilt commitment with a $2.3 million bonus, then traded to Washington in last year’s Lane Thomas deal. His high-octane delivery generates mid-90s velocity and an occasionally plus breaking ball. While Clemmey’s cacophonous mechanics make for a very uncomfortable at-bat, especially for lefties, this also creates a lot of relief risk, and he’s walked 6 per 9 IP in his two pro seasons. His NBA-shooting-guard frame and explosivity are signs that he is going to continue to throw hard (and, importantly, harder if he moves into the bullpen) but probably not with touch-and-feel precision. His current 79-84 mph slider has inconsistent finish and is playing like an average pitch so far in 2025, while Clemmey’s tertiary changeup has much more tail than sink and is unsurprisingly crude right now. There’s exciting raw material here, as Clemmey should at least become a good reliever with a monster fastball. His size and athleticism mean you can dream on more.

Hernandez signed for just over $1 million in January and has a beautiful left-handed swing. He rotates well through contact, with his bat finishing in the dirt behind him when he takes his best swings. Though he doesn’t have the sheer size of an upper-echelon prospect, especially at catcher, he’s wiry and twitchy and has room for strength without compromising his athleticism. In addition to needing to get stronger in order to withstand the beating of catching, Hernandez needs to find a way to improve his throwing. His raw arm strength is okay, but his exchange is slow. Teenage catchers are inherently volatile and Hernandez’s lack of physicality seasons his profile with even more risk, but he can really swing it and looks like a high school prospect who’d go in the second round of the draft.

Tejeda worked just over 40 total innings across a two-year college career spent in the Florida and Florida State bullpens. He was given $225,000 as a priority Day Three pick, a potential late-bloomer with freaky size and athleticism, but undercooked stuff and pitchability.

Already Tejeda has made developmental strides in proportion with his actual gait. It appears the Nationals have raised his release point a little bit, which has added depth to Tejeda’s breaking ball, and he’s drastically improved his fastball command. It’s not shocking that a pitcher this size with relatively little college experience would have a late uptick in these areas, but it’s a very positive sign for Tejeda and the Nationals dev group that these things have improved this quickly. Tejeda’s size allows him to generate over seven feet of extension with ease. His delivery is elegant and balanced, especially for an athlete this size. The long-term command projection here is exciting, and you can dream on the changeup, too, because of Tejeda’s mechanical ease and lack of reps to this point. Tejeda was more consistently in the mid-90s in college. He looks like a backend starter right now, but if somehow he returns to that velo while retaining these newfound pitchability elements, then Tejeda’s ceiling is pretty big.

Hurtado was among the most exciting 2024 international amateur signees because of his enormous, projectable frame. He inked a deal for $2.8 million and then had kind of a shruggable debut, as he slashed .218/.310/.331 in 2024, a performance perhaps diluted by a shoulder injury. He’s repeating the DSL in 2025 and his numbers have been better, but again Hurtado isn’t slugging. You can still dream on him having above-average strength-driven power at peak; Hurtado has one of the bigger, more exciting physical foundations of any DSL prospect. His bat speed is more average right now — this isn’t a lefty-hitting Junior Caminero or anything like that — but it’s not out of the question that Hurtado could eventually have the contact/power blend to profile in an everyday capacity. He’s going to be a slow burn, but he still has exciting long-term upside.

I’m still not ready to be totally punitive about Vaquero’s strikeouts. The high-upside, $4.925 million Cuban signee is repeating Low-A and his surface-level performance has improved a great deal. Last year, he K’d at a 34.2% clip and hit .190; this season he’s only striking out 25.3% of the time. That’s still a fairly concerning mark at Low-A, but it’s an improvement. Some of Vaquero’s underlying performance is still damning, however. He has a 60% contact rate against fastballs, for instance, as his swing is just too long to catch up to them. A switch-hitter of this size was always going to need time to adjust to pro pitching (and perhaps will need multiple tweaks), but that’s a red flag.

There are times when Vaquero flashes the power and speed that made him almost a $5 million player as an amateur. This is still a 20-year-old athlete with super duper long-term athletic projection; he has the build of an NFL wide receiver prospect. Vaquero’s improving center field defense gives his future offense room for elevated strikeouts, which are almost certainly going to be a big part of his output. The hope here is not that everything clicks for Vaquero and he becomes the five-tool superstar it was hoped he could be when he signed. Instead, the hope is that he’ll develop into an excellent defender and grow into enough power to have either a long career as a valuable power-over-hit part-timer (like Jake Marisnick), or a peak year or two with 20-plus bombs (like Jose Siri).

It wasn’t until 2025 when Hassell finally began to hit for some in-game power as a National. Since coming over from the Padres as part of the Juan Soto deal, the former first rounder had failed to slug over .371 at any stop, but his eight homers at Rochester (he’s back there after a three week big league cameo) as of this update put Hassell comfortably on pace for a single-season career high. Hassell’s underlying power data is up (for instance, his hard-hit rate is up from 34% in 2024 to 39% in 2025) but still a little south of average, and his game power plays down still because of low launch and a tendency to chase, which limits his contact quality. Hassell is best when he’s attacking pitches on the inner third, and he does some really cool stuff with his hands in there to snatch elevated fastballs and scoop the little bit of pull-side contact he makes. Soft stuff away from him really limits his contact quality.

Ideally a true fourth outfielder would have at least one plus offensive trait, or be a plus center field defender. Hassell’s skills (except for his arm and top-end speed) are more average or below, and so he profiles as a lesser fourth outfielder or good team’s fifth outfielder who also brings a glue guy’s motor to the party.

Bazzell attended Dallas Baptist for a semester, then transferred to Tech during his freshman spring and redshirted. He spent his redshirt frosh season playing third base before moving behind the plate in 2024. A career .330/.431/.530 college hitter with more walks than strikeouts, Bazzell is undersized for a big league catcher. Lack of size and strength impacts his ball-blocking (which is inconsistent) and framing (which is below-average, though not awful), but Bazzell can really throw. His compact stature has him out of his traditional crouch (an endangered species) quickly; a super consistent and short arm stroke generates pop times in the low-1.90s and often right on the bag. His lack of physicality manifests at the dish in below-average power, but his hips are loose, his hands are quick, and Bazzell is arguably the best pure contact hitter in the org. He uses an oppo-oriented approach and is easily at his best when he’s getting extended on pitches away from him. A lack of size puts Bazzell more in a backup catcher bucket.

Despite his age, Lara’s prospectdom is more about polish than projection. The 22-year-old worked 134.2 innings in 2024, mostly at Double-A, and carried a 3.34 ERA before being added to Washington’s 40-man roster after the season. His first half of 2025 was interrupted by a hamstring injury, but Lara had made a handful of rehab starts before the Nationals needed him to take a turn in the big league rotation shortly before this update.

Lara has looked like the same pitcher for the last couple of years now. His mid-90s fastball has sink and tail, and tends to run into barrels, causing it to play down even though he’ll reach back for 96-97 on occasion. Lara’s best pitch is his slider, which lives in the 85-89 mph range and has deceptive two-planed movement aided by his odd arm slot. Lara’s lower body stays upright throughout his delivery, so his release point is fairly high for a guy who has a low-three-quarters slot, and this dichotomy can be tough for hitters to adjust to. Lara will very occasionally mix in an upper-80s changeup, but he’s overwhelmingly a fastball/slider guy whose ability to start is enabled by his command and feel for location. He’s a mature-bodied player and I’d be surprised if he threw harder as he aged, so the key variable here is for Lara’s changeup (or some other third pitch) to improve as his career unfolds to give him a ceiling higher than this low-variance fifth starter forecast.

Stuart was acquired from the Mets last year in exchange for Jesse Winker. He’s a strike-throwing behemoth who has tended to keep his walk rates down in the 2.5 per 9 IP range since entering pro ball, but an early-2025 elbow issue and subsequent problems with command have more recently clouded his profile. He seemed like a fairly safe bet for a post-2025 40-man add entering this season, but lately Stuart has been walk prone and his peak velo (he touched the 96-99 mph range dozens of times last year) is down this year. It’s a total anomaly compared to the rest of his career and I’m inclined to believe it’s just a small sample blip that will be corrected as Stuart gets further away from his injury.

Stuart’s stuff isn’t dominant, and he probably needs to find a better changeup or split to avoid an eventual bulk relief role, but his size, control, and inning-eating ability give him a high floor. He is mostly going to live in the low 90s with both a two- and four-seamer while commanding an average slider to his glove side. His ability to vary his fastball shape helps keep him off the barrel and is a big reason why he’s tended to run groundball rates around 50%, though that is also down so far in 2025. Stuart’s performance will need to trend up during the second half of the season for him to be added to the Nationals’ 40-man. He has fifth starter projection and should debut next year.

“Jugglin’” Jackson Kent was a two-sport athlete in Illinois who matriculated to Tucson for college and broke out in his draft year as a redshirt sophomore. Washington challenged him with an aggressive debut assignment and Kent broke camp at Wilmington, where he has thrived during the first half of 2025.

Kent is a four-pitch lefty straddling the starter/long reliever line because of the effort and violence in his delivery. His head whack is a little uglier than most big league starters, but Kent has four viable pitches and has thrown strikes in both of his two fledgling, high-level seasons as a starting pitcher. A vertical fastball attack and bat-missing changeup headline Kent’s repertoire. He decelerates when he throws his changeup, something upper-level hitters might spot. Kent’s curveball has tighter break than his slider, but he barely uses it because his changeup has been a preferred option against lefties. If Kent can improve his breaking ball command, then he’ll pretty cleanly have a starter’s skill set, ugly delivery or not, and again he’s relatively inexperienced for his age because he redshirted and relieved as an underclassman at U of A. This is a back-of-the-rotation prospect who looks like a pretty good fourth round pick 12 months after signing.

Tejeda is the best pure hitter on the Nationals’ FCL roster, a medium-framed corner outfielder who tracks pitches with laser-guided precision and can move the barrel all over the zone. Though he rotates well, Tejeda is not an especially explosive swinger, and his bat path tends to cut down at the ball. Fairly precise feel for contact means he’s still hitting a ton of well-struck line drives to all fields, and he’s often on time to pull. After a tough pro debut in 2023, Tejeda hit .300 in his second DSL season in 2024 and is flirting with that mark again in West Palm. As a likely corner guy without overt power projection, he’ll have to keep making a superlative rate of contact as he climbs to minors to climb this list in kind.

German is a medium-framed middle infielder who signed for $400,000 in January. He’s been the DSL team’s leadoff man and offensive catalyst, a well-rounded switch-hitter who also has the actions to develop at shortstop. German has better bat speed from the left side of the plate and enough pull power to yank out the occasional mistake. He’s fairly small but built well enough to layer on more strength without sacrificing athleticism; we’re probably talking about strength that leads to big league viability rather than big power, similar to Geraldo Perdomo. This is definitely the biggest “arrow up” prospect from Washington’s 2025 DSL class to this point, though he likely doesn’t have enormous ceiling due to the limitations of his size.

Brzykcy (pronounced “brick-see”) was a power reliever at Virginia Tech and became one of the first 2020 undrafted free agents to emerge as a real prospect. He quickly went from sitting 94-95 mph out of the Hokies bullpen in his first 2020 appearance to sitting 96-98 and touching 99 in his last few just before the COVID shutdown. Brzykcy dominated the lower minors and kissed Triple-A at the very end of 2022, and he seemed poised to make his big league debut late the following year. Instead, he blew out and needed Tommy John in mid-April. He rehabbed throughout 2023 and returned in 2024 with velo back in the 94-95 mph range.

Brzykcy does not have great fastball control. He’s a grip-it-and-rip-it type of guy whose heaters often sail to his arm side because they have so much carry, averaging 19 inches of vertical break. His low-80s power curveball has bat-missing depth, with movement that mirrors that of his fastball. Brzykcy’s upper-80s changeup will occasionally have enough arm-side action to do the same, but it often finishes high on him. This is a pretty deep repertoire for a reliever, but the downtick in fastball velocity compared to his peak is a meaningful one. Brzykcy will probably be a fine middle-inning option as is, but he has more ceiling if his peak velo returns as he gets further from Tommy John.

Ribalta has been a notable prospect at the very bottom of Nationals lists since 2019, when the 6-foot-7 righty was first drafted out of a Florida junior college. Guys with XXL size like this sometimes take a long time break out and in Ribalta’s case, it has taken him deep into his 20s. Ribalta had a two-tick velocity spike last year, sitting 93-97 and touching 99. He posted a 2.82 ERA across 54.1 Double- and Triple-A innings en route to a brief big league debut. He made the 2025 Opening Day roster and pitched in four games before he was shut down with biceps tendinitis.

Ribalta utilizes a slider-heavy approach against righties, and his feel for landing it in the zone makes him much more efficient against them than against lefties, who he nibbles at with elevated fastballs and changeups. His cambio overperformed early last year and for a while had a miss rate near 90%, which is nowhere near sustainable. He’s a bit too vulnerable against lefties to project in a late-inning role. Instead, Ribalta should soon graduate as a pretty standard righty middle reliever.

The Nationals gave Rutledge as long a developmental runway as a starter as they possibly could, only moving him to the bullpen permanently in 2025, his final option year. After just a couple outings at Rochester to start 2025, he was called up and has been on the big league roster since, finally graduating after what feels like a decade on the prospect radar. The shape of Rutledge’s fastball makes it vulnerable to big damage, but he can pitch heavily off his secondary stuff in a relief role. His slider and splitter (he switched from a changeup last year) are both plus offerings with unpredictable movement and finish. Rutledge struggles to throw either of them for strikes (especially the split), and he leans on his cutter and fastball when he falls behind. His size, repertoire depth, and starter pedigree make him a great fit to work four or more outs on occasion in a lower leverage role.

Made was assigned to full-season ball very young (the Cubs had a ton of young infield prospects at the time), had a power-hitting breakout in his second Low-A season, and then was traded from the Cubs to the Nationals in 2023 in the Jeimer Candelario trade. Entering 2025, he hadn’t slugged much since that 2022 season, but added mass and a new swing have unlocked something closer to average power, though he still doesn’t have a ton. Made now has a Sammy Sosa style in-and-out toe tap rather than the generic leg kick of years past.

With Seaver King manning shortstop in Harrisburg, Made has been relegated to second base most of the time since returning from an early-season oblique injury. He’s a capable shortstop with the occasional throwing accuracy hiccup, and he remains so even though he’s filled out and become stronger. The tweaks to Made’s swing have altered his contact spray a tad (less pull, more oppo), but he hasn’t suddenly had an uptick in strikeouts, and Made continues to hit fastballs well. He projects as a utility infielder of modest impact.

Jones was a fixture on the high school showcase circuit who signed for $500,000 last year rather than go to Oklahoma State. He’s an enormous developmental catching prospect at 6-foot-2, 256 pounds. A tremendous ball-blocker with an average arm, Jones emphatically checks the boxes associated with a long-term catching prospects in terms of physicality and skill. He needs polish as a receiver and framer, which will probably take a while for him to develop, especially as the quality of stuff he’s catching improves. At the dish, he’s a fairly slow-twitch swinger who’s having some strikeout issues in the FCL due to tardiness. At his size, he has strength-driven doubles power, the kind that plays as a backup catcher.

Feliz is a lanky left-side-of-the-infield prospect who was a favorite among teams tracking bat-to-ball performance in the international amateur market before he signed for $1.7 million. He slashed .310/.381/.468 in his DSL debut and was promoted to the extended spring/FCL group in 2025, where he’s having a similar year from a peripheral standpoint (19.3% K%, 13.6% BB%) but is hitting for less power. The reason for this is that Feliz’s swing isn’t even close to being actualized for any kind of lift, so much so that scouts who had yet to see him elevate a ball broached the subject unprompted. It’s far too early to be overly concerned about this; Feliz is a precocious hitter in the early stages of his career who is otherwise having success.

If/when he has to move to third base, it will become crucial for Feliz to get to power. He was running in the 4.4-4.5s range for me in Florida during the weeks leading up to this update, which is in line with Feliz’s amateur reports and also points to third base as his most likely destination. Felix tracks pitches well and has a fairly projectable, albeit somewhat narrow, 6-foot-3 frame. His swing is bottom-hand dominant a lot of the time, but he tracks pitches well enough to guide the barrel around. He’s tracking like a lower-impact, contact-oriented third baseman right now.

Cortesia signed for $1.92 million in January but was not universally seen as Washington’s top signee from a talent standpoint; he is generally considered more of a skills-over-tools utility type prospect. He has the arm to play shortstop but evaluations of the other aspects of his defense are more variable. He has a large frame and somewhat mature build. Barring his hit tool outperforming projections, he looks like solid extra infielder.

Lord is a low-three-quarters righty who was a starter throughout his minor league career but shifted into the big league bullpen not long after debuting in 2025. He’s often working more than an inning at a time and projects as a bulk reliever long-term.

Lord’s mid-90s fastball sinks but has uphill angle, and he tends to command it to the top of the zone. Stuff+ likes his slider, which appears to have shifted from a sweeper style to a gyro slider in the 83-87 mph range, but it’s performed more like a 45-grade pitch. Because of Lord’s arm slot, it has lots of natural sweep even though the pitch’s measured movement is more indicative of a traditional slider. Lord has much better fastball and changeup command than he does slider feel, so while it may be his best pitch from a pure stuff standpoint, it isn’t playing like that so far in the bigs. A sinking changeup rounds out a pitch mix that could probably play in a spot start role if the Nationals are so inclined. Lord still has all three option years left, so that’s a possibility. He’s going to be a steady, low-ceiling’d member of a pitching staff for a while.

Baker began to see time in the outfield in 2023, and he’s now a pretty good defender at both second base and in left field. Now 26 years old, the late-arriving strength projection I hoped for from Baker in past list cycles seems unlikely to materialize, and he’ll probably have a one-note offensive profile driven by his bat-to-ball skills. Some of Baker’s best swings look explosive, but he tends to have a conservative oppo line drive approach to contact. Baker does a lot of little things right on the baseball field; he is a competent and experienced bunter, and a heady base runner. He’d perform at an above-replacement level if given long-term big league run, but these 2B/LF profiles without power can be tough to roster.

Grissom’s dad played 17 big league seasons and was one of the steadiest big league hitters throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. He’s still the most recent of just six total alumni of Florida A&M to play major league baseball, a short list that’s unreal, pound-for-pound: Mudcat Grant, Hal McRae, Andre Dawson, Vince Coleman, Jimmy Everett, and Grissom. Young Marquis was the class of 2020 as a high school prospect at a Montessori school south of Atlanta and then an age-eligible sophomore after two years in Georgia Tech’s rotation. He was moved into the bullpen as soon as he turned pro and ascended to Triple-A early this season on the strength of his changeup, which he hides in part because his delivery is funky for a guy with a pretty typical overhand arm slot. Grissom pitches off his changeup first and mixes in slightly below-average fastballs and sliders. His strikeout and walk performance has slipped as he’s reached the upper levels, but he should be able to ride his changeup to a near-term up/down relief role.

Morales arrived on Miami’s campus with a ton of profile because 6-foot-3 infielders with plus power and arm strength don’t typically make it to school. After a somewhat disappointing freshman season, Morales improved in each subsequent year and finished his career in Coral Gables with a god-like .408/.475/.713 line in 2023; he was drafted in the second round and signed for $2.6 million.

Morales has already reached Triple-A but he’s trended down the defensive spectrum and now plays much more first base than third (he isn’t unplayable at third, but it isn’t great). The length of his swing has made it tough for Morales to tap into any of his BP power in games. He struggles to elevate the baseball and is often late to the contact point, causing him to play pepper with the right field line. His swing length contributes to whiffs against fastballs, too, an issue that might become even more severe against big league arms. We’re now going on two years of Morales’ contact rate hovering on either side of 70%. His raw juice keeps him alive on the main section of this list in the hope that a swing change can allow him to get to enough of it to play a role.

Mota signed for $250,000 in 2022 and had two strong statistical seasons to start his career before his strikeouts began to creep into a problematic area. Mota swings really hard and has been among the org leaders (and minor league leaders, for that matter) in hard-hit rate the last couple of years, with marks just north of 50%. His swing’s length is a serious issue, and he has a 60% contact rate as of list publication because he’s underneath so many fastballs.

Mota is similarly a mixed bag of extremes on defense. His range and footwork on defense are sensational, but his hands are only fair and his exchange can take too long. This is a deep projection prospect with big tools who might become a six-year minor league free agent before he ever plays in the big leagues. But when his power is at its peak in his mid-20s, he could have some years with 20 homers and plus defense.

Cornelio was a famous high school prospect thanks to his prototypical build and mid-90s fastball, but he ended up at TCU, where he barely pitched until his junior year. As a pro, Cornelio has reached Double-A as a starter but projects into a big league role as a reliever due to a lack of fastball playability and command. He’s sitting 94 and touching 96-97 pretty regularly early in starts, but he’s only missing bats with his fastball half as often as the big league average because that pitch lacks effective movement. In the bullpen, where he might sit 96-plus, that might matter less.

Cornelio’s best pitch is his mid-80s slider, which has tight, late, two-planed break and big length. Some of his well-located sliders are 70-grade weapons, but he throws a lot of non-competitive ones in the dirt or way off the plate. Solely honing his slider command would probably enable Cornelio to play a consistent middle inning role, as the pitch is nasty enough to front an up/down relief profile on its own.

Mejia is old enough to have been traded for Joe Wieland 윌랜드 and Joakim Soria at various points in his career, and he reached the big leagues with Kansas City in 2019 and 2020, but not enough to lose rookie eligibility. He moved to the mound this year and has been in the 94-97 mph range with his fastball and is flashing a plus mid-80s slider. Mejia seems likely to reach the bigs as a pitcher, and whether or not he can sharpen his command will dictate whether he gets to stay there for a while. He’s already come pretty far pretty fast, and is now at Harrisburg.

After an outstanding 2024 pro debut in the DSL, Feliz is now the most reliable Nationals starter in the FCL, as he leads the team in innings and has a 4.1% walk rate as of publication. He doesn’t throw all that hard and is slightly undersized, but he’s well-built and has two secondary pitches that flash plus and are producing big results. His low spin “pelota muerta” slider and mid-80s changeup both have late downward sink and diverge in opposite directions. A cutter gives Feliz a fourth pitch, supplementing a starter’s command and repertoire foundation.

Taveras is one of the youngest couple of players on Washington’s Low-A roster. He’s coming off a great 2024 season on the complex (.276/.409/.460) but is really struggling to parse full season pitching so far in 2025. This is a big-framed lefty power bat with a swing geared for launch. He’ll flash power from pole to pole but is posting a near bottom-of-the-scale contact performance against secondary pitches right now. He deserves time to adjust, but at this stage, he’s a power-driven flier type of prospect.