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Nats Announce Opening Day Roster

Ross optioned, Guthrie assigned to AAA, Robinson outrighted

Rather than make a decision regarding several on-the-cusp players, the Nationals opted to send down #5 starter Joe Ross to Syracuse to start the 2017 season. They will begin with a four-man rotation, a six-man bench, and a seven-man bullpen.

Essentially, the Nats have kicked the can down the road until they have to either call up Ross, add Jeremy Guthrie—who accepted an assignment to Syracuse—to the 40-man roster, or place someone else on the D.L.

In the not-too-distant future, Washington will also have to activate or waive Jose Marmolejos, who was placed on the 60-day DL on Feb. 24 and can be technically assigned to Harrisburg for a rehab assignment later this week. Perhaps not coincidentally, Harrisburg’s season will roughly 20 days old when he is eligible to come off the 60-day DL.

Tuesday afternoon is media day for the Potomac Nationals, which is traditionally the last of the four full-season teams to set its roster. This means that announcements for the Syracuse Chiefs and Harrisburg Senators could come as early as Monday morning while the Hagerstown Suns will most likely happen on Tuesday morning.

Buckle up, kids. The ride’s about to start.

26 Commments

  1. OK, boys and girls, it’s prediction time. This is a two-parter: 1) What level do you think key personnel will start the season? 2) Who are your picks to click within the system?

    Levels: I don’t expect a lot of surprises at the upper levels. All eyes will be on Robles, as there’s an outside chance they could push him on to Harrisburg, but I image he will be back at Potomac. I think Fedde and Stevenson will be back at Harrisburg, as will Marmolejos, particularly with CRob and Skole at ‘Cuse. I think Ward will also be back at Harrisburg.

    Most of the young starters and most of the college kids from Auburn will probably be at Hagerstown. Those who have to repeat Auburn often are not long for the system. To me, the biggest curiosity is whether any of the GCL guys will skip Auburn and go straight to Hagerstown. It would be less surprising for some of the college kids like Simonetti and Upshaw. But what about Soto? Will they give him the big jump? Franco had already moved up before injuries put him back in the GCL last year, so he may be a Hags candidate. What about Carter Kieboom?

  2. Picks to click: Last year, my guys were Glover and Andrew Lee. One came through, the other one had the exceeding bad break of a second TJ. The rehab time frame on the second one is much more lengthy, so who knows whether Lee will even see game action this summer.

    This year, I’ll start off by tagging Rhett Wiseman. I think he figured something out last season, during which he quietly had 13 HRs, 25 doubles, and lowered his K rate by 5%. MLB.com dropped him out of their top 30, but if he can get the HRs up close to 20 and make a move through Potomac and on up to Harrisburg, he’ll suddenly get on a lot of radars.

    I don’t know that they’ll get pushed up rapidly because of their youth and their lack of full-season experience, but I’m very interested to see what the young arms quartet of Watson, Mills, Davis, and Ramirez does at Hagerstown.

    Also, I’m curious about Davidson and Sagdal. They both profile very close to org guys, but both hit a lot better than that label last year. Can they do it again and find stable positions?

    All of this doesn’t mean that I won’t be hoping for big jumps from Robles, Soto, et al., or that Banks and Neuse can live up to their pre-draft hype. They’re just what intrigue me right now.

      1. Only glimmer thus far is Dakota Bacus coming back to Potomac (via Twitter handle of a Moline, IL reporter).

        1. I saw on Twitter that the Suns are announcing their roster tomorrow. I expect the others will as well.

          1. Indeed. They’re all in the early afternoon on Tuesday. I’m hoping to be able to have a writeup by the evening or else Wednesday morning.

  4. From looking at Luke’s Big Board, looks like the Nats will have to let some players go or send a bunch to extended Spring training. There are 42 players that are slotted under Syracuse’s roster, including 8 starting pitchers (including Guthrie) and 5 catchers.

    1. We can only hope that they’ll tangentially identify the XST folks by putting a bunch on the DL, but it feels like it’s been quite a while since they did us that favor.

  5. Picks to click shouldn’t count the obvious–Robeles, Fedde, Soto, Stevenson–whom it would be a surprise if they DON’T play well.

    So off the top of my head, I’ll go with Jackson Reetz and Anderson Franco. Reetz is finally reaching the age where he should see a jump in power, and his ability to take a walk makes him intriguing if he can just cut down the Ks a bit. As for Franco, if fully recovered from his injury he could have a monster year.

    I’ll go out on a limb and pick Franco to be this year’s big mover, ending his season at Potomac.

    1. Everyone was excited in 2015 when the Nats pushed Franco to Auburn at age 17. Then there was some sort of injury last year that sent him back to the GCL at a time when everyone thought they might push him on to Hagerstown. You wonder if there were also some acclimation issues there. Franco is 19, turning 20 in August, so he’d still be ahead of the age curve at Hagerstown.

      But who’s on 3d? Is Franco going to stay at 3d? Would Neuse be ahead of him and be the 3B at Hagerstown? Is Kieboom going to stay at SS for the time being, or switch to 3d as has been expected? I thought it curious that the Nats used two of their top three picks last year on guys who profile at 3B when they already had Franco, Gutierrez, and Ward (who still may profile at 1B) all in the same age range.

      As for Reetz, it’s time for him to start doing more at the plate. He was only .230 last year at Hagerstown, albeit at age 20.

      1. 1) Franco had a back injury, which is probably why they wanted him in the GCL – to be closer to medical staff
        2) It would appear with the loading up on IFA SS’s (Antuna, Garcia, Sanchez) they used the domestic draft for 3B’s
        3) Who is on 1st; I don’t know is on 3rd

      2. These guys are all far enough away that positional issues are still quite fluid. Franco could even end up playing in the OF with Who Knows Who.

        As for Reetz, I liken his slow development to that of Ward, another high schooler whose bat took awhile to emerge. Ward took his big jump last year, at the same age Reetz will be this year (Ward’s OPS in 2015 was .686, while Reetz’s was .703 a year ago). The difference is if Ward’s 2016 numbers would look much better on a catcher than they do on a guy who’ll likely end up at 1B.

  6. It’s official: Soto, Kieboom and Franco are all starting in H-town!

    That is going to be a fun team to watch. 🙂

    1. Watson, Perkins, and Weston Davis, too. That’s six players under the age of 21.

  7. Reetz seems to be MIA. Could be XST for him? I seriously doubt they would have cut him.

    Anyone know anything about why Mapes is on the DL? I hope it’s nothing serious.

    Haven’t had a chance to look closely at the rosters. Didn’t see Matthew Page on first scan. I was surprised to see Johansen still kicking, and with the social promotion to Harrisburg.

    2. Johansen’s promotion isn’t social, it’s a push to the appropriate level for a guy with his pedigree, natural ability and age. It’s make or break time, so they might as well push him.

  9. Here are the links to the team sites with player data:

    Syracuse: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t552

    Harrisburg: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t547

    Potomac: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t436

    Hagerstown: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t563

    Also, a Post story that speculates on the finagling with Ross and Guthrie:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/nationals-journal/wp/2017/04/04/nationals-minor-league-affiliates-announce-opening-day-rosters/

  10. A few random thoughts:

    — A very aggressive push with Soto, even more so than what they did with Robles. They must really like his makeup and think he can handle it. Kieboom got the same push, although he’s a year older and a native English speaker. Interesting that Kieboom is the same age as Franco, who seems to have been on our radar for awhile.

    — Both Davidson and Sagdal assigned to Potomac, both still without positions (listed as DH). The team has no 1B, though, so presumably Sagdal will see time there. I would have rather seen Davidson get a look at 2B at Harrisburg over Norfolk. As predicted, Mejia is still at Potomac.

    — Nice OFs of Soto, Banks, and Johnson/Perkins at Hagerstown and Robles, Wiseman, and Agustin at Potomac. Agustin looked like a riser after 2015 but wasn’t great last year at Hagerstown.

    — Curious that Corredor got the jump to Hagerstown but Simonetti didn’t. Corredor is younger, but Simonetti showed more power (albeit more K’s).

    — Ramirez didn’t get the push to Hagerstown along with Watson, Mills, and Davis.

    — The Potomac staff looks like a lot of pitchers of whom a good bit was once expected. Could be a boom or bust group, and the Last Chance Saloon for some.

    1. Although with Johansen and Austen Williams showing up in Harrisburg, there seen to be a lot of last calls at the Last Chance Saloon.

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