NationalsProspects.com

Tuesday’s News & Notes; Rosters for the Rest of the Minors

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup (’23 Stats at the Level)
Rochester OFF DAY vs. Lehigh Valley, 4:05 p.m. Herz (3-3, 3.43 @ AA) vs. M. Castilla (6-7, 4.58)

Rain is in the forecast for Rochester for today, tomorrow, and Friday, with a chance of snow on Thursday. The weekend looks clear, but the temperature is not expected to break 50 degrees until Sunday.



Harrisburg Releases its Opening Day Roster

As suggested in the comments, the roster for Harrisburg has been set. Here’s a quick look at the breakdown (Watchlist players in bold):

PITCHERS
Daison Acosta, Garvin Alston, Andrew Alvarez, Michael Cuevas, Cole Henry, Lucas Knowles, Holden Powell, Samuel Reyes, Orlando Ribalta, Dustin Saenz, Tyler Schoff, Jack Sinclair, Ty Tice, and Nash Walters.

CATCHERS
Israel Pineda and Onix Vega

INFIELDERS
JT Arruda, Jordy Barley, Jackson Cluff, Dérmis Garcia, Brady House, Yohandy Morales, and Paul Witt

OUTFIELDERS
Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell III, Andrew Pinckney, and Cody Wilson

I don’t think there’s any big surprises here. Anyone remotely deserving of a promotion – social or legitimate – got moved up from Wilmington late last summer. Three-fifths of the starting rotation returns, so on paper it looks like if this team could just hit at League Average (as opposed to being dead last in nearly every category), it could be a good summer on City Isle.

Wilmington Releases its Opening Day Roster

As per usual, Wilmington’s press releases are coming via an unnamed social media person vs. a media relations professional (watchlist players in bold):
PITCHERS
Wander Arias, Bryan Caceres, Brendan Collins, Riley Cornelio, Dannel Diaz, Marquis Grissom Jr., Richard Guasch, Chance Huff, Andry Lara, Brad Lord, Marlon Perez, Todd Peterson, Nick Pogue, Carlos Romero, Rodney Theophile, Luke Young

CATCHERS
Max Romero Jr. and Matt Suggs

INFIELDERS
Branden Boisserie, Will Frizzell, Sammy Infante, Cortland Lawson, Kevin Made, Viandel Pena, Murphy Stehly, T.J. White

OUTFIELDERS
Daylen Lile, Jared McKenzie, Elijah Nunez, Johnathan Thomas

Crews starting at AA is blocks Lile while it appears that Mr. La Rosa is either hurt or “working on some things” at XST. Otherwise, this is largely the same roster as last August.

Fredericksburg Releases its Opening Day Roster

Conversely, I think there’s going to be certain amount of disappointment outside of the Fredericksburg Booster Club (watchlist players in bold, new players in italics:

PITCHERS
Gabriel Agostini, Anthony Arguelles, Jose Atencio, Merrick Baldo, Marc Davis, Mason Denaburg (yes, really),
Moises Diaz, Bryan Polanco, Kevin Rodriguez, Bryan Sanchez, Thomas Schultz, Travis Sthele, Liam Sullivan, Jarlin Susana,
Mikey Tepper, Samuel Vasquez

CATCHERS
Jose Colmenares and Caleb Farmer

INFIELDERS
Marcus Brown, Armando Cruz, Gavin Dugas, Phillip Glasser, John McHenry, Nate Ochoa, Brandon Pimentel, Roismar Quintana

OUTFIELDERS
Tyler Baca, Brenner Cox, Elijah Green, Cristhian Vaquero

Like the O.B. everyone worthy of a bump from the FCL got one in August, resulting in just four new players. Bear in mind that the FCL starts up in early May instead of early June, so there’s less of an incentive to get anyone on the cusp out of XST.

14 Commments

  1. Not very many surprises here, as the most “surprising” were necessitated by assigning so many AAAA FA arms to Rochester. As I mentioned before, about half of Harrisburg’s pitching staff is repeating the level, which is disappointing if it continues for a while into the season. I’m hoping the pitching carousel starts up sooner than past years for this reason.

    I will, however, highlight two pretty baffling assignments: Marlon Perez and Jarlin Susana.

    I don’t know what Perez did to piss off Nats farm management, but it makes no sense why he’s been handled the way he has in his career to date. He’s, quite simply, dominated batters in his two season career. He generates tons of whiffs, and has great control, as evidenced by his K:BB ratio of 4:1. He also limits runs, with a 3.15 ERA in his career.

    Last season, he played entirely in Wilmington, and was arguably the best relief pitcher in the entirety of the Sally League, and without a doubt, the best to not be promoted to AA. And after that fantastic season, they’re… sending him back? I don’t get it, especially because Perez is old. He was signed out of Cuba at age 22, so his development path should be much more aggressive than most other IFAs, not more conservative. Now at age 24, he’s old for the level. I really don’t see what the Nats are doing here. Is Garvin Alston or Ty Tice really worth blocking Perez over?

    Similarly, but it’s less perplexing as Susana didn’t play particularly well last season and is still age appropriate for the level, I’d have expected Susana to start the season in high A. This is now his 3rd season he’ll play in Fredericksburg. At some point, you just need to test him at the next level, and hope he sinks or swims (for a cautionary tale, see Denaburg).

    1. Maybe they’re keeping JDLR warm in FLA while hoping for prompt promotion for Hassell and/or Crews, with de la Rosa back-filling at H’burg. I’m sort of surprised that they’re starting Hassell at AA, but I don’t disagree. He didn’t exactly set the world afire last season, so let’s establish a positive baseline. Also, Wood, Young, and Call need to be playing every day at AAA.

      I mentioned something similar even during the offseason: they’ve got a logjam of outfielders and are going to have difficulty getting proper reps for everyone.

  3. with new management in place I was curious to see what direction might be taken. apparently that is slow down and take a breath. after some aggressive promotions last year, a lot of repeat development to start the year.

    time to play ball.

  4. Stehly probably plays a lion share of 3 b @ Wil until reenforcement(s) arise from FRED.
    Let’s see how that Will rotation does .

    1. Stehly hit .314 at Wilmington last year and is already 25 years old. Not sure he wouldn’t be better off getting a look at 2B for H’burg instead of some multi-time repeaters. House is obviously blocking him at 3B. Stehly’s bat intrigues me.

      Gavin Dugas is kind of Stehly 2.0, a guy who had a big bat in college but sort of lacks a position.

  5. Agree with Will that Perez’s placement is probably the biggest disappointment / surprise. There is just nothing more for him to do in A+.

    But I’m ok with Susana. His development this year is focusing on control and continuing to increase his workload while avoiding injury. None of that really depends much on the quality of his competition. Besides, he’s still 2+ years young for the level and, if his command takes the needed step forward, his numbers in low-A will be gaudy and he’ll force a mid-year promotion anyway. A perfectly fine trajectory.

    I saw that De La Rosa has a shoulder injury, so that’s explained. And presumably Cronin and Shuman are still rehabbing. Has anyone heard about Luckham, Cruz or Mota? My best guess is Cruz and Mota are victims of the crunch on the left side of the infield in low-A, and Luckham is hurt. Still kind of disappointing, especially Mota.

    I also was kind of hopeful that Sykora was going to get an aggressive assignment after he looked pretty good in the showcase. But I’m not really surprised that they want him to start in the complex.

    1. Cruz was assigned to Fburg, though he, along with a number of other players listed above, are not yet appearing on the team’s online roster. Jorgelys Mota, however, is well spotted. He ended his really good 2023 on the IL, but of course there’s been no subsequent reporting on his injury. It would appear that it might have been something much more serious…

      Or, they just need 25 players to fill out the FCL roster until the draft reinforcements arrive, as there’s nothing of value from the 2023 DSL team, and Mota paid the price.

      1. Mota, for all his promise has shown a fairly high strikeout rate and marginal walk rate. I would love it if the organization makes promotions based more on excelling in this area

        1. Fully agree, but if we did this, we wouldn’t promote a single prospect. Just based on the overwhelming results, up until now, the Nats haven’t prioritized instilling good plate discipline in any way (both walks and strikeouts). Minor league average in 2021 (latest data I can find info on) was about 9.5 BB% and 25 K%. Which raises a really interesting trivia question: do we have a single prospect (watch lister) in the system who has consistently been above average in both categories? The only player that I could come up with (of around 10 that came to mind) that fulfilled both criteria was Drew Millas. Even Dylan Crews fell short in his walk rate.

          1. Vaquero. Consistent 15% walk rate, K rate averaging out around 20% across two levels last year.

          2. Good call, KW. Another: Daylen Lile (I think he just sneaks under the K% average). And I think that ends the list.

            Pinckney and Morales could be added, but I think their sample sizes are a bit too small to draw conclusions from yet.

            Woof. What a list…

        2. Mota’s walk rate is similar to Juan Soto’s for the age 17 and 18 season (tho Soto’s was abbreviated by his ankle injury). Mota has been 8.4% and 8.8%. Soto’s was 8.2% and 9.7%.

  6. First major injury for Luckham .
    Like the weather it’s been an odd start to spring .
    Good to have ORG guys in Strehly and Dugas .

Comments are closed.