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Baseball America Ranks the Top 10 Nats Prospects

With last year’s #1 falling 11 at-bats shy of the ROY threshold, the Boys in Durham get to crow about Crews for one more offseason.
But that’s not the worst thing about this year’s list. Apparently you can barely pitch, turn 26, have serious questions about your health, and still be ranked!

Let’s get to it:

  1. Dylan Crews, OF (1)
  2. Travis Sykora, RHP (14)
  3. Jarlin Susana, RHP (10)
  4. Brady House, 3B (3)
  5. Seaver King, SS (’24 Draft Pick)
  6. Alex Clemmey, LHP (’24 Trade)
  7. Cade Cavalli, RHP (4)
  8. Caleb Lomavita, C (’24 Draft pick)
  9. Cayden Wallace, 3B (’24 Trade)
  10. Daylen Lile, OF (11)




Rather than ask around and find out what the real story is, BA is parroting the Nats company line that Cavalli had the flu and “began experiencing [a] dead arm*.” OK, maybe they did… but I doubt it. It’s been years since I can recall seeing anything remotely like “an N.L. scout told us…”
* I wonder if either the Nats or BA truly understand that “dead arm” is what they used to call a career-ending injury prior to the 1970s.

Just one of last year’s top 10 graduated to the majors (James Wood). Nos. 5-10 all dropped down or out – we won’t know for sure until the ’25 Handbook is published. That’s quite a bit of churn, which is good if you’re looking ahead but not so good when you consider that four of those six were 23 or younger. It’s also worth noting that three of the ten were acquired via trade, which is in line with what Rizzo is historically better at vs. drafting.

While the subscriber chat is usually disappointing, the answer to the question about the Nats’ fetish for toolsy position players with contact issues is worth calling out:

The Nationals have shown a willingness to take on more risk but in exchange acquire high-level athleticism, tools and upside. That’s not always going to pay off, but you’re not getting players like Brady House and Elijah Green later in the draft. You either take a shot early or you don’t that sort of upside potential at all. The 2024 Nationals draft is interesting because the team took a pair of hitters with strong contact skills but aggressive approaches (Sever King, Caleb Lomavita), which is something the Orioles have had success with in the past. Perhaps that’s a shift in philosophy with some new people in the scouting department who came over from Baltimore, but I could also be overanalyzing here. Either way, the team targeted more hitters with proven contact skills in this draft.

I think that might be a good place to leave off. Folks who are interested in seeing the Best Tools and a laughable 2028 lineup, can see them here.

11 Commments

  1. There are a lot of ways to think about and discuss lists like this, and I’m sure we will examine a lot of them over the long winter. Here’s a curious thing that strikes me on first glance, though: only two pitchers and three hitters on this list spent the majority of 2024 in the Nats’ system. Only three of them were Nat picks. A) I guess this is a good injection of new talent; but B) it doesn’t speak too well for the drafting/development of a number of high-profile guys, including a #5 overall pick.

    The glaring omission to me is Lara. He held his own at AA at age 21, and dominated at A+. The funny thing about Lara is that all the outlets insisted on ranking him when it was only based on reputation/speculation, but now that he’s actually done something, he’s not there.

    2. Santander switch hits and is different version of Ken Singleton ( once an ex- po ) in a different time line .

  2. That is no over analysis from the fellow you quoted , Luke .
    That’s pure shift with HAAS and BC influence lead revamped staff .
    How else DID Fred win the crown ?
    As Mel Brooks once said : “ It’s good to be the King ( and Caleb ) !”
    Nice seeding late season for low A .
    Alex Clemney helped too .
    Let’s see how they add minor league free agents over the winter and spring

  3. Let’s see how nation wide MLB notice the rebuild when the outfield is Wood , Crews and Hassell 3
    Plus the young pitching staff deep deep

    1. I have doubts that the Meatloaf song applies to the Nats realistic results from drafting three OU Sooners
      Two outta three ain’t bad ….

  5. I actually don’t think Cavalli should be dropped much farther than that. At least not yet.

    And Lara has promise, but he’s outside my top 10 right now too. Really, as long as their next names are Hassell, Morales, Vaquero, Bennett and Lara in some order, the only name that I’m way off on is Lomavita. I have him way lower, behind all those guys plus a half dozen others.

  6. The Best Tools list is kind of depressing. Lots of words have been spilled about the Nationals’ inability to develop contact hitters, but what’s gone largely overlooked is our inability to produce power hitters too. Under “Best Power Hitter” we have Elijah Green, whose SLG this season was .355 and has hit 20 HR in 201 career minor league games.

    And you know what? They’re not entirely wrong. Green has yet to display in his 3 year career the power he’s supposed to be capable of. But the same story could be said about Dylan Crews or Brady House. Green’s ISO last season was .147, while Crews’ was only .181 and House’s .161. Morales’ was .133, White’s .162, Lile .126, Hassell .088, Pinckney .104, Vaquero .112, Lipscomb .108. Pretty tame stuff. You know who actually stood pretty tall above everyone else with a .207 ISO? Drew Millas.

    But that’s still nothing particularly good for the International League, which has a league average ISO of .165.

    James Wood is the sole exception to basically everything this org doesn’t do well. He walks above average, makes contact above average, hits for power above average. We’re lucky to have him, but it would be nice if we could see these results for a player we drafted ourselves.

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