As a system, Washington has fallen to #15 and will likely fall further once BA releases its next update (i.e., once Dylan Crews graduates). This despite including a Rule 5 pickup for the third straight year. This is logically consistent given that Roki Sasaki is ranked #1 for the Dodgers (I’m with Keith Law, including an NPB player is extremely specious).
Unfortunately, despite the shift toward drafting college juniors (instead of seniors, natch) and high schoolers for the past three drafts, the list STILL skews old – one 27-y.o., one 26-y.o. (who turns 27 in August), three 25-y.o.’s (two of which will turn 26 by July), and four 24-y.o.’s (two turn 25 by August).
Maybe that’ll change next year, but I’ll believe it when I see it…
What happened to last year’s Top 30?
| GRADUATED | James Wood, Trey Lipscomb, DJ Herz, Jacob Young, Mitchell Parker |
| TRADED | None |
| RELEASED | None |
| RULE 5 DRAFT | None |
| DROPPED OUT | Victor Hurtado, Israel Pineda, Cole Henry, Jeremy De La Rosa, Armando Cruz, Darren Baker. T.J. White, Kevin Made |
There were fewer dropouts this year than last, though it’s a bit surprising that neither Hurtado nor Cruz stayed on the list; BA usually likes to reward big spending tacitly.
Five graduations seem like a good thing until you realize that’s more a function of Washington being an also-ran. The odds of someone other than James Wood being an everyday player (or in the rotation) two years from now are not very good.
And now, after a word from our sponsors… the list:
| 1. OF Dylan Crews (1) | 11. SS Luke Dickerson | 21. RHP Zach Brzykcy (20) |
| 2. RHP Travis Sykora (14 | 12. OF Robert Hassell (7) | 22. 1B Yohandy Morales (5) |
| 3. RHP Jarlin Susana (10) | 13. LHP Jake Bennett (13) | 23. OF Elijah Green (9) |
| 4. 3B Brady House (3) | 14. C Kevin Bazzell | 24. RHP Robert Cranz |
| 5. SS Seaver King | 15. SS Angel Feliz (24) | 25. RHP Tyler Stuart |
| 6. LHP Alex Clemmey | 16. OF Andrew Pinckney (19) | 26. C Daniel Hernandez |
| 7. RHP Cade Cavalli (4) | 17. SS Brayan Cortesia | 27. SS Nasim Nunez (17) |
| 8. C Caleb Lomavita | 18. C Drew Millas (22) | 28. SS Christian Vaquero (8) |
| 9. 3B Cayden Wallace | 19. RHP Andry Lara | 29. RHP Brad Lord |
| 10. OF Daylen Lile (11) | 20. RHP Jackson Rutledge (6) | 30. SS (25) |
One thing that’s hard not to notice is that three of the top ten came to the Nats via the trade. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly does little to dispute the assessment that GM Mike Rizzo is much better at trading for talent than drafting it.
UPDATE
Todd caught that I had been working from the book instead of the post, so (H/T) to him and a raspberry to my morning coffee because I didn’t notice that the list had been updated since to include the two biggest January 15 signs (in italics). Evan Reifert and Kevin Made fell victim (sort of).
Bringing forward something else brought up in the comments, Nasim Nunez and Drew Millas are beneficiaries of BA’s policy of ignoring service time, which some of the old-timers may remember from 2016 when Wilmer Difo was ranked in the Top 10 despite exceeding the 45-day service time threshold.