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Vote for Your Favorite Arms

With the addition of six new throw…er, pitchers via the Rule 5 draft, we have a somewhat less shallow pool of guys from which to draw.

Like a year ago, the Nats are short on pitching prospects, though the two best are 6’6″ (*rimshot!*) One is almost certain not throw a pitch that counts north of Florida in 2026. The other went on I.L. (twice) in 2025 and eventually had lat surgery. If you don’t who I’m referring to, you probably should close your tab and go back to the MASN comments.

For those of you who relatively new, you can send your Top 10 list to enfieldmass-top10arms[at]yahoo[dot]com (link will open your preferred email client) or post them in the comments.

Once we have enough votes, I’ll weigh them in reverse order (#1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points … #9 = 2 points, #10 = 1 point) and post the results, along with some obligatory snark observations.

While the position players tend to get the benefit of their ceiling, pitchers—aside from the top two or three—often are more valued for their floor. Given the state of the big club’s throwing, this is not wrong.

We now return you to your Gingerbread House Day festivities…

19 Commments

  1. I didn’t quite realize how thin our pitching depth is. There’s such a huge, cavernous gap between the top 4, and then another between 6 and another after 8, it felt a bit like a random guessing game from 7 onward. Nevertheless, here goes:

    Actual prospects
    1. Sykora
    2. Susana
    3. Clemmey
    4. Bennett (up to here, it was very easy)
    Major league “ready” innings eaters with some upside
    5. Alvarez
    6. Stuart
    No track record, so it’s hard to be definitive (recognizing both could quickly join the “actual prospects” tier with a good 2026)
    7. Harmon
    8. Sime
    Best of the rest
    9. Linan (hope he didn’t blow out his elbow in the AFL)
    10. Jose Feliz

    Honorable Mention (relievers): Beeter, McGarry, Yean, Grissom, Eder, Swan, Aldonis, Bloebaum, Schultz

    1. This is just a Snarkle .
      Travis Sunday or Saturday Stehle has been healthy all 2025
      Racking up IP rare combination in the pipeline .

    3. Will, Beeter has exceeded rookie eligibility. Curiously, B-R says that Cavalli’s rookie status is still intact for his age-27 season, although FG lists him with 2 years, 141 days of MLB service time. Lara also still has rookie status and won’t turn 23 until next month. For frame of reference, he’s two years younger than Bennett, three and a half younger than Alvarez.

    4. A story to follow into July
      Evan Phillips non tendered by LAD
      UCL injury . Former RAY .
      Hmmm

  2. After the first 4 it’s like throwing darts against the wall, but here we go.
    1. Sykora
    2. Susana
    3. Clemmey
    4. Bennett
    5. Harmon
    6. Alvarez
    7. Linan
    8. Sime
    9. Cornelio
    10. Swan

  3. The Nats extended non-roster invites to 2026 Major League Spring Training to:

    -INF Orelvis Martinez
    -RHP Tyler Baum
    -RHP Eddy Yean

  4. I liked Harmon quite a bit even before the draft, so I thought this was an easy exercise 5 deep. Then I had about 8 or 9 guys in the consideration for the other 5 spots.

    1. Susana
    2. Sykora
    3. Clemmey
    4. Bennett
    5. Harmon
    6. Swan
    7. Liñan
    8. Sime
    9. Tejeda
    10. Alvarez (I couldn’t leave him off, though I do worry that I’ve been snowed by a lucky 20 innings last September)

      1. You’re right. All I can find is lat surgery for Susana. Mark Z had some comps on how much time others have missed:

        https://www.masnsports.com/blog/entry/susana-has-lat-surgery-gray-to-make-final-rehab-start-friday-williams-is-clemente-nominee

        It sure seems like it’s taking guys longer now to come back from TJs, and presumably lat surgery as well, than it did a few years ago. I wonder whether that’s due to more caution, improved protocols, or just that it’s taken certain guys more time to get back up to speed (Cavalli among them).

        1. Back to the 2026 draft . I’m sure the “ brass “ is happy about the fact that. After the first round the draft seat position is third in line .
          They should pluck plenty of fruit off the 2026 product tree .
          Bullpens truly evolve .
          It will fall into place quietly
          Like the old Supertramp album
          Even in the Quietest Monents

        2. We can only hope that this kills the chimera that “Tommy John makes pitchers stronger” (it was always the PT) and perhaps a reminder that as far as we’ve come, it’ll never be 100%.

  6. I started to make my list without injured guys and draftees who haven’t pitched, but it was too depressing. I probably would have had Tyler Stuart on here if he wasn’t injured, though.

    1. Sykora
    2. Susana
    3. Clemmey
    4. Lara
    5. Bennett
    6. Alvarez
    7. Liñan
    8. Cornelio
    9. Harmon
    10. Swan

    I’ll probably be the only one to vote for Lara, but he’s still a rookie and won’t turn 23 until next month. Fingers crossed that the new developmental team will be able to hone talent where others have missed. They obviously think they can “fix” McGarry as well. If they can cut Clemmey’s walk rate, he could cross over into top-100 status. He surrendered more walks per 9 than hits per 9 at Wilmington.

    Bennett’s lack of ability to strike guys out at the AA level was the question mark with him. Presumably he will start the year at AAA and have every chance for an MLB debut in 2026 whenever he earns it.

  7. We could honestly say considering the dearth ( misspelling of the word dearth to death would not be too far off )
    Once must reset the clock back to
    Six year rebuild even with trades of Gore and Abrams
    As for the orioles building schedule . I’m just going to go ahead and say this since some won’t
    Are the orioles rather overrated Ty their talent haul even after the trades done in last two years and the karmic stuff flog on in their present reality ?
    Would a talent haul from another organization be more fruitful for Nats ?

  8. 1. Sykora
    2. Clemmey
    3. Harmon
    4. Susana
    5. Linan
    6. Swan
    7. Bennett
    8. Alvarez
    9. Kent
    10. McGarry

  9. @Luke – I was wondering, do you add your top 10 as one of the votes?

    If not, you should. And, if you do, would you mind publishing them?

    Thanks!

    1. I typically don’t, but if it’ll help us get one or two more votes…

      1. Sykora
      2. Susana
      3. Clemmey
      4. Bennett
      5. Kent
      6. Harmon
      7. Sime
      8. Alvarez
      9. Swan
      10. Cornelio

      I gave some serious thought to dropping Sykora and Susana lower based on their injury status, but reconsidered because it would skew the results.

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