Cards Edge Nats in Spring Breakout; Three More Optioned
The Nats took a 4-0 lead on a pair of Gavin Fien doubles, including a three-run gapper to LCF. But the Cards got two in the 5th and five in the 6th and held off a late charge by the Nats to win, 9-8.
The loss went to Josh Randall, who retired just two of seven batters faced while hitting two batters, walking one, and giving up five runs on three hits.
Fien also stole third base in the 1st, singled in the 6th for another RBI, and walked in the 9th. He finished with five RBIs while going 3-for-4 as the DH.
Phillip Glasser singled twice and doubled once to finish 3-for-5 with a walk and two RBI while playing the whole game in left field.
While the Nats racked up 11 hits and drew six walks total, the batters not named Glasser or Fien were 0-for-15 with RISP.
Top prospect Eli Willits walked twice, scored twice, stole a base, and struck out before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 6th.
Expectations for Rochester may have been raised with the addition of three major-leaguers to the roster, all optioned from Washington yesterday:
- RHP Julian Fernández
- RHP Josiah Gray
- OF Robert Hassell3
According to longtime Nats beat writer Mark Zuckerman, that leaves 33 candidates for the 26 spots on the Opening Day Roster.
In terms of “our guys,” Christian Franklin appears to be competing with Joey Wiemer for the last OF spot, after the Nats kinda (sorta) gave a de facto vote of confidence to Dylan Crews, presuming, of course that Jacob Young’s wrist injury won’t land him on the I.L.
Wiemer may very well have the upper hand with 180 games of MLB experience vs. Franklin (same as you and me). Bold prediction: Absent an injury, Franklin gets sent down to “play every day instead of sitting the bench.”
Griff McGarry, who is technically a watchlister as a Rule 5 pick, appears to be a coin toss, roll of the dice, or a magic-8 ball shake to make the club. While the previous front office may have diagnosed him with Hellenic flu or a strained premise, there’s no track record with this front office.
TL; DR – your guess is as good as mine.
A few more observations from the game, Davian Garcia was comfortably sitting at 98 MPH, which is impressive. He was erratic, walking and hitting a guy, but he also fanned Rainiel Rodriguez, a top 50 prospect. He’s caught my attention.
As Kirkie pointed out, Miguel Sime made JJ Wetherholt (consensus top 10 prospect) look foolish blowing a 101 MPH fastball past him. WOW! (Vid here: https://www.mlb.com/gameday/831411/video/jj-wetherholt-strikes-out-swinging-vfsmfx)
Everyone has been hyping Harmon from last year’s draft class, but wow, Sime might be the real get of our HS picks after round 1. Coy James looked every bit a guy who’s never faced professional pitching, but that’s understandable. So impressive to see Sime and Harmon not at all look out of place in their professional debut. Harmon was sitting at 95/96 as the scouting reports accurately reported.
Really disappointed with Morales’ outing. He made really bad contact (3 weak ground outs and 1 strikeout in 5 PA), despite being one of the most advanced prospects in the game, facing some very young, inexperienced (albeit talented) arms. I hoped for more, but I’m starting to see why prospectors are so down on him. But I won’t judge him on one game alone.
Fien looked really good, making really good contact against another consensus top 20 prospect in Liam Doyle. Doyle was pretty awful. He couldn’t locate his pitches, but when he did manage to, you could see why he was a top prospect, but the Nats definitely got the better of him.
Finally, it was a bit strange how the Nats named such a small pitching staff (8 arms) vs. bats (14) that they had to dip into some randoms that I wasn’t even aware of. Cesar Rojas, a 23 year old in Rookie Ball claimed from the Rays in the MILB R5, threw the 9th (as well as Tucker Biven). Weirdly, Erik Tolman didn’t even feature despite being named to the roster.. Wonder what that was about?
the upcoming roster assignments will be interesting.
disappointed to not see Dickerson get any action.
is Philip Glasser the second coming of Luis Arraez?
Crews to Rochester
Looks like Christian Franklin will make the opening day roster.
In the Rizzo era, I’d be less confident (even with only five OFs in the MLB camp and no true utility guy), but I’d have to agree.
Interesting. It seems that ST performance does actually matter, and there’s some semblance of accountability back in this org.
Though James Wood doesn’t appear to have gotten the memo, putting up a golden sombrero yesterday.
Yes Damien Garcia is percolating like a welll timed pit of Folgers in the lower levels
Now the DeShields OF bunch became more interesting with Hassel 3 and Crews joining The red wings
The former Phillies OF should be on Sens April roster
Or better yet my birthday roster
(3-31)
With the outfield deity chart pushing down for 3-31
Maybe Rogers and Pineda end up in Harrisburg ?
Some transactions:
03/20/26 FCL Nationals released OF Carlos Batista.
03/20/26 FCL Nationals released OF Andy Acevedo.
03/20/26 FCL Nationals released SS Nathaniel Ochoa Leyva.
03/20/26 Harrisburg Senators released LHP Dustin Saenz.
03/20/26 Washington Nationals optioned RHP Jackson Rutledge to Rochester Red Wings.
03/20/26 Wilmington Blue Rocks released OF Jared McKenzie.
03/20/26 Wilmington Blue Rocks released OF Brandon Pimentel.
03/17/26 Fredericksburg Nationals placed RHP Brayan Romero on the 60-day injured list.
03/17/26 Harrisburg Senators placed RHP Alejandro Rosario on the full-season injured list [came in the Gore trade – was already known he would miss 2026]
03/17/26 Harrisburg Senators placed RHP Tyler Stuart on the 60-day injured list.
03/17/26 Harrisburg Senators placed RHP Travis Sykora on the 60-day injured list.
None of these are surprising, but it’s still pretty rough to see Andy Acevedo and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Batista released just a couple years after signing them to big bonuses (Acevedo: $1.3m, Batista: $400k). Acevedo ends his career with a .175 AVG and Batista with a smidgen better at .177. Disastrous stuff.
That 2023 draft class just might be one of the worst in history. Besides Acevedo and Batista, Edwin Solano ($1.3m), Elian Soto ($400k), Manuel Cabrera ($550k), Juan Obispo ($600k) and Hector Liriano ($400k) rounded out the big bonuses. Solano and Liriano were released long ago, and Obispo (in 3 seasons in the DSL) is sporting a career .631 OPS, while Soto (career OPS of .558) and Cabrera (.612) have at least made it to Florida. But I’m not sure if any of these guys will be playing baseball with the Nats org by the time the FCL begins. We’d have been better off lighting those $5m+ in bonuses on fire.
The few remaining successes of that class, Jose Feliz and Dashyll Tejeda, who got minimal bonuses, still have yet to make it out of the FCL, which puts pressure on their shoulders to get even one guy from that class to even play some full season baseball.
Ochoa Leyva’s release should serve as a warning shot to a number of other scuffling HS picks, like Elijah Green, Brenner Cox, Everett Cooper, Nick Peoples and TJ White, drafted around the same time as NOL.
Good point , Will,
Purging slowing the Rizzo kids
Interesting to see how Latin kids drafted recently or signed either new analytics program should be a different whole environment .
Back to the Delino Senior
Outfield posse
Thomas
Pineda
Peterson
( this is a push )
Petry !
Rogers and maybe Levi .
What with McKenzie and Pimenthal pink slipped .
More infielders may get outfield play
Oh yeah
Senator Sam Brown
Independent ticket
lol