Nats Spring Breakout Roster Revealed
This might not be new news, but it’s something I should have posted the other day. So in the spirit of stopping the bickering about the big club the site’s raison d’être…
| CATCHERS | INFIELDERS | OUTFIELDERS | PITCHERS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Bazzell | Sam Brown | Yeremy Cabrera | Alex Clemmey |
| Harry Ford | Brayan Cortesia | Nauris De La Cruz | Riley Cornelio |
| Chad Lomavita | Ronny Cruz | Christian Franklin | Jose Feliz |
| Luke Dickerson | Phillip Glasser | Davian Garcia | |
| Angel Feliz | Sam Petersen | Landon Harmon | |
| Gavin Fien | Ethan Petry | Jackson Kent | |
| Devin Fitz-Gerald | Andrew Pinckney | Darrell Lunar | |
| Marconi German | Isaac Lyon | ||
| Coy James | Erick Mejia* | ||
| Seaver King | Sean-Paul Liñan | ||
| Yohandy Morales | Luis Perales | ||
| Abimelec Ortiz | Josh Randall | ||
| Eli Willits | Miguel Sime, Jr. | ||
| Jared Simpson | |||
| Eriq Swan | |||
| Yoel Tejeda, Jr. | |||
| Erik Tolman* |
* Not on 2026 Watchlist
No surprises, really. Noting the overlap with the Watchlist is like predicting Cade Cavalli would be the Opening Day starter. (Wish I were making that up).
The game against the Cardinals prospects is a week from today @ 4:30pm and will be shown on MLB.tv.
Ford being here is a surprise to me.
I thought he had a pretty clear path to a major league roster spot, given Adams’ removal from the 40 man, and Millas not really making a case for himself this Spring. But this does sync with Toboni’s plan to push contending back several more years. Getting Ford’s arb clock ticking this year won’t do much, as we’re going to lose close to 100 games with or without him. And I suppose taking Ford away from major league camp for a few days won’t be too harmful.
A few omissions: Luke Dickerson. He took one AB earlier in the Spring, so he, at least a few weeks ago, wasn’t injured. Same for Sir Jamison Jones.
It’s also interesting that Wallace isn’t listed here. He got a surprisingly long look in ST, but went hitless in 10 ABs. He doesn’t exactly deserve a spot on the roster, but when you have a number of guys still yet to make a professional appearance (James), this isn’t exactly a performance-based list.
Also, it’s interesting that many of the ’25 DSL standouts (Cortesia, de la Cruz and German) are stateside. I suppose this means they’ll go to the FCL and not repeat the DSL.
Dickerson was listed on that initial press release that Zuckerman posted. If he’s been removed, that probably means injury. (Or maybe Luke just missed the name transcribing.)
Jones is a slight omission, as I have him ranked higher than Bazzell. But given their relative draft hype and ages, I don’t think it’s a very strong signal if we assume they were capped at 3 catchers.
I feel something similar applies to Mota – I think of him as a perfectly legit prospect, but have all those other infielders ranked higher, so I’m not reading much into him being left off.
For pitchers, Alvarez is the most striking omission – though I think that his situation is just that he’s barely a rookie in his age-27 season – hardly central casting for a spring breakout.
Honestly, I think the only name where I’m letting this datapoint affect how I’m thinking about the player is Vaquero. I think his absence is meaningful and implies something about how the new FO has evaluated him. I get him being a borderline case but he wasn’t bad last year and, given his hype and tools, having him behind Glasser and N De La Cruz is interesting. (Assuming of course that he’s not hurt.)
(Or maybe Luke just missed the name transcribing.)
Yup. Always an issue when there’s no live text. I was working from a social-media post.
Also having 37 of 39 players on this roster be Watchlist Players is a pretty good indication that you’ve identified the right guys.
Should be interesting the everyday rosters mixes at AA and high A to begin season but we know three months will reveal a different mix pushing upward