Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester | OFF DAY | @ Syracuse, 6:35pm | Herz (MLB Rehab) vs. Rogers (4-10, 5.72) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Altoona, 6:30pm | Susana (0-0, 0.00) vs. Dombkowski (2-2, 3.13) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | vs. Hudson Valley, 6:35pm | Amaral (0-1, 3.05) vs. Serna (6-5, 3.98) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | vs. Wilson, 6:05pm | Ju. Reyes (2-0, 1.76) vs. Broughton (0-5, 6.26) |
Rochester Red Wings, 35-22, 1st I.L. East 1GA – 80-50 Overall
After taking four of six from the Bisons, the Red Wings are now up a full game in the second-half I.L. race. This week, it’s the fourth and final series against Syracuse with six night games.
Harrisburg Senators, 27-28, 4th E.L. Southwest, 10GB – 61-63 Overall
Harrisburg won just two against Chesapeake and sunk to double-digits behind in the second-half race. The Senators remain home for six this week against the Curve, with the usual complement of five night games and a day game on Sunday.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 33-27, 4th Sally Lg. North, 4GB – 64-61 Overall
The Blue Rocks won another series, 4-2 but fell to four games off the pace with six to play. This week the Renegades come to town to play their fifth series of the season, third in the second half. Jacob Walsh was named the Sally Lg. Player of the Week after hitting .421 with two doubles, two HRs, 11 RBI, and a 1.426 OPS from August 25 to Aug 30.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 28-31, 3rd C.L. North, 11GB – 74-51 Overall
Fredericksburg dunked on Delmarva for four wins, including three shutouts. Despite the three goose eggs, the run differential remains in the red at -14 in the second half. This week it’s seven against second-place Wilson, including a matinee tomorrow and a doubleheader on Thursday. Juan Reyes was name the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for pitching five scoreless innings last Wednesday.
FIVE HONORED WITH 2026 MINOR LEAGUE AWARDS
Yesterday, almost a full month earlier than last year, the Nationals announced their 2026 Minor League Awards
- Hitter – IF Seaver King
- Pitcher – RHP Miguel Sime Jr.
- Defensive Player – OF Andrew Pinckney
- Baserunner – IF Eli Willits
- “Nationals Way” – C Max Romero Jr.
Not sure what the rush was to do this on August 31 instead of during the final homestand, but the Nats being tone-deaf about marketing is one thing that has not changed at all since the team was purchased from MLB by the Lerners in 2004. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
Narrator: It is not a coincidence. The only thing keeping Washington from having the worst PR in MLB is the existence of the Angels.
Word coming in is that Morales will be one of the players to join the expanded Nats roster: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/08/nationals-to-select-yohandy-morales.html
So excited for him. While he’s cooled off the past two weeks, he’s had a fantastic season and totally deserves the promotion! I hope he proves all his doubters wrong!
I’m surprised Cosgrove and Kranick survived their epic meltdown on Sunday. Meanwhile, Yean is just sitting there unused on the 40 man with a 1.80 major league ERA/3.05 minor league ERA. He’s gotta get the last roster spot, right? I should stop being surprised by the bullpen decision making at this point. So many baffling decisions.
I’ll ask again as it might’ve gotten buried in the past thread. Has there been any reporting on Gavin Fien’s status? He hasn’t played since August 23rd, but remains on the active roster.
Lastly, a huge congratulations for Romero earning the Nats Way Award. His bounce back after a miserable 2024-2025 has been remarkable. Romero, as a 2022 draftee, is Rule 5 eligible. I’ll be curious to see how they handle him this offseason.
I’m also excited to see Morales.
If the evaluators are correct, he should be immediately overwhelmed by major league fastballs. If he’s not, well, that will be very interesting.
Will,
Do you think the projected lockout has anything to do with keeping guys like Cosgrove, Kranick, and Vivas around? And maybe even Tena? I have no idea, but I hope you do. Maybe the Nats just want to continue to develop some of the players they are not putting on the MLB roster because of the projected lockout rules?
The excellent Rule 5 discussion of yesterday adds to my confusion about the lockout. What about those not subject to Rule 5? Will the lockout potential keep those players from being called up?
I have no idea what the Nats’ thinking is at this point. Looking at what other clubs are doing, they don’t seem to be behaving differently than in other seasons. But the Nats DO seem to be doing something different than most. Whether that’s just a product of a new front office having no track record, or they actually deviating from the norm, I’m not sure.
But what I do know is Toboni irrationally loves two things: 1. platoon match ups, and 2. positional versatility. For both Vivas and Tena, they theoretically possess some positional versatility (even if they’re bad at every position they play) and bat left handed (a skill in short supply in the upper levels of our org). So I think they’re being kept around solely because they’re lefties. Otherwise, I struggle to make sense of them still being around.
For Cosgrove and Kranick, I’m completely clueless. I don’t understand at all what Toboni is trying to accomplish with the bullpen. He still loves platoon match ups, hence why we’ve tended to carry at least two LHRPs all season, which could explain Cosgrove (though Dion and Tolman’s presence renders him, at best, superfluous). Kranick, however, is a righty. I don’t get why he’s around on any level.
On a more general level, I haven’t really identified a reliever “type” like Rizzo had: a former top prospect, at least 6’4″ with a good fastball. We’ve brought in so many relievers this season, that trends would seemingly emerge. But I can’t recognize any patterns beyond them being DFA’d by their previous org. You’ve got your share of junkballers who can barely hit 90 MPH, like Cosgrove, Waldron, Lovelady, Poulin, Mills, Krook and Palmquist. Then you’ve got your Rizzo types: former prospects with good velocity: Waldichuk, Nicolas, Cruz, and a bunch of the recently acquired relievers, like Grable, Cebert, Virguez, etc. And a bunch more seemingly neither of those two prototypes.
Also good to see Reyes get some recognition. He’s quietly been very effective after getting bumped to Fredericksburg after a solid but unremarkable showing in the FCL. He’s now sporting a 1.76 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 14:3 K:BB in 4 games so far.
Morales is another guy who would have been rule 5 eligible unless added to the 40. There as an open spot on the 40, so no one had to be moved off the 40.
Thinking about Rule 5 and 40-man upon end of season:
Per Draft Tracker on this site, following guys are 2026 R5 eligible:
Phillip Glasser
Elijah Nunez
Nate Rombach
Jared Simpson
Thomas Schultz
Liam Sullivan
Mikey Tepper
Austin Amaral
Merrick Baldo
Elijah Green
Brenner Cox
Luke Young
Christian Vaquero
Jorgelys Mota
Clarence Martina
Leodarlyn Colon
Trey Lipscomb says 40-man in the Draft Tacker. but he’s not on the 40 man. Don’t know about him.
Max Romero is given as 2025 R5 eligible (why earlier than others in this draft?)
Maybe Jared Simpson would interest somebody, or Max Romero, or Lipscomb if Lipscomb is eligible. Pinckney would have been eligible, but he is on the 40.
BTW – Grissom (released) and Tolman (MLB ) should be updated in the Draft Tracker.
Note that in putting together the 40, would need to find a place for these 60-day IL guys if desired: DJ Herz, Josiah Gray, Ken Waldichuk, Richard Lovelady, PJ Poulin, Mitchell Parker (TJ), Connelly Early. So I presume they need spots for Herz and Early, and maybe Gray. There’s certainly people on the 40 (relief pitchers) who are DFA candidates: Kyle Nicolas, Wyatt Mills, Cosgrove, Palmquist, Zak Kent, Paxton Schultz, Cole Henry (if not healthy), Max Kranick, Gus Varland, maybe Eddy Yean, maybe Jake Bird, Tim Waldron.
Weirdly, you missed the guys I think are most likely to get added: Susana, Sykora, and Rosario feel like near-locks to me, though I guess you could play a high risk game of chicken with the injury return guys (if other GMs think you’re comfortable exposing them, maybe they won’t draft them…). After them, Cabrera and Swan seem like borderline cases. And then as unlikely-but-possible, I have Ramirez Jr with a couple of the names you listed (Romero Jr and Wallace).
I’ll be very interested to see which 10-12 players they decide to cut, and this probably played into the decision to keep King at AAA too.
(Also, we lost Cronin to R5 after he’d been added to the 40 and DFA’d, so Lipscomb is definitely eligible.)
Looking at some of those guys:
Sykora – Draft tracker says 2027R5 he is a 2023 pick out of HS so I think he is not eligible for another year.
Alejandro Rosario – same as Sykora, 2023 pick out of HS
Jarlin Susana – yes, he was a 2022 IFA same year as Vaquero, so yes, looks like he definitely has to be put on
Yeremy Cabrera – 2022 IFA, so he is exposed.
Cayden Wallace – 2022 draft pick from college, so also exposed.
Eriq Swan – 2023 draft pick from college, so exposed.
So yeah, looking at the draft and IFA tracker doesn’t cover guys they traded for.. But I think Rosario and Sykora are safe.
Interesting. RosterResource has both Sykora and Rosario as eligible. Rosario was actually a college draftee, so I’m pretty sure they’re right about him, but you’re right that Sykora shouldn’t be eligible yet. I wonder what the confusion is.
R5 eligibility is based on whether you were 19+ at signing. Sykora was 19 when he signed, so he has to be added within 4 professional seasons, not 5. (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
It’s very easy for teams to take injured players in a R5 draft. I think both Sykora and Rosario would be easy claims for another team, so Nats will have to protect both of them.
Dark horse protection candidate: Pineda. Because he’ll be a FA, a team can grab him without even using a 40-man spot, let alone a 25-man. He’s 24, crushing AAA in a small sample, and was recently a ranked prospect in the Phillies system.
The last time the CBA expired (between the 2021-22 season) there was no Rule V draft (there was a lockout which caused MLB to initially delay the Rule V draft and because the CBA was agreed upon so late in March 2022, the Rule V draft was canceled.
This time the labor dispute seems even more acromonious. Would seem like the chances of Rule V draft this off-season is dim. If it does happen, it would likely be after a CBA is agreed upon hopefully earlier rather than later in 2027.
Given that the Nats seem to have more organizational talent than in the past, perhaps canceling the draft is a good thing.
aha. But I guess they can’t assume lockout, so you have to put guys on the 40 who you could lose and don’t want to lose.
Luke,
Will never defend the Lerners, but I think that the Nats elected to announce the organizational awards on August 31 rather than the end of the season was because it was simply easier to gather all of the players and their coaches now, when everyone has a Monday off, rather than when their seasons are long over and everyone is scattered. While the season isn’t over, it’s close enough to be over (one to three weeks left) that I don’t think its a huge deal. It was good hearing each of the award winners on the broadcast last night.
Don’t see announcing the winners and hosting them yesterday as a PR problem.
Ok, fair enough… if the goal is to have the players be seen. For some people that’s a big deal.
Repeat , Reyes . Rise up , Reyes
Riley Adams should come off
Development – taxi – list .
We should see some minor league trades just to get value this winter on sssets before R5.
Let’s see how Life of Riley goes against Renegades
aha. But I guess they can’t assume lockout, so you have to put guys on the 40 who you could lose and don’t want to lose.
Jared Simpson selected!
Trevor Williams signs with the Rangers making him post season eligible if they make it.
Millas to the 60-day DL, so he’s done for the year.