The 2026 Fredericksburg Nationals
It was a tale of two halves for the ’26 FredNats, but not the order in which one would prefer.
The first-half edition could do no wrong. Forty-six wins – the most by a Low-A team in the Nationals era of the franchise (2005-present), 23 at home, 23 on the road with a +125 run differential (6.35 R/G scored vs 4.45 R/G allowed). The won the C.L. North by 10 games.
The second-half edition? Not so much. Thirty-four wins, though the last seven were in a row, and a mere +33 run differential (5.91 and 5.40) and finished 5½ games behind Fayetteville, which swept both Fredericksburg and Charleston to win the Mills Cup.
It’s not difficult to pinpoint why this team struggled so much in the second half. Simply put, once the FCL throwers ran out of innings in Florida, they were shipped north. And we’ve already established that they were mostly awful as the Nationals seemed hell-bent on trying to find an overlooked NDFA.
Including a handful of position players, 63 pitchers were used. Contrast that to the 28 pitchers used at Hagerstown in 2019, which is not a true comparison given that the GCL and NYPL were also in play. But still…
Overall, the team did put up some good numbers at the plate:
- 1st in runs scored (6.13 vs. 5.37)
- 2nd in doubles & triples
- 1st in HR
- 2nd in BB’s drawn
- 1st in OBP, SLG, and… wait for it… OPS
- 1st in SF
On the mound, they had a couple of bright spots:
- Fewest HR allowed (surprised me too)
- 3rd in K’s
- 3rd in fewest BK
In terms of defense, they were 4th in FPct but allowed the 5th most PB, the most wild pitches, and were 7th in CS% at 23 percent.
As we always do, here are the statistical Top 5’s, using 100PA and 25IP as the cutoffs.
| TOP 5 BATS | TOP 5 ARMS |
| 1. Yeremy Cabrera, 3B/CF .372 GPA, 28BB, 18SB in 30G |
1. Carson Fischer, RHSP 2.08/2.68/1.12, 1 HR allowed in 65IP |
| 2. Jack Moroknek, LF/RF .327 GPA, .423 OBP in 41G |
2. Miguel Sime Jr., RHSP 4.44/2.90/1.52, 18.46 K/9IP in 26⅓ IP (10GS) |
| 3. Eli Willits, SS .313 GPA, 6HR, 29SB in 47G/td> | 3. Gus Hughes, RHRP 3.86/3.31/1.29, 2.6 BB/9IP in 49IP (24G) |
| 4. Hunter Hines, 1B .313 GPA, 15HR, .577 SLG in 57G |
4. Xander Meckley 4.17/3.42/1.34, 16WP in 82IP (19G, 12GS) |
| 5. Rafael Ramirez Jr., 2B/3B .302 GPA, 64BB in 89G |
5. Travis Sthele, RHSP 0.31/3.45/0.86, 5.6 K/9IP in 29IP |
Honorable mentions to Jacob Walsh (.296 GPA) and Juan Reyes (3.28 FIP) and Landon Harmon (3.69). Had I not upped the minimum IP from 20 to 25 it would have increased the number of relievers and included three players 23 or older. That since-released Travis Sthele made the list ought to tell you how bad (and old) the pitching was once you got past the true prospects.
Full team statistics can be found here. Pitching data can be found here.
