The NationalsProspects.com Top 10 Pitchers
I’m not sure what it says about a Top 10 list that has three guys who pitched less than 20 innings, plus two more who were acquired during the season.
Without further ado…
- Travis Sykora (4)
- Jarlin Susana (9)
- Andry Lara (10)
- Alex Clemmey
- Brad Lord
- Cade Cavalli (1)
- Tyler Stuart
- Jake Bennett* (5)
- Andrew Alvarez* (6)
- Zach Brzykcy
Others receiving votes, excluding honorable mentions: Marquis Grissom Jr., Jose Feliz, Jackson Rutledge, Robert Cranz, Cole Henry, Jose Atencio, Jackson Kent
The winter meetings are this week but it’s hard to muster much excitement, even with the Nats having a ~10% chance of getting the #1 pick in the Draft Lottery. Likewise for the Rule 5 draft, in which the Nats are back to being more likely to pick someone up than lose someone.
I’d love to be wrong and see the Nats pull off a trade like they did in 2011, but that was a near-.500 team with a veteran core vs. a team with zero guys who have been on the team more than five seasons. I don’t see the Nats giving up on the current rebuild or trying to accelerate when they need closer to 20 more wins than 9 or 10.
Part of the reason that the Nats don’t have anyone on the team who has been there for five years is that they have gone from being the oldest team in MLB in 2019 to just about the youngest. Last season they had the second youngest batter age in MLB, and they currently only have two players on the 40 man who are over 30. One of whom (Alex Call) just turned 30 three months ago.
Most of the roster were in school five years ago.
The rumor was that the Nats dangled Susana and some other prospects for Sandy Alcantara. If true, the Nats are willing to deal prospects for a more immediate return. Think that the Soto deal was so huge, and that teams are reassessing priorities right now.
Also, not defending the Lerners in anyway, but Scott Boras was never going to let Soto sign an extension with the Nats (or the Padres or the Yankees), his goal was always to break records with Soto as a free agent in the 2024-5 off-season. The Soto trade had to be made (fwiw, like with Harper after the 2018 season, the Lerners floated to the public offers made to Soto to help with the PR leading up to the Soto deal, which the Lerners knew that Soto would reject; so, the Nats also lacked the intent to enter into a long term commitment for Juan Soto).
The thing is Soto could’ve broken the all time record contract by total amount and AAV back in 2021/2022, and still signed for a, in retrospect, bargain at something like 12/$520m.
There’s some scenario where this placates all parties involved. But it wasn’t to be.
Baseball age (age as of 7/1) for 2025:
Sykora (21)
Susana (21)
Lara (22)
Clemmey (19)
Lord (25)
Cavalli (26)
Stuart (25)
Bennett (24)
Alvarez (26)
Brzykcy (25)
There’s a very obvious age gap. Also, the most highly thought of prospects are the youngest.
Nats just won the draft lottery and got the #1 pick.
It’s about time we got some luck going our way, what with the “bad luck” of being one of the first teams punished with the new draft rules last season.
Even if no consensus #1 emerges, just the additional draft capital alone is a big boost to what we’ll be able to achieve in the draft in 2025.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/2025/draft/