Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 6-5 (11 inn.) |
@ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35pm | Lara (1-2, 5.06) vs. Kloffenstein (0-1, 7.27) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 11-2 | vs. Altoona, 6:30pm | Kent (0-0, 6.75) vs. Perachi (1-0, 1.80) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 10-9 | @ Frederick, 7pm | Randall (1-0, 2.13) vs. Watts-Brown (1-0, 1.04) |
| Frdericksburg | Lost, 10-4 | @ Salem, 6:35pm | Harmon (1-0, 0.87) vs. Frias (0-0, 10.00) |
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6 Rochester 5 (11 inn.)
• Perales 4IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K, HR, BK, WP
• Tolman 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 5K
• Yean (BS, 1) 1IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, IBB, 0K, WP
• Granillo (L, 0-1) ⅓ IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• Franklin 3-6, 2B, RBI
• Pinckney 2-5, 2R, 2B, 2K
• Lipscomb 2-5, R, RBI, 2K
The Red Wings rallied for three in the top of the 9th only to see Eddie Yean give it back in the bottom of the 10th and Andre Granillo let in the free runner in the 11th to lose, 6-5 to the RailRiders. Luis Perales pitched four full innings for the first time in ’26, but gave up a two-run HR to lose an early 1-0 lead. He walked two and struck out three. Christian “Hey It’s” Franklin singled twice and double once while Andrew Pinckney and Trey Lipscomb both went 2-for-5 with two strikeouts (four of the 14 on the night) to lead the Rochester offense. Roster moves: RHP Julian Fernández optioned from Washington.
Altoona 11 Harrisburg 2
• D. Garcia (L, 1-2) 2⅔ IP, 3H, 3R, 2ER, 5BB, 4K, WP
• Huff 2IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
• Pichardo 1-2, R, BB,
• S. Brown 1-3, BB, 2B
Harrisburg got within striking distance (3-2) with a two-spot in the 5th but the Sens ‘pen threw in-game BP, coughing up eight runs over the last three innings to lose 11-2 to Altoona. Davian Garcia was knocked from the box in the 3rd, charged with three runs (two earned) on three hits and five walks. He struck out four and lost for the second time. The Senators notched eight hits but none in eight scoring chances and left on… wait for it… eight baserunners. Kervin Pichardo and Sam Brown were the only two Harrisburg batters to reach base twice without getting hit by a pitch with Brown and Caleb Lomavita connecting for the two (2) extra-base hits (both doubles).
Frederick 10 Wilmington 9
• Polanco 4IP, 8H, 6R, 5ER, 1BB, 6K, 3HR, WP
• Huizi (BS, 1; L, 3-1) 5BF, 3H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 0K
• Nunez 3-4, R, 2B
• R. Cruz 3-5, 2R, HR, 2RBI, E
• White 2-4, R, BB, HR, 2RBI, 3SB (5)
The Blue Rocks blew an early 3-0 lead to take a 9-7 lead into the 9th where Eiker Huizi handed off his beer and retired none of the five batters he faced to blow the save and lose the game, 10-9. Bryan Polanco went the first four and was torched for six runs on eight hits (three HR) and a walk while striking out six. Ronny Cruz, the new “it” prospect on the Twitters, homered for the first time at High-A while going 3-for-5 while Elijah Nunez singled twice and doubled once to lead Wilmington’s 13-hit parade.
Salem 10 Fredericksburg 4
• Sime (L, 0-2) 2⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 5K, HR
• Moore ⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K, 1-0 IR-S
• R. Ramirez 2-3, R, BB, 2B
• Willits 2-5, R, 2K, SB
After falling behind, 6-0, Fredericksburg crept to within two before the wheels came off the bus in the 8th as a 7-4 deficit turned into the eventual 10-4 score. Miguel Sime Jr. walked three and struck out five but also gave up two runs and two hits (one HR) over two and 2/3rds. He threw 55 pitches, 31 for strikes. Eli Willits singled twice, scored a run, and stole a base while Rafael Ramirez reached base three times on a walk, single, and a double to pace the FredNats attack.
All aboard the Ronny Cruz hype train. It’s picking up speed and passengers. Just in the past couple days, Cruz has been highlighted by a few prospectors. I’ll split this up into a few posts, as multiple URLs per post get flagged as spam.
First from BA. In their podcast, they go into some very interesting detail about the whole system, but focus on Cruz. Like many of us here, they talked about the org’s hot start, but that hope is still largely concentrated at the lower levels, and so hope in the majors is still a few years off. Skip to around the 20:00 mark: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prospect-podcast-early-season-stars/id201539011?i=1000763033835
Another update from BA. Here is just one of 3 updates in the past 4 days from BA’s short waiver wire sort of notes, gushing about Cruz again: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/prospect-reports/ronny-cruz-hits-second-home-run-in-third-high-a-game/
Links to the other news items are at the bottom of the page.
Per reports, Riley Cornelio will be called up today. He was picked by the Nats in the 7th round in 2022.
Didn’t seem like that would happen after his 5.66 ERA season in Wilmington (age 24 season). He continued to chase the dream and here he is.
Cornelio looks to be, like a few other guys in the system, a late bloomer. He’s been sitting at 95 MPH this season, half a tick up from 94ish last season, with a really, really good slider, that he’s been using to pretty killer effect in Rochester so far, striking out 27 in only 18 IP. He’s earned the call up!
It’s yet to be seen if he’ll be able to sustain the swing-and-miss-ability he’s shown in 2026, but he does seem to have added something to his game.
Then TJStats highlighted Cruz as well here: https://tjstats.ca/2026/04/23/milb-hitting-prospects-on-the-rise-2026/ (after astutely highlighting Cruz as a breakout candidate way back in October).
All that to say, it’s been a long time since a Nats prospect really captured attention like this. I think it was probably Sykora back in 2024 the last time a prospect kind of emerged like this, and even then Sykora wasn’t getting nearly the attention he deserved. Really good to see one of our lower-tier prospect guys starting to climb their way into top-tier status. BA in the podcast hinted at Cruz likely being (quite high) on the next top 100 list.
What is there to make of TJ White’s season so far?
I’d written him off as a prospect one or two seasons ago, but as a HS pick, he’s got a lot more development runway. And despite being stuck in Wilmington for 4(!!!) seasons, he’s still “only” 22, and just a little bit above average for the Sally League. Speaking of late bloomers, could White, maybe, just maybe, unlocked something? His average is still a measly .224, but he has a very solid .857 OPS, aided by an unprecedented 18% BB%. He was always pretty good here, but his average has usually sat around 10-12%. But what’s caught my attention is three things:
1. His power is WAY up. He has a .265 ISO, identical to his eye-catching debut in the FCL way back in 2021 that he’s been unable to replicate ever since. His ISO last season was only .106, a huge disappointment.
2. His strikeouts are WAY down. Ks have always been a weakness, albeit compared to so many other guys in the org, relatively managed, sitting in the high 20s-low 30s for his entire career. It’s at 21.7% right now, which is much more manageable.
3. He’s showing speed never seen before. In any season, his most SBs was 8. He has 5 in 14 games so far. I had no idea this could be part of his game.
Now with all that said, White has been famously streaky. Arguably the streakiest player I can remember in the Nats org. So there’s a very high chance this is just another shot streak, which have become decreasingly common. Still, there’s a few things about this one that feel like things could be different. Here’s to hoping.