Two weeks ago, Gavin Fien was 18 years old and left off the MLB Pipeline Top-100; In the Spring Breakout game, he showed the world that he is a top prospect and set an RBI record in the game.

Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats

JUPITER, FL — The Spring Breakout was another successful showcase game for Gavin Fien, Eli Willits, Miguel Sime Jr. and Landon Harmon. This wasn’t their first showcase on the same stage. They all played together as High School non-seniors in the invitational 2024 MLB High School All-Star game. And days before that, the duo of Willits and Fien were teammates on the USA Baseball 18U National Team that won the gold medal at the Baseball World Cup on August 12, 2024, and then they flew from that game in Panama to San Diego for that All-Star game.

At last year’s draft, Fien, was a teenage high schooler, who was just 18 years old when he became the №12 pick by Texas, and Willits, was a 17 year old taken at №1 overall by the Washington Nationals. Fien arrived to the Nationals via the MacKenzie Gore trade. Sime and Harmon were acquired by the Nats through the draft. This is part of a young core of top prospects in the Nats system that is now brimming with top talent.

Now they are all teammates in the same organization. If they named an MVP for the Spring Breakout game, it would have to be Fien. Sure enough, Fien was named the MVP for that 2024 MLB High School All-Star game. He has shown an ability for stepping up in big spots.

Of the Top-5 ranked stars of that high school All-Star game, four of them can now be directly tied to the Washington Nationals. Fien, as the MVP of the game, was ranked as the №1 star of the game, and three of the next four standouts of that game, were all drafted by the Nats with Sime, Mason Pike, and Willits all selected by Washington. As you might remember, Pike indicated he was going to college which affected his draft status that dropped him to the 19th round pick by the Nats, and he did choose to go to college at Oregon State.

So what did Fien do in the Spring Breakout game? He went 3-5 that included a walk in his six plate appearances, and with two doubles, he posted 5 RBIs and all three hits were RISP situations. Those 5 RBIs are a Spring Breakout record. Remember, Fien had bone spurs removed from his hand over the offseason. He had been dealing with hand pain for a while. Now finally feeling healthy, Fien showed some of the evaluators who left him off their Top-100 prospect lists that he belongs. More on that below.

A year ago, Fien attended a Spring Breakout game in Arizona while he was a High School senior. He attended that game because his oldest brother, Dylan Fien, was on the A’s roster.

Willits got up to bat three times and had two walks, Sime struck-out the Cardinals best prospect, JJ Wetherholt, a 23 year old, on a 101 mph heater. Harmon pitched a perfect inning and had a strikeout. Another youngster, Alex Clemmey, 20, also came up big in his inning of work and put up a zero. Of course over the weekend, Clemmey shined in a big league Spring Training game for the Nats and pitched 3.0 innings of no-hit baseball in that game.

And Willits and Fien were facing pitchers like Liam Doyle, 23, the University of Tennessee standout, who was the №5 overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in last year’s draft. He was taken four picks after Willits, and seven before Fien. And Willits worked a 7-pitch walk off of Doyle to start the game, and then promptly stole second base and was driven-in by Fien who turned on a 97 mph high fastball and sent it down the line at an exit velo of 107.1 mph for an RBI double. In the second inning, Fien laced a double off of a sweeper and sent that out at 100 mph into the gap to clear the bases loaded. He would later drive in his fifth run on a single, and in the 9th inning he walked in his final plate appearance.

Speaking of the 9th inning, Devin Fitz-Gerald got his only at-bat of the game, a single to the opposite field. He also showed some stellar defense in his three innings in the game. As we sourced in the pre-game, we were told that Fitz-Gerald might be added as a late-addition to the roster. Teams were limited to just 27-players, and Fitz-Gerald took the place of Luke Dickerson. No reason given to why Dickerson was scratched. By the way, Fitz-Gerald came to the Nats in that same Gore trade with Fien and three other prospects.

Another standout in the game was Phillip Glasser who had three hits with one double in five plate appearances. Glasser is an example of an older prospect at 26 years old. It shows how these Spring Breakout games certainly aren’t all teenage prospects, and most are not.

We’ve mentioned Davian Garcia before, and he started the game for the Nats and struck-out two batters on his way to a scoreless first inning. Other Nats pitchers who put up scoreless frames were Tucker Biven and Sean Paul Linan. The Cardinals scored all of their run in three innings, and that was unfortunate for these young Nats.

At the top of the page, we mentioned that Fien was not listed as a Top-100 prospect by MLB Pipeline, but wanted to mention that he was in the Top-100 (№76) by Keith Law of The Athletic, and №83 by Prospects Live. He was also ranked just outside the top 100 at №117 by ESPN‘s Kiley McDaniel.

In the cover photo, you see Gerardo Parra standing next to Willits. That’s because Parra, now part of the Nationals’ player development group, was named the manager for this game. Parra, was two days removed from being a coach on the Venezuelan team that just won the World Baseball Classic. What a week for Parra. And he managed a good game.

The Nats might have lost this game, 9-8, but the final score was no fault of the aforementioned Nats who did all they could to deliver a win (box score link). The Nats player development coaches should feel good about this game. A lot of promise was on that field.