Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals had seven shortstops aged 18-to-20 that they had to find playing time for in their “A-Ball” system and creatively get them seeded into either Single-A Fredericksburg or High-A Wilmington. VP of Player Development, Devin Pearson, had a plan. Some players like Devin Fitz-Gerald and Angel Feliz were promoted to High-A and would share the middle infield in Wilmington. The other five players of Eli Willits, Gavin Fien, Ronny Cruz, Coy James, and Luke Dickerson would rotate through shortstop, second base, third base, outfield spots, and the DH. So far, it has worked.
As an optimist, having too many good players is an excellent problem to have. The thinking for months is that Dickerson could be an outfielder and Fien a corner infielder with Fitz-Gerald moving to second base. As always, you stay patient and the cream will rise to the top. And our sources tell us that the Nats will promote Cruz to High-A making that three shortstops that will rotate. High-A Wilmington will use the same strategy to get playing time for all of the players just like they are doing in Fredericksburg.
The positional moves were a little risky as some of the players had never played outfield or those other positions before at the pro level. And Fitz-Gerald just turned 20 in August, and he only had 10-games of Low-A experience prior to 2026.
You would think that with all of those moves that players wouldn’t step up, and other than Willits slow start, and a minor hand/wrist ailment with Fien per a source, these players and just about everyone else is thriving. If you recall, Fien lit it up in the Nats’ top prospects showcase game in March for Spring Breakout. He tied a record with five RBIs in a 3-for-4 game. Fien should return next week to action per a source.
Maybe the prospect Mini Camp the Nats held in West Palm Beach in late January was the springboard to this early success. There are so many Nats’ prospects who are thriving that include Fitz-Gerald, Cruz, Ethan Petry, Seaver King, Yeremy Cabrera, and Dickerson for the position players. Almost all of the other top prospects are doing well and/or showing improvement. It seems the only disappointments so far are catchers Harry Ford and Caleb Lomavita, and Angel Feliz.
Two players who are on hot weeks are Willits and James, and they both hit two home runs, and Willits completed a series cycle when he tripled yesterday. While their batting averages just got over Mendoza — they are accepting their walks. Both are still teenagers and hopefully this week is the start of great things to come. Both have healthy OPS numbers at .773 and .826 respectively.
And even though Cayden Wallace is no longer on the Top-30 prospect list, he is putting up big numbers. Wallace is hitting .362 with a 1.071 OPS and was flirting with .400 at Double-A Harrisburg. Wallace turns 25 in August and is repeating the Double-A level after struggling last year with a .686 OPS. So the jury is still out on Wallace who a source had said that he has a problem at times keeping focus and priorities. Well, maybe he has figured it out, finally.
As our minor league expert, Forensicane pondered, he couldn’t remember a minor league season that has started as good as this one even going back to the Expos days. All affiliates are over .500 at the same time. And he added that the combined records of the four affiliated minor league teams have a winning percentage over .600.
Forensicane also noted that one of the big pitching prospects, Jose Feliz, is still in West Palm Beach, and of course the Top-2 pitching prospects, Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana are still working back from injury.
The top-ranked active pitcher in the Nats’ system is Luis Perales who is currently at Triple-A Rochester. He was acquired in the trade for Jake Bennett. So far, Perales has been a mixed bag generally only pitching up to 3.0 innings. When he is on, he is electric. Meanwhile, Bennett is pitching like an ace for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate and he is just 21. His ERA over four starts is 0.55 and his WHIP is just 0.612. He’s only allowed 1-earnie. You hope President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, didn’t screw up that trade. Right now the trades for Ford and Perales aren’t looking too good, but yes, trades are best analyzed far into the future.
Some of the other Nats top prospect pitchers are also doing well. Landon Harmon just got his first pro win over the weekend, and Miguel Sime Jr. was absolutely electric in his start over the weekend striking out nine players over 4.0 innings of no-hit work. Alex Clemmey and Yoel Tejeda Jr. are the other two active pitchers putting up some decent innings at times, but have to show consistency. Two other pitchers to keep an eye on are Riley Maddox and Davian Garcia. Both showed well in Spring Training camp and got promoted.
Also as Forensicane pointed out, the Florida Complex League begins soon in early May and will get a big infusion of talent from last year’s Dominican Summer League. We all can’t wait to see what shortstop Marconi German does as well as Nauris De La Cruz and Brayan Cortesia. We will see if Dashyll Tejeda starts in the FCL or eventually moves up to Fredericksburg. Then there is the mystery surrounding where Browm Martinez will be after the Nats acquired him as an injured player. He might stay in the DSL or come to the FCL.
There are some other minor leaguers to mention like Yohandy Morales who is batting .323, and catcher Sir Jamison Jones smashed three homers in a game this past week. His numbers shot up to where he is hitting .292 in a smaller sample size as he is only playing three to four games a week. Cabrera, an outfielder, is repeating at Single-A, and is also having a great start to the season, batting .362 with a 1.223 OPS — and he doesn’t turn 21 until July.
The Juan Soto trade tree that included MacKenzie Gore is really doing well with Fien, Fitz-Gerald, and Cabrera doing so well after they were three of the players acquired as part of the Gore trade with Texas. Fien is already in the Top-100 list, and Fitz-Gerald and Cabrera are certainly candidates. Fitz-Gerald was just compared to Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle in a new article at Federal Baseball.
You can add plenty of other names to this list of players who are trending up like Elijah Green and T.J. White who have been in the system since 2022 and 2021 respectively. But on the same team is the 20 year old Fitz-Gerald and Petry, 21, who are both in their first full year at this level, and are lighting it up. Keep in mind that Wilmington is known to be a tough hitters park, especially for right-handed batters and Petry smashed two homers there over the weekend.
The great news is that so many minor leaguers are thriving. The bad news is the players who are struggling, and especially Ford is in a position of need at catcher. Riley Cornelio is also not on the Top-30 list, and he is having a good season so far in Triple-A. Expect to see him soon in the Majors.
Dylan Crews, the former No. 1 prospect is getting a refresher at Triple-A and he is putting up a slash line of .284/.388/.418 with an .805 OPS. If Crews could come close to replicating that at the MLB level, he would be able to help the Nats in the future.
Whatever Pearson and his development group is doing, it is working with most of the players. As the sample sizes grow larger, and trends change, we will revisit this often.
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