Last night, Baseball America printed another update to their Top-100 rankings after several more graduations of top prospects. On the list, they added infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald. We called him a snub a week ago, and sent that to Baseball America. In this update, they got it right. Last week, shortstop Ronny Cruz and Double-A shortstop Seaver King both landed on the BA Top-100. With Fitz-Gerald joining them, that is a total of five Nats in the coveted Top-100 list along with shortstop Eli Willits and pitcher Jarlin Susana.

If you think about it, a list of 100 top players divided over 30 teams would get you on average 3.33 players per organization. When a team has five players on a list, that exceeds the average by 1.67 players. The Nats have never had more than five players on the list, and there are some names to watch like Yeremy Cabrera, Gavin Fien, Ethan Petry, Landon Harmon, and Harry Ford and Travis Sykora who were previously in the Top-100. Even Luis Perales who was acquired in the Jake Bennett trade was supposed to be close to a Top-100 prospect.

You also have to think the Nats would be a Top-10 rated farm system today as an organization. The Florida Complex League just got started last week, and keep your eye on shortstop Marconi German. The farm is thriving with a bumper crop. Even Ford woke up this past week and is finally in a groove that he can hopefully sustain. The weather has been horrific in Siberia Rochester, but then again, Yohandy Morales has bucked the trend and has been crushing it all season for the Triple-A team.

With few exceptions, and mostly among the pitchers, the farm system for the Nats under the control of VP of Player Development, Devin Pearson, is doing great. And we wrote in a comment this morning that a source told us that Fien might come off the 7-day IL today or tomorrow.

Remember, Fitz-Gerald, Cabrera, and Fien were all acquired by the Nats in the MacKenzie Gore trade that also included the injured pitcher, Alejandro Rosario, as well as the older Abimelec Ortiz. Fien was the star of the Spring Breakout game, and hurt the meaty part of his hand and wrist area per a source, and they have slow-rolled it with him. He’s been out nearly a month after a slow start (4 games) to his Single-A season in Fredericksburg. Fien was the 12th overall pick by Texas in the same draft that netted Willits to the Nats last year. The pair had been teammates before with USA Baseball and showcase invitational teams. Imagine if Fien steps up when he returns.

Spring Breakout game photo of (L-R) Willits, Fien, Fitz-Gerald; Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats

Here is your current Nats’ prospects in the new Baseball America Top-100 rankings:

№21 — Eli Willits, SS

№54 — Jarlin Susana, RHP

№91 — Ronny Cruz, SS

№94 — Seaver King, SS

№99 — Devin Fitz-Gerald, IF

Yesterday was also moving day for a few other prospects, Cabrera, who can’t be far from the Top-100 list got a promotion to High-A Wilmington, and we reported that his replacement on the Fredericksburg roster will be Dashyll Tejeda who gets promoted from the Florida Complex League.

.310

.439

.593

1.032

That slash above belongs to Fitz-Gerald. He has the highest OPS of any qualified batter with a current Nats affiliate, now that Cabrera was promoted. DFG can play all over the infield except for first base. Most think he will be a second baseman. The switch-hitter has also been the victim of having to play his home games in Wilmington. His right-handed work isn’t getting a lot of reps as he has only 23 official at-bats against left-handed pitching and is hitting just .130 compared to .356 as a lefty batter. While he has six home runs, the Wilmington air current in left and center field robbed him of at least one more homer. Some are comping Fitz-Gerald to Alex Bregman and others say Kevin McGonigle. That’s impressive to have your name mentioned alongside those two names. I even see some Anthony Rendon in DFG. By the way, he has 22 walks that equals his strikeout count. Don’t be surprised if he tallies more walks than strikeouts — that would be quite the feat in today’s game.

For some additional background on the other four Top-100 prospects. Let’s start with Cruz who added last week to the Top-100. He was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and originally had an agreement to sign with the Seattle Mariners as an international free agent. Instead, Cruz moved to the United States where he attended Miami Christian High School for his junior and senior seasons and became eligible for the MLB Draft. The Chicago Cubs drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2024 draft. As mentioned, the Nats acquired him in the trade along with Christian Franklin for Soroka in what is looking like grand larceny. Plus the Cubs invested $620,000 in a below-slot draft bonus to sign him. Cruz started the season with Single-A Fredericksburg and got a quick promotion to High-A Wilmington where he continues to hit, and hit with power.

Jarlin Susana remains the team’s second ranked prospect, even though he hasn’t pitched in a game this season. He’s recovering from surgery on a tear in his right latissimus dorsi muscle. There hasn’t been any updates in a while on Susana.

Seaver King entered the Top-100 last week, and he was the Nats first round pick of 2024 at 10th overall. He had a poor start to his 2025 season then was named to the Arizona Fall League where he got some advice from the aforementioned Detroit Tigers top prospect, McGonigle, and the advice worked. King utilized his time in the Arizona Fall League to work on his approach, where he was noted as a standout performer in the league. During the AFL, King caught fire after a talk with McGonigle, and slashed an impressive .359/.468/.563 with an OPS of 1.031 in the final tally. At Double-A Harrisburg so far this season, King, who just turned 23 three weeks ago, is slashing .319/.412/.575 with a strong .987 OPS. He should be getting a promotion soon to Triple-A.

Some were concerned about the Nats top prospect, Willits, who had a slow start to the 2026 season. But truth be told, he was fine until that first road trip in Lynchburg when he looked lost. He batted just 1-for-22 and that put him under Mendoza. But since then, he is batting .302 and taking his walks to the point that his OBP is .425 with an OPS in that span at .936. Willits home stats are gawdy with a .322 batting average, .461 OBP, .593 SLG, and a 1.054 OPS. Fredericksburg has played two road trips in Lynchburg where it might just be a batter’s eye issue because Willits crushed it in Salem. If you just remove those 11 games in Lynchburg where Willits was 6-for-45, he looks amazing with a .338 batting average.

It will be interesting to see the next iteration of the Nats Top-30 prospects. Ford and RHP Luis Perales will be moving back in the rankings, but where do you put corner infielder Yohandy “YoYo” Morales who has been the team’s best prospect at Triple-A Rochester?

From former GM Mike Rizzo to Paul Toboni who was officially hired in October, you have to think Toboni cares about the Baseball America rankings. Rizzo once infamously joked about not caring about farm rankings which probably cost him his job in the end based on the weak farm system.

“…Our objective we have is to win championships — not to be №1 in Baseball America.”

— Rizzo said to applause and laughs by the fans gathered at the Ballpark Bash event at the end of 2022

Follow the Dodgers success: You want to be №1 in Baseball America’s farm rankings and win championships. You can do both simultaneously. Toboni has said you have to start with a strong foundation, and he is correct. Your draft and player development is the pipeline of young, affordable, and controllable talent that you add to your roster. This should all be very encouraging to see the Nats’ prospects stepping up.

By the way, the Nats pick at №11 in the mid-July MLB draft. That should be a deep draft class at the top where the Nats should immediately acquire a Top-10 prospect for their system. At the beginning of August, we will see if the Nats make any trades. The future looks bright.