PROSPECT REVIEW: YOHANDY MORALES
Age on opening day 2025: 23
How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2023 from the University of Miami (Fla.)
Ranking: No. 9 per MLB Pipeline, No. 7 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
While the Nationals enjoy Thursday’s off-day (and hopefully use it to break out of their offensive slump), let’s take a long overdue look at some of the top prospects down on the farm and not just the ones you know we’re going to talk about …
“You talk about the players, everybody talks about the one guy, but we got quite a few,” said manager Davey Martinez.
A Nats minor leaguer received some recognition over the past week, with Andrew Pinckney being named Eastern League Player of the Week on Monday.
“Pinckney won Player of the Week, which is awesome,” said Martinez. “Nobody talks about him, but he's a pretty good player.”
A fourth-round pick last year out of the University of Alabama, Pinckney slashed .429/.478/.905 with five extra-base hits and seven RBIs last week with Double-A Harrisburg. He’s slashing .279/.327/.396 with a .723 OPS, seven doubles, one triple, three homers, 19 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in 38 games with the Senators.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Joan Adon is back at Nationals spring training competing for a spot in the major league rotation.
His locker in the clubhouse is next to the regular starters. He’s being stretched out as a starter. And he works out with the other starters.
Even so, there is hardly an expectation when the Nats break camp for the regular season that Adon will be on the flight to Cincinnati for Opening Day. But he’s still getting a fair shot at it.
Adon took a positive step forward in his camp with three shutout innings in the Nats’ 7-3 win over the Twins at Hammond Field.
After mixed results in his first two Grapefruit League appearances, both of which came out of the bullpen, the 25-year-old right-hander finally made his first start of the spring. He only gave up two hits and one walk while being efficient with his five-pitch mix, throwing 40 pitches, 27 for strikes.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals are enjoying their first scheduled off-day of spring training since camp got underway almost three weeks ago with pitchers and catchers reporting Feb. 14.
Some players may trickle into the team’s facilities at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, but for the most part, it’s a day to get some rest and relaxation.
This marks the halfway point of my trip down here before Mark Zuckerman returns to have you covered until the end of camp. So here are some notes and observations from my first five days …
* While the Nats got back over .500 in Grapefruit League play with a 1-0 win over the Cardinals yesterday, perhaps the more interesting activity occurred on the back fields on the complex in the morning.
The Nationals played an intrasquad game on Field 2 – the only one of the back fields here to have the exact dimensions as Nationals Park – mostly to allow Zach Davies, Jackson Rutledge, Joan Adon and other pitchers to get in some game-like work following Sunday’s rainout against the Marlins.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As the Nationals enter their fourth week of spring training, the minor league side of camp officially gets underway in the coming days.
Around 50 minor league players have already been in West Palm Beach over the past couple of weeks. All pitchers and catchers officially reported Saturday and the rest of the position players are set to show up in the coming days.
On Friday, Davey Martinez decided to bring some of the minor league guys over to major league camp to participate in drills with their veteran teammates.
“We're gonna bring them over and let them work out with us today,” the big league manager said. “I just wanted to get some of these young kids with us and let them go through the programs.”
On the first backfield at the complex, major league infielders were practicing running down baserunners caught in the basepaths. Who were they chasing? Minor leaguers wearing red workout T-shirts and batting helmets.
The Nationals took one step closer to the start of spring training yesterday by announcing the first round of non-roster invitations to major league camp.
The first batch of invites includes top prospects Dylan Crews (No. 1 in Nats system per Baseball America), James Wood (No. 2), Brady House (No. 3), Robert Hassell III (No. 7), Trey Lipscomb (No. 16) and Darren Baker (No. 28), all of whom will be attending their first big league spring training.
Other non-roster players invited yesterday include outfielder Travis Blankenhorn, first baseman Lewin Diaz, left-hander Joe La Sorsa, catcher Brady Lindsly and first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez.
Two weeks from today, Nationals pitchers and catchers will hold their first workout to start the 2024 campaign at the team’s facility in West Palm Beach. Six days later the first full-squad workout will take place.
As general manager Mike Rizzo looks to fill out the roster before the team convenes in a few weeks, which top prospects just missed out on a major league camp invite?
PROSPECT REVIEW: YOHANDY MORALES
Age on opening day 2024: 22
How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2023 from the University of Miami (FL)
Ranking: No. 7 per MLB Pipeline, No. 8 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2026
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – As they showcase themselves before a national audience for the first time this season, the Nationals are moving their top picks from this summer’s draft a step closer to the big league stage, including a big jump for their No. 1 prospect.
The Nats are promoting outfielder Dylan Crews to Double-A Harrisburg, a source familiar with the decision confirmed, after the No. 2 overall pick dominated at Single-A Fredericksburg in his professional debut.
Crews hit a robust .351 with five homers, 24 RBIs and a 1.073 OPS in only 13 games with Fredericksburg, proving more than capable of competing at that level only months after he led LSU to the College World Series title.
The fact the Nationals are bumping Crews up to Double-A, skipping the High-A level altogether, underscores how advanced they believe he is, not to mention how soon they believe the 21-year-old could be big league ready.
Crews will join a Harrisburg lineup already loaded with top prospects, including outfielders James Wood and Robert Hassell III and third baseman Brady House.
MLB Pipeline released its midseason rankings of the top 100 prospects in baseball and the top 30 for each major league team, adding the 2023 draft class and trade deadline moves, and there’s no surprise who tops the Nationals’ list.
Dylan Crews, the No. 2 overall pick out of LSU, is the Nationals’ new top prospect, coming in at No. 1 on the team’s top 30 and No. 4 overall in the sport.
The outfielder was MLB Pipeline’s top-rated position player in this year’s draft, so it’s no wonder they hold him in high regard. But it was going to be a close call between him and fellow outfielder James Wood, who has been the Nats’ top prospect since the end of last season.
Wood is now the Nats No. 2 prospect (such a big drop) and the No. 7 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline. Both he and Crews have a major league ETA of 2024.
Third baseman Brady House is now the Nats’ No. 3 prospect while also becoming one of the highest-ranking newcomers in the top 100, landing at No. 43 after his promotion to Double-A Harrisburg earlier this summer. He rounds out the Nationals prospects in the top 100.
CHICAGO – Hunter Harvey’s MRI revealed a mild right elbow strain, an injury that will sideline the Nationals reliever for a while but was still described as “good news” by manager Davey Martinez, who feared worse.
“Best-case scenario for us,” Martinez said. “We’re going to shut him down for 10 days, and he’ll resume his throwing. We’ll just let it calm down a little bit and build some strength up and get him back as soon as we possibly can.”
Harvey, who reported soreness in his arm after pitching a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th Saturday in St. Louis despite diminished fastball velocity, was officially placed on the 15-day injured list today. The Nationals were prepared to make that transaction no matter the severity of the injury, but club officials were relieved to learn the injury wasn’t more serious or would require surgery.
“Especially with his history, and the way he was feeling, I was very concerned,” Martinez said. “But this came out great. They said everything looks great. He just has a little mild strain in there, and he should be back.”
Harvey’s career has been littered with IL stints, the vast majority of those coming while he was a member of the Orioles organization from the day he was drafted in 2013 until he was placed on waivers after the 2021 season. He did miss 2 1/2 months with a forearm strain last summer after joining the Nats, but he had been a durable fixture in the bullpen since, making 73 big league appearances in the last calendar year with no health issues.
The 2023 MLB Draft is over and the Nationals have their new class of young prospects.
The Nats made 20 picks in this week’s draft, highlighted by No. 2 overall selection Dylan Crews, the highly touted outfielder from Louisiana State University and Golden Spikes Award winner.
Of their 20 selections, the Nats drafted three outfielders, four infielders, two catchers, nine right-handers and two left-handers. They drafted 18 players from the college ranks and two high school players.
Nine of the players the Nationals drafted in the first 10 rounds came from college programs, with righty Travis Sykora, taken in the third round, the lone exception.
“There were a lot of college bats, a lot of really good college hitters. Not a lot of pitching,” vice president of scouting Kris Kline said. “You had three or four college pitchers, so there wasn't a ton of depth. Those guys were gonna fly off the board fast. There were a lot of high school kids as well. But yeah, it was an unusual year as far as the depth of the college hitters, position players went.”
Kris Kline saw every top hitter in the country this season. He drafted the best of them in Dylan Crews, the Golden Spikes Award winner selected by the Nationals with the No. 2 overall pick Sunday evening.
And it’s quite possible the Nats’ longtime vice president of scouting was even more impressed in some ways with the hitter he selected in the second round of the draft several hours later.
"One of the loudest bats I heard this year," Kline said of University of Miami third baseman Yohandy Morales. "We were pretty happy with that one, to get him at 40."
As much attention was given to the Nationals’ first-round pick - and rightfully so given the talent available and the significance of that selection - internally, club officials believed their second-round pick was going to be just as important to the franchise. Though they lost the No. 1 overall pick to the Pirates via the new draft lottery, they still maintain the first choice for every other round based on their worst-in-baseball record in 2022.
"When you're picking that high (in the first round), it takes care of itself," Kline said. "A lot of the work, most of the work actually, went into pick 40."
