Longosz on what excites him about Nats' farm system

Last month, the Nationals promoted longtime front office staffer Eddie Longosz to vice president and assistant general manager of player development and administration after spending the last 13 years in the club’s scouting department, most recently as the director of scouting operations for the last eight.

Before the promotion, Longosz, a D.C. native, assisted general manager Mike Rizzo on all aspects of the organization's amateur, professional and international scouting operations.

That means he is now in charge of developing the players in the Nats’ farm system that he helped scout and draft.

The upper echelon of the farm system is now loaded, especially with position players, thanks to high draft picks, numerous trades and impressive international signings over the last three years, all with Longosz’s input.

At the top of the board is top prospect Dylan Crews, this year’s No. 2 overall draft pick, reigning national champion from LSU and Golden Spikes Award winner. The other recent first-round picks include third baseman and No. 3 prospect Brady House (No. 11 overall pick in 2021) and outfielder and No. 5 prospect Elijah Green (No. 5 overall pick in 2022).

Other recent draft picks include outfielders Daylen Lile (second round in 2021) and Andrew Pinckney (fourth round in 2023) and infielders Trey Lipscomb (third round in 2022) and Yohandy Morales (second round in 2023).

“First of all, the position players,” Longosz said at last week’s Winter Meetings in Nashville when asked what excites him the most about this system right now. “As you know, we have a plethora of really good outfielders, infielders, young talent. A lot of them are homegrown. We obviously got a couple in the trade. But they're all great players and great human beings, too, which is important to me where character speaks a lot and all of them are really great on and off the field, too.”

Those players the Nats received in trades are headlined by No. 2 prospect James Wood, who was a part of the blockbuster Juan Soto deal with the Padres at the 2022 deadline. Along with the slugging outfielder was fellow outfielder Robert Hassell III (No. 8) and right-hander Jarlin Susana (No. 12), plus major leaguers in shortstop CJ Abrams, left-hander MacKenzie Gore and veteran first baseman Luke Voit.

This year’s deadline yielded infielder Kevin Made (No. 15) and left-hander DJ Herz (No. 16) from the Cubs for Jeimer Candelario. While the defensive-specialist Made still has some development at the plate to do, Herz impressed in his short time at Double-A Harrisburg and then in the Arizona Fall League.

Other pitching prospects Longosz helped bring to the organization include Jackson Rutledge (first round in 2019), Cade Cavalli (first round in 2020), Cole Henry (second round in 2020), Jake Bennett (second round in 2022), Travis Sykora (third round in 2023), Mitchell Parker (fifth round in 2020) and Zach Brzykcy (undrafted in 2020).

“We have some good arms, too,” Longosz said. “Obviously some of them, Jake Bennett is an example with his injury, but Susana, what's not to like about him? So it's exciting. We're in a really good place and it's coming into a winning system, which I'm excited about.”

Longosz has spent the last 13 years of his career scouting these players for the Nationals. Over the past three, he’s helped grow the Nats’ minor league system into one of the best in baseball. Now he gets to develop these prospects into major leaguers while building stronger bonds with them along the way.

“In scouting, the day the draft ends, you move on to the next year, and I was always upset I really never built relationships with the players,” he said. “And now I get to do that component, which I like a lot for sure.”