On Monday, the Washington Nationals promoted starting pitcher Miguel Sime Jr. to the Wilmington Blue Rocks. This comes following the double promotion of starters Josh Randall and Isaac Lyon who were sent to Double-A Harrisburg last week.
Sime is a flamethrower. He’s an elite arm with elite stuff and so far this season he has looked elite (at times) during his stint in Low-A Fredericksburg.
Sime features three pitches. His fastball tops out at 103 MPH, his best pitch by far, a swing and miss slider, and a changeup that does need a little bit of work. While mainly throwing fastball slider his stuff is incredibly hard to hit.
Sime’s strikeout numbers are off the charts. He’s struck out 54 batters in just 26.1 innings in 2026, for a ridiculous 45% K rate. Impressively in his innings so far he’s only allowed the one home run and limiting the homerun ball is a path to success in Wilmington.
The one thing that has held Sime back is control. The righty has walked 25 batters during the season and it’s allowed his ERA to balloon a bit to a 4.44. The good news is that Sime has plenty of time to work out the kinks.
The 19-year-old joins a great situation in Wilmington with experienced coaches such as Justin Lord and Niko Leontarakis. Lord and Leontarakis have helped pitchers Miguel Tejeda Jr., Randall, Lyon, and Riley Maddox by making minor tweaks in their game for big time results. Tejeda’s ERA sat at 5.60 at the end of April, after a strong month May it’s down to 4.34. Sime’s potential is limitless if his time is as fruitful as his counterparts was.
Sime, from Queen’s was drafted straight out of high school by the Nationals, getting selected in the fourth round of the 2025 MLB Draft. Sime was committed to play college ball at LSU but the Nationals gave him a $2,000,000 signing bonus triple the value slot for the 111th pick.
Like many of his new teammates Sime joins a young and hungry group of incredibly talented minor leaguers in Wilmington. While Sime has made great progress towards the majors the righty will have plenty of time to ply his trade in Wilmington. Sime will also have plenty of time to give the Frawley faithful some highlight moments.