Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

With the Nats being off yesterday, let’s do a quick check-in on how their top prospects (per MLB Pipeline) are doing to start the 2025 season.

#1 Travis Sykora - After offseason hip surgery, Sykora spent the spring rehabbing, and on Saturday made his first rehab pitching appearance for the FCL Nats. In two innings he allowed a hit, a walk, and a run while recording all six outs via strikeout. Once he’s ready to pitch five innings or more per start (Memorial Day?), expect to see him in either high-A Wilmington or AA Harrisburg.

#2 Jarlin Susana - After breaking out last summer with Fredericksburg and Wilmington, Susana opened the 2025 season in AA but forgot to bring his command with him. He has walked 20 batters in 26 innings thus far, but has also struck out 38. Assuming he brings that BB/9 rate down from its current 6.9 to a much more reasonable, say, sub-4.0 level, expect him to finish this season in AAA.

#3 Brady House - After a pretty ugly 54-game stint at AAA to close the 2024 season (to be fair, as one of the International League’s youngest players), House has nearly doubled his wRC+ in the first month-plus at that same level in 2025 (from 67 to 120), slashing .290/.347/.481 with five home runs. He still swings and misses a lot, but looks to be on track for a call-up before the All-Star break.

#4 Seaver King - Last year’s tenth overall pick got a rude welcome to the right-handed hitter’s graveyard of Wilmington this spring, going 3-for-35 in his first nine games and looking bad in the field to boot. In the 16 games since, King has righted the ship, hitting .307/.368/.500, and is 7-for-7 stealing bases. The Nats will probably look to get him out of Wilmington as soon as they believe that the recent success is real and not just a hot streak.

#5 Alex Clemmey - Clemmey looked positively brilliant in three innings of a spring breakout game performance against the Mets’ minor leaguers, but has fallen prey to the same early command issues as Susana in walking more than a batter per inning for Wilmington (where he is more than four years younger than the average player - he doesn’t turn 20 until July). He is also striking out a ton of guys (33 in 23.1 IP) and allowing only a .171 batting average, so there’s every reason to expect that he too should be ticketed for Harrisburg this summer if he can just find the plate more often.

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

There was no game yesterday, as the Nationals were off at home, and a group of them spent the evening cheering on the Caps to victory in the second game of their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes. There was a team chug, Derek Law took off his shirt, everybody had a great time. The Nats face the Cardinals tonight, with Mitchell Parker on the bump against Erick Fedde.

 STORY TYPE

More on the Minors

Let’s keep it going with a further look around the Nats’ system (although we will skip the rookie leagues, which only started last weekend and have barely played any games):

#7 Cade Cavalli - After two years lost to Tommy John surgery and recovery from same (all while accruing MLB service time), the Nats said that they were slow-playing Cavalli this spring so that he could finish the 2025 season without being shut down. It was concerning, then, that he departed his third rehab start last week after a mere two innings because of fatigue. Cavalli is slated to pitch for Rochester tonight, so pay attention to that one.

#8 Caleb Lomavita - Unlike King, Lomo has not suffered at all from his exposure to Wilmington, hitting .292/.388/.382 and stealing five bases for good measure. you typically need to be patient with catchers, but I would be shocked if Lomavita is not in Harrisburg by next month, especially because there are no catchers of organizational consequence there.

#9 Daylen Lile - The jump from AA to AAA is pretty sizable, and most players (especially pitchers) hit something of a wall upon making it. The 22-year-old Lile, however, went 10-for-27 with four walks and four extra-base hits in his first week at the new level. Lile has become something of a forgotten prospect since 2022, when a) he missed the whole year for Tommy John surgery and b) the Nats acquired James Wood and Robert Hassell III in the Soto trade, but he might knock on the door this season.

#10 Cayden Wallace - Acquired along with the draft pick that became Lomavita last summer for Hunter Harvey, Wallace barely played down the stretch last year due to multiple injuries. He has whiffed a bunch at AA Harrisburg so far this year but also displayed some pop, and might wind up at AAA later this year if he can display some more consistency.

#11 Robert Hassell III - Thought to be the safest of the prospects acquired for Soto almost three years ago, Bobby Barrels has been beset by wrist injuries that have stalled his progress and definitely sapped some power. Like House, he was bad in his first crack at AAA last summer, but has been much better in 2025, hitting .301/.348/.390. You would like to see a little more power there, but Hassell will definitely be getting a phone call should any current Nats outfielder suffer an injury.

#12 Yohandy Morales - Power was supposed to be Yoyo’s calling card, but he managed only seven home runs in 117 minor league games over the past two seasons since being taken with the first pick of the second round in 2023. He already has four bolts in 22 games this year, a 28-homer pace, and is starting to look like a real prospect again. He will probably need to walk a little more and whiff a little less to improve on his .253/.316/.494 line before a promotion to Rochester is in order.

#20 Jackson Kent - Our last inclusion on this list is a sleeper prospect of sorts. Kent was drafted in the fourth round last year out of the University of Arizona and, like a lot of pitchers in their draft year, didn’t pitch competitively as a pro last year. He was sent directly to high-A Wilmington this spring and has been excellent, striking out 41 against just 7 walks and 25 hits in 32.1 innings across six starts. He has allowed four gopher balls, but right now looks like a potential fast riser who could maybe be in a position to challenge for a big league roster spot by the end of 2026.

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 WHAT WE THINK THE NATIONALS FRONT OFFICE IS READING

Speed Reads

📌 More on John Oliver’s Rebrand Offer (MiLB)

📌 Six Bold Predictions for Rest of 2025 (Yahoo!)

📌 Ten Early Disappointments (The Athletic)