Paul Toboni came into his first year as Nationals President of Baseball Operations with a clear mission: turn Washington into a player development machine. The big-league results are part of that picture, but the real evidence is down on the farm, where the organization’s depth has become the loudest part of the story.
The Nationals don’t just have talent in the system. They have layers of it.
Washington now has 24 players with a future value of at least 45, a mark only one other team can match. Even more eye-catching, the club has nine players with an FV of at least 50, up from just four a year ago.
That kind of breadth changes the feel of a system completely.
It has also made room for prospects who would have ranked much higher in other years. Yohandy Morales, Angel Feliz and Maxwell Romero are the type of players who would make most top-30 lists, but in this system they’re left just outside the cut.
Morales is a good example of how crowded things have gotten: he’s having his best year as a pro and still sliding in the rankings because the competition around him is so strong. He’s not a perfect prospect, but he’s a player with pedigree who is tearing up Triple-A.
That squeeze reaches all the way down the list. Caleb Lomavita sits 30th in the organization right now.
He’s an athletic catcher who went in the top 40 picks and is posting a .771 OPS in Double-A. In a thinner system, that profile would likely land much higher.
In Washington’s current setup, he can barely hang on to the back end of the top 30.
A huge reason the Nationals are so loaded is the 2025 draft, which has a chance to become a special class. Between that group and trades, eight of Washington’s top 21 prospects came from that draft. The headliner is Eli Willits, and he looks every bit like the crown jewel.
Willits is only 18, but he’s already hitting .272 with a .904 OPS, plus 13 homers and 52 steals in his first full pro season. The bat-to-ball skills, speed and defense were the selling points coming in.
What has pushed him into another tier is the power, which has shown up more than expected. Thirteen home runs at this stage is no small thing.
He looks like a true five-tool threat and, at minimum, a top-10 prospect in baseball.
Since moving to High-A, Willits has also posted 46 walks against 31 strikeouts in 45 games. That kind of command of the zone from such a young player is rare.
His stated goal is to reach the majors by age 20, and this season has moved him closer to that track. There’s even a chance he could get a look in Double-A to close out the year.
Another 2025 draftee who has made a real impression is Miguel Sime Jr., Washington’s fourth-round pick. Coming out of high school, Sime was viewed as a major project.
That label hasn’t held up in pro ball. In his first season, he’s been overwhelming hitters in Low-A and High-A, even if the control still needs work.
The fastball sits around 99 MPH and regularly reaches triple digits. The biggest leap has come with the breaking stuff.
Sime arrived this season with a plus-plus slider that has been punishing hitters, and he pairs it with a nasty curveball. The results are hard to ignore: 118 strikeouts in 65.1 innings.
The walks are there too - 58 of them - but he’s only 19, and the raw stuff already plays. At a minimum, the Nationals appear to have a nasty reliever.
If the command comes along, the ceiling gets much bigger.
The newest wave of talent comes from the 2026 draft, which has already added more heft to the system. Washington’s top four picks all showed up in the new MLB Pipeline top 30. Leading that group is first-rounder Chris Hacopian, the local product who skipped Low-A and is hitting .286 in his first four games in Wilmington.
Hacopian entered pro ball with a reputation as maybe the best pure hitter in the draft, and that skill has already shown through in a small sample. The next step is turning his plus raw power into more game production.
He’s producing elite exit velocities, but the ball still hits the ground too often. Even so, Washington has shown it can help hitters lift the ball more consistently, with James Wood, Seaver King and Keibert Ruiz serving as examples.
The other 2026 draftees on the list are Chase Brunson, Luke Williams and Cooper Harris. None has debuted yet, but each brings real upside.
Put it all together, and the Nationals’ farm system looks as healthy as it has ever been. The big-league club may not be in the playoffs, but 2026 was still a major step forward - and the clearest sign of that progress is sitting in the minors.
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Brad Lord is among the possibilities to take that opening, and right-hander Luis Perales is also in the mix if the Nationals choose to promote from within. For a team that has kept leaning on young arms and roster flexibility, this is less about one transaction than about how quickly it wants to settle the back end of the rotation while the rest of the staff takes shape. [Read more 🡒]
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The frustrating part for Washington was how quickly some games got away, especially when early runs put the burden on the lineup to keep answering. A few clubs found enough offense to stay in it, while others spent most of the night trying to recover from the pitching side of things, which made the final lines feel more lopsided than the contests had been for stretches. For a prospect-heavy organization, that kind of Friday can leave you with just enough to note and just enough unanswered to keep following the next box score. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Just Made A Telling CJ Abrams Infield Decision
Blake Buteras pregame announcement gave the Nationals a notable infield shakeup, with CJ Abrams set to spend more time at second base moving forward. The move is designed to keep Abrams in the lineup for his bat while giving Washington a cleaner defensive alignment on the left side of the infield, where his range and arm have been under the microscope all year.
Abrams will still see shortstop on occasion, but Nasim Nunez is slated to handle that spot more regularly as the club tries to settle on its best defensive setup. For a Nationals team still trying to balance development with production, the decision says plenty about where the organization believes it can get the most value out of one of its most important young players. [Read more 🡒]