When Paul Toboni took over as Nationals President of Baseball Operations last year, he made it clear he wanted to build a “scouting and player development monster”. A year later, that vision is starting to show up where it matters most for the long haul: in the minors.
The Nationals’ farm system doesn’t just have top-end talent. It has volume, and that is the real shift.
Washington may have had more blue chip prospects during the 2023-2024 stretch, but this group brings a different kind of value. The depth gives the club options - for replacing players, for shuffling the roster, and for using prospects as trade currency when holes open up.
That kind of flexibility has not been a common luxury in Washington.
At the top of the system sits Eli Willits, and even with the pressure that comes with being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft, he still outperformed expectations in his first full pro season. Over three levels, the 18-year-old hit .265 with an .869 OPS and made it all the way to Double-A. He also launched 14 homers, a notable number for a player who was never billed as a power bat.
Willits has already established himself as a top 10 prospect in the sport, and he looks like the Nationals shortstop of the future. As the son of a big leaguer, he brings an extremely high baseball IQ, rarely makes mistakes in the field and puts together quality at bats.
He also runs well, handles the bat, and is growing into average power. The path to 5 WAR seasons is there, and his game draws a lot of Geraldo Perdomo comparisons on the D-Backs.
Still, the story of this system is bigger than one headliner. The most striking part of the minor league season was how many players suddenly came from nowhere, or at least from well off the radar, and forced their way into the conversation.
Maxwell Romero Jr. is a perfect example. The 25-year-old catcher was a ninth-round pick in 2022 and spent much of his pro career looking like a player who was closer to being released than reaching the majors. Then the new regime arrived, and everything changed.
Romero opened the year in Double-A and torched the level with his power and patience. After moving to Triple-A, he kept right on hitting.
He finished the season at .253 with an .879 OPS and 23 home runs. His .881 OPS in Triple-A nearly matched the .878 mark he put up in Double-A.
Even with that production, Romero is not ranked among the top 30 prospects in the system by MLB Pipeline or Baseball America. The strikeouts remain loud - nearly 35% of the time this season - and there’s a real chance the big leagues never become his destination.
But the difference between now and before this season is massive. He no longer looks like a player without a path.
Now he has one as a power-first backup catcher.
Cayden Wallace also belongs in that group of older prospects who surged. Given Wallace’s earlier pedigree and contact ability, he may have the stronger case.
The broader point is the same, though: Washington is developing enough players who deserve a real look at the big league level. Not all of them are going to land, but enough of them might.
That is how depth pays off.
That same depth matters in another way, too. It gives the Nationals ammunition for trades.
This offseason, at next year’s deadline, or in whatever window comes after that, they now have the type of prospect inventory that can help them strike without emptying the system. If they find themselves in the playoff race in July of next year, they should have the chips to make a move and still keep the farm in good shape.
There’s also a sense that this system could keep climbing in 2027. Plenty of players look like they’re one adjustment away from taking off, and Miguel Sime Jr. is one of the clearest examples.
The Nationals’ 2025 fourth-round pick features a triple-digit fastball along with a slider and curveball that give him two nasty breaking pitches. When he’s locked in, he can overwhelm hitters.
His first pro season showed both sides of the profile. Sime posted a 2.99 ERA with 130 strikeouts in 72.1 innings, and opponents hit just .153 against him.
The downside was the walk total: 64 in those same 72.1 innings. He’s never going to be a control artist, but if he can trim a 20% walk rate down into the 12-15% range, he has a case to become a top 100 prospect.
Ronny Cruz, Coy James and Landon Harmon are also among the names sitting on that same breakout edge.
Not every prospect in a group like this is going to hit. That’s just the nature of building a system.
But Toboni has assembled so much talent that the odds are in Washington’s favor that enough of them will. He hasn’t left the process to chance, either.
The improvements in player development have shown up in the numbers.
In 2025, the Nationals posted a .463 winning percentage in the minors and a -377 run differential. By August 25th of 2026, they were up to a .520 winning percentage and a +124 run differential.
On the pitching side, no organization had allowed fewer runs than Washington. Minor league results aren’t the whole story, but they’re hard to ignore when they move like that.
Toboni also got his first draft class in the books this year, and the first name off the board was Chris Hacopian, a local player with an elite bat. Hacopian only appeared in 13 pro games, but he offered a glimpse of what makes him so interesting offensively.
He brings contact skills, plate discipline and raw power together in a way that stands out. The key will be getting that raw power into game action more consistently.
There’s a lot to monitor next season with this first wave of Toboni picks, and the lockout situation only adds another layer to that. If the minor leagues are all fans get to watch early next year, Washington at least has one of the more interesting systems to follow.
It’s only year one, but Toboni has already left a real imprint on the organization. The farm is deeper, the development looks sharper, and there are more names worth tracking than anyone could have said a year ago.
Seaver King has already drawn attention, and he’s just one part of a much larger picture. If enough of these prospects connect, they could become the foundation of the next great Nationals team.
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Toboni also left little doubt that the current group is going to feel the pressure this winter. Several pitchers on the staff are at important crossroads in their careers, and the offseason development push will matter when the roster gets sorted out. With the Nationals trying to deepen the bullpen rather than simply patch it, some of those arms may find themselves fighting not just for roles, but for places on the 40-man roster. [Read more 🡒]