It did not take Baseball America long to provide an updated top 30 for the Washington Nationals (and the rest of the league) post Draft, and I was surprised to see where our 1-1 pick Willits ended up. That would be atop our system rankings.
BA also took the opportunity to “graduate” a few guys and to tweak some of the rankings for players who have struggled badly this year (but, they did not seem to tweak rankings for those who have over-performed this round). They did an early June release of rankings, and now a mid July, so we have a six week differential of ranks that I’ll discuss below.
Here’s the top 30, plus a few in the 31-35 range that were likely “pushed down” by our 2025 top draft picks.
| Rank | First Name | Last Name | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eli | Willits | SS |
| 2 | Travis | Sykora | RHP (Starter) |
| 3 | Jarlin | Susana | RHP (Starter) |
| 4 | Brady | House | SS/3B |
| 5 | Alex | Clemmey | LHP (Starter) |
| 6 | Luke | Dickerson | SS/CF |
| 7 | Daylen | Lile | OF (CF) |
| 8 | Ethan | Petry | 1B/OF |
| 9 | Coy | James | SS |
| 10 | Cade | Cavalli | RHP (Starter) |
| 11 | Seaver | King | SS |
| 12 | Caleb | Lomavita | C |
| 13 | Landon | Harmon | RHP |
| 14 | Robert | Hassell III | OF (CF) |
| 15 | Jake | Bennett | LHP (Starter) |
| 16 | Yohandy | Morales | 3B |
| 17 | Angel | Feliz | 3B/SS |
| 18 | Tyler | Stuart | RHP (Starter) |
| 19 | Miguel | Sime Jr. | RHP |
| 20 | Brayan | Cortesia | SS |
| 21 | Jackson | Kent | LHP (Starter) |
| 22 | Daniel | Hernandez | C |
| 23 | Andry | Lara | RHP (Starter) |
| 24 | Yoel | Tejada Jr. | RHP (Starter) |
| 25 | Garcia | Davian | RHP (Starter) |
| 26 | Cornelio | Riley | RHP (Starter) |
| 27 | Jorgelys | Mota | SS |
| 28 | Kevin | Bazzell | C/3B |
| 29 | Sam | Peterson | OF (CF) |
| 30 | Sir Jamison | Jones | CA |
| 31 | Cayden | Wallace | 2B/3B |
| 32 | Andrew | Pinckney | OF (Corner) |
| 33 | Elijah | Green | OF (CF) |
| 34 | Cristian | Vaquero | OF (CF) |
| 35 | Robert | Cranz | RHP (Reliever) |
Now for some observations and commentary.
Note: not all five of these new 2025 draft picks have signed as of this writing. I think they will sign because its 2025 and players in the top 10 don’t get drafted unless they’re going to sign, but it does bear mentioning that not all of these players are officially on the team as of this writing on 7/21/25. This mostly applies to 5th rounder James, who seems like he’s a better prospect than two of the prep kids drafted ahead of him, and I wonder if the bonus dollars are there.
- Willits enters BA’s list at 1-1, above Sykora. This is notable because Sykora was ranked 28th the last time that BA did an overall Minor League top 100 list in early July. So that also means Willits is not only starting in BA’s top 100 list for the entirety of the minors, he’s starting it likely in the 20-25 range. That’s heady territory. Crews started his pro career ranked #4 on BA’s July 2023 post draft list for some context.
- 2025 2nd Rounder Ethan Petry pops in at #8 and 5th rounder Coy James at #9. These two slot in right ahead of Cavalli, King, and Lomavita. Interesting how our 2025 picks start out ahead of our two top 2024 picks (Dickerson notwithstanding of course).
- The more i’m reading about this James guy, the more I’m thinking this 5th rounder is a massive steal.
- Landon Harmon comes in at #13, and our last big-time bonus guy from this draft Miguel Sime comes in at #19. That seems about right for untested/high risk Prep RHPs.
Those are the new guys. How about changes to existing player ranks relative to where they were last month, and accounting for the five new guys slotting in? Here’s what’s happened in the last 6 weeks:
- Players ranked 2-7 have not changed since June. Should they? Yeah probably: House is starting in the majors but is behind Susana, who has missed two months. Clemmey and Dickerson have really impressed. Lile made it to the show but hasn’t stuck in the starting lineup. Would you adjust these guys up or down a bit? Yes.
- All the players ranked around the five new names have mostly stayed ranked the same … except for those we’re about to talk about.
- Wallace has taken a massive nosedive: he was #16 six weeks ago and is now out of the top 30 entirely. Talk about a weird turn of events for him so far this season.
- Same with Bazzell: he’s been dropped more than 10 spots in the last two months.
- Minor slotting changes for Stuart (still on the DL) and Cortesia, who they inexplicably DROPPED a slot relative to his ranking in June despite him hitting .400 for the first month of the DSL. I mean, what else does the guy have to do?
- Same with Cornelio; he’s dropped relative to his ranking 6 weeks ago. Um, explain that to me like i’m a 5 year old. in 2025, Cornelio made 7 starts with a 3.03 ERA in High-A, got promoted, and has IMPROVED his numbers in AA. He’s dominating there, with a 2.32 ERA, a 1.01 whip, a .169 BAA. I mean, how does this guy get dropped down in relative rankings, even if you’re not doing a full re-evaluation?
- Sam Peterson and Sir Jamison Jones get ranked for the first time at #29 and #30.
- The five guys now pushed outside of the top 30, if I just take the five missing names from June’s rankings, are in order Wallace, Pinckney, Green, Vaquero, and Cranz. Can’t really complain about any of these five now being outside the top 30, based on who got added and how they’ve played in 2025.
- Maaaaaybe you can complain about Cranz, who’s got a 2.02 ERA this season and has crushed it, albeit in low-A as a 22yr old. But hey, he’s a reliever. I don’t think relievers, backup catchers, or utility infielders belong in the top 30 of any system, but that’s just me.
Who’s missing?
- We’ve now apparently graduated Lord, Henry, and Rutledge due to mostly service time (Lord has more than the 50 ip, while Henry & Rutledge will soon enough). They were ranked 14, 15, and in the mid-30s in June.
- No Victor Hurtado, our $2.8M bonus baby from the 2023 IFA class, who continues to struggle repeating the DSL as an 18 yr old, even if Fangraphs loves him (and has him #15 in the system).
- No Armando Cruz, our $3.9M bonus baby from the 2021 IFA class either. At some point production talks, not dollars.
- Rafael Ramirez Jr has been on the edges of top 30s since his acquisition, but has been hurt all year.
- No Kevin Made, who hit .352 in June and (so far) .088 in July.
- No Nasim Nunez, what ever you think of this guy. A glove can only take you so far (he’s hitting .196 in AAA this year).