PROSPECT REVIEW: ANDREW ALVAREZ
Age on opening day 2024: 24
How acquired: Drafted in 12th round in 2021 from California Polytechnic State University
Ranking: NR per MLB Pipeline, NR per Baseball America
MLB ETA: TBD
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: MATT CRONIN
Age on opening day 2024: 26
How acquired: Drafted in fourth round in 2019 from University of Arkansas
Ranking: NR per MLB Pipeline, No. 29 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2023
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: ZACH BRZYKCY
Age on opening day 2024: 24
How acquired: Signed as undrafted free agent in 2020 from Virginia Tech
Ranking: No. 28 per MLB Pipeline, No. 22 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: MITCHELL PARKER
Age on opening day 2024: 24
How acquired: Drafted in fifth round in 2020 from San Jacinto College (Houston)
Ranking: No. 25 per MLB Pipeline, No. 30 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: ANDRY LARA
Age on opening day 2024: 21
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2019
Ranking: No. 23 per MLB Pipeline, No. 18 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
The 2023 holiday season officially kicked off yesterday with Thanksgiving, but the Nationals got a head start to the season of giving earlier this week.
This week Washington Nationals Philanthropies hosted Turkeypalooza, its now sixth annual food distribution event across the D.C. area.
“Turkeypalooza is an annual event that Washington Nationals Philanthropies hosts, in partnership with BetMGM now for the second year,” said Tal Alter, CEO of Nationals Philanthropies. “We're going to distribute 900 turkeys over the next few days, which means 3,600 different meal units being presented to members of the community who are unfortunately food insecure. At this time of year, it's just incredibly important for everyone to be able to celebrate the holidays with dignity, and food is the fundamental piece of that.”
The event started on Monday in front of the BetMGM sportsbook outside Nationals Park with volunteers handing out turkeys and bags filled with shelf-stable items and fresh produce. Nats outfielder Stone Garrett was even in attendance to help out with the distribution.
“Our fans support us all season long, so to give back to the community, it means a lot,” Garrett said. “It means a lot, especially during the holiday season.”
Happy Thanksgiving, Nationals fans!
To celebrate the holiday, I’m going to take a break from my usual prospect reviews (there are only seven left!) and look back on the 2023 year for reasons the Nats and you should be thankful.
Is a 71-91 season reason to celebrate? Of course not. But the organization did make some significant strides in this crucial rebuilding year.
Let’s start with that final record. Although still 20 games under .500, it was a 16-game improvement from the dreadful 55-107 record in 2022.
While still a last-place finish, their fourth in a row since winning the 2019 World Series, many outlets had the Nats barely winning 60 games at the beginning of the season. Eclipsing 70 wins was a major step forward for the major league club, setting up higher expectations for 2024.
PROSPECT REVIEW: DJ HERZ
Age on opening day 2024: 23
How acquired: Traded with Kevin Made from Cubs for Jeimer Candelario and cash in July 2023; originally drafted in eighth round by Cubs in 2019 from Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, N.C.
Ranking: No. 16 per MLB Pipeline, No. 25 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: TRAVIS SYKORA
Age on opening day 2024: 19
How acquired: Drafted in third round in 2023 from Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas
Ranking: No. 11 per MLB Pipeline, No. 11 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2027
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
Voting for the annual Baseball Writers' Association of America awards has always seemed like a distinguished honor. And at times a difficult one.
Needless to say, I was very surprised and grateful when I learned I had been assigned a ballot for this year’s National League Rookie of the Year Award in my first season as a BBWAA member.
At first, I was intimidated by the daunting task. How could I – a humble D.C.-area kid who grew up to be fortunate enough to cover his hometown baseball team – be given such an important task as to vote for one of the sport’s most prestigious awards and by so doing become a part of the sport’s incredible history? Again, while in my first year as a member, nonetheless?
Thankfully, this year’s NL Rookie of the Year decision ended up being sort of a no-brainer instead of one of the highly debated awards.
In fact, entering last night since 2003, four NL Rookie of the Year awards have been won unanimously, with a majority of the others winning by a landslide. Only four races for this award over the last two decades were actually close, the latest coming in 2012 when Bryce Harper took home the hardware for the Nationals by narrowly beating the Diamondbacks’ Wade Miley by a score of 112-105 (Harper was awarded 16 first-place votes, eight second-place votes and eight third place votes while Miley was awarded 12 first-place votes, 13 second-place votes and six third place votes on a 5-3-1 scoring system).
PROSPECT REVIEW: JARLIN SUSANA
Age on opening day 2024: 20
How acquired: Traded with MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood, Robert Hassell III and Luke Voit from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell in August 2022; originally signed as international free agent by Padres from Dominican Republic, January 2022
Ranking: No. 12 per MLB Pipeline, No. 10 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: JAKE BENNETT
Age on opening day 2024: 23
How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2022 from University of Oklahoma
Ranking: No. 10 per MLB Pipeline, previously No. 10 per Baseball America before Nov. 6 top 10 update
MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: COLE HENRY
Age on opening day 2024: 24
How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2020 from LSU
Ranking: No. 18 per MLB Pipeline, No. 17 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: CADE CAVALLI
Age on opening day 2024: 25
How acquired: Drafted No. 22 overall in 2020 from University of Oklahoma
Ranking: No. 4 per MLB Pipeline, No. 4 per Baseball America
MLB debut: Aug. 26, 2022
PROSPECT REVIEW: ROISMAR QUINTANA
Age on opening day 2024: 21
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2019
Ranking: No. 6 per MLB Pipeline, No. 14 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: T.J. WHITE
Age on opening day 2024: 20
How acquired: Drafted in fifth round in 2021 from Paul M. Dorman High School in Roebuck, S.C.
Ranking: No. 27 per MLB Pipeline, No. 16 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: ARMANDO CRUZ
Age on opening day 2024: 20
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, January 2021
Ranking: No. 26 per MLB Pipeline, No. 18 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: DARREN BAKER
Age on opening day 2024: 25
How acquired: Drafted in 10th round in 2021 from University of California, Berkeley
Ranking: No. 24 per MLB Pipeline, No. 26 per Baseball America
MLB ETA: 2023
* Projected by MLB Pipeline
PROSPECT REVIEW: DREW MILLAS
Age on opening day 2024: 26
How acquired: Traded with Richard Guasch and Seth Shuman from Athletics for Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and cash in July 2021; originally drafted in seventh round by Athletics in 2019 from Missouri State University
Ranking: No. 22 per MLB Pipeline, No. 28 per Baseball America
MLB debut: Aug. 28, 2023
PROSPECT REVIEW: ISRAEL PINEDA
Age on opening day 2024: 23
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2016
Ranking: No. 21 per MLB Pipeline, No. 21 per Baseball America
MLB debut: Sept. 11, 2022
