Nats announce 2025 minor league award winners

Earlier this week, the Nationals announced their 2025 Minor League Players of the Year. The five winners will be recognized tonight as part of a pregame ceremony, and they’ll also take part in a season plan holder autograph session during batting practice. This year’s award winners are:

Hitter of the Year – INF/OF Phillip Glasser
Pitcher of the Year – RHP Riley Cornelio
Defensive Player of the Year – OF Cristhian Vaquero
Baserunner of the Year – INF Seaver King
Nationals Way Award – OF Andrew Pinckney

Glasser, 25, led the Nats system with a .302 average, .389 on-base percentage and 143 total hits. He also ranked second in OPS (.793) and walks (60), and finished in the top 10 in stolen bases (tied for third, 32), runs (fourth, 71) total bases (fifth, 191), slugging percentage (fifth, .404), triples (tied for sixth, four) and doubles (tied for seventh, 19).

His 143 hits were the most by a Nats minor leaguer since Andrew Stevenson’s 152 in 2022. Glasser finished the season with 124 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester.

The former 10th-round pick out of Indiana University in the 2023 MLB Draft played mostly in left field (91 games) but also appeared as the designated hitter (20 games), second baseman (11 games) and right fielded (three games) in his third professional season.

Cornelio, 25, paced the Nats farm with a 3.28 ERA, .205 opponents average and 26 starts. He ranked second with 135 strikeouts, a 1.146 WHIP and 134 ⅓ innings. He finished 6-7 across 27 games (26 starts) between High-A Wilmington, Harrisburg and Rochester, setting career marks in nearly every category in his fourth professional season.

He was originally selected in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft from Texas Christian University.

Vaquero, 21, led the Nats system and ranked tied for fifth among all Single-A outfielders with 11 assists. He posted a career-best .984 fielding percentage in 100 games with Single-A Fredericksburg, playing 59 games in center field, 38 in right and one in left. In total, he played 827 ⅓ defensive innings, the fourth-most among outfielders in the Nationals system and 12th-most among all Single-A outfielders. His 237 putouts ranked second among all Single-A outfielders and third among outfielders on the Nats farm. He also led all Nats minor league outfielders with four double plays.

Offensively, Vaquero also set career highs with 96 hits, eight triples, eight home runs, 47 RBIs, 46 walks and 54 runs scored. His eight triples ranked second in the Nationals system. He also ranked fourth in on-base percentage (.342), tied for fifth in walks, sixth in slugging percentage (.396) and OPS (.738), and tied for seventh in runs scored.

The Havana, Cuba, native, who signed with the Nationals as an international free agent in January 2022, ended the year with a left elbow dislocation, the second straight season he’s finished with an injury after suffering a right shoulder injury at the end of last year.

King, 22, was one the best baserunners in all of minor league baseball this season. He ranked fifth in the Nationals system with 30 stolen bases and had an 88.2 stolen base percentage (30-of-34) in his first full season of professional baseball. King spent time across two levels, appearing in 45 games with Wilmington (12 stolen bases) and 80 games for Harrisburg (18 stolen bases). Among all Nats farmhands, King also ranked in the top 10 in triples (tied for fourth, five), hits (fifth, 123), runs (fifth, 65), doubles (tied for seventh, 19), total bases (tied for seventh, 170), extra-base hits (tied for eighth, 30) and batting average (ninth, .244).

Defensively, King led the Nats system with 276 assists and 1,062 ⅓ innings played and second with 75 double plays.

The 10th overall pick out of Wake Forest in 2024, King ranks among the top prospects in the organization at No.7 per MLB Pipeline and No. 9 per Baseball America. He is also one of eight Nats prospects who will compete in the Arizona Fall League this year.

Pinckney, 24, receives the award given to the Nationals minor leaguer who best demonstrates the professionalism, leadership, loyalty, passion, selflessness, durability, determination and work ethic required to play the game the “Washington Nationals Way.”

Pinckney, who set career marks in nearly every offensive category, ranked in the top 10 among all Nationals farmhands in home runs (second, 20), on-base percentage (second, .348), stolen bases (second, 34), slugging percentage (second, .431), OPS (third, .779), runs (third, 77), RBIs (fourth, 66), average (fourth, .269), total bases (fourth, 194), hits (sixth, 121), extra-base hits (seventh, 31) and walks (tied for ninth, 44).

Defensively, he led all Nats minor league outfielders with 271 putouts (271) and finished tied for fourth with seven outfield assists.

The Tuscaloosa, Ala., native played at the University of Alabama and was selected in the fourth round of the 2023 draft.