Nats take a shot on high-upside high schoolers in draft

The No. 1 pick was always going to dominate the conversation about the Nationals’ 2025 draft class, no matter who they selected. And a front office that experienced major change just one week ago desperately wants and needs Eli Willits to become everything they believe he can be, putting to rest any doubts about their somewhat-surprising decision to draft him.

But the Nats also know this draft can’t be considered a success if only their first round pick pans out. Among the reasons ownership decided to make a change of general managers was the organization’s lack of development of later round picks over the last decade.

There have been some strides made in that area more recently, with the likes of Cole Henry (second round, 2020), Daylen Lile (second round, 2021), Jake Irvin (fourth round, 2018), Mitchell Parker (fifth round, 2020), Jacob Young (seventh round, 2021) and Brad Lord (18th round, 2022) all reaching the big leagues and becoming contributors of varying degrees. But it’s still not enough. The Nationals know they need to develop more quality players out of picks beyond the first round.

It will be some time before we know if they were successful in that regard this year, but it’s clear they took a different approach with several of their down-ballot draft picks over the last two days: They went for more high-upside high schoolers than has typically been the case.

“They’re such talented guys,” vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said. “Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”

In addition to Willits, who at 17 was the youngest player eligible in this year’s draft altogether, the Nationals selected high schoolers in the third (right-hander Landon Harmon), fourth (right-hander Miguel Sime) and fifth (shortstop Coy James) rounds.

And these weren’t longshot selections. Harmon (48th), Sime (86th) and James (94th) all ranked among the top prospects entering the draft, according to MLB Pipeline. Along with Willits (fifth) and second round pick Ethan Petry (59th), the Nats wound up with five of Pipeline’s top 100 prospects.

How did that come to be?

“I think kind of view it as: You get what you pay for,” Haas said. “They’re very talented, all of them. Talented more than where they were selected. It’s just fortunate the opportunity arose where we could acquire them where we did.”

There’s the subtle acknowledgment of the Nationals’ approach to this year’s draft under interim GM Mike DeBartolo. He mentioned in his introductory press conference last week he hoped to “use dollars strategically to bring in as many top prospects as we can,” and by all accounts that’s exactly what they did.

Though they viewed Willits as their consensus No. 1 player based on his past performance and projectability, the Nationals also knew the Oklahoma high school shortstop was likely to accept a signing bonus below the league suggested amount of $11.08 million.

Any savings that emerge from that negotiation can be applied to signing other draft picks above their designated slot values. And in the cases of Harmon, Sime and James in particular, that could be the difference between officially adding them to the club’s farm system and watching them instead head off to the colleges they committed to prior to the draft.

Take Harmon, for instance. The flamethrowing Mississippi native all but confirmed Tuesday he plans to sign with the Nats instead of pitching next season for Mississippi State.

“Yes, sir,” the 6-foot-5 righty said. “Absolutely.”

The same will probably hold true for Sime, a 6-foot-4 right-hander from New York with an explosive fastball, and James, an athletic and power-hitting shortstop from North Carolina who weren’t projected as fourth and fifth rounders but likely fell because of contract demands.

“I don’t think we would’ve expected Miguel or Coy to be available where they landed for us,” Haas said.

“We met with both young men at the combine, and both really stood out as far as their intelligence, their preparation, their dedication,” assistant scouting director Reed Dunn said. “I think as much as we’re excited to put prospects like this into the system, we’re as excited to put people like this into the system.”

The Nationals even took another shot near the end of the entire draft, selecting Washington state high school right-hander Mason Pike in the 19th round. His home state’s Gatorade Player of the Year after allowing one earned run in 40 innings this season while also excelling as a shortstop on the days he didn’t pitch, Pike was rated as high as the 68th best draft prospect by Baseball America.

He’s committed to Oregon State, and it may be tough to sway him to sign up for the minor leagues now. But if the Nats have enough draft pool money left over to make a run at it, they’ll give it a shot.