Category: Sports News

The crack of the bat. The growing crescendo of cheers as the ball flew over the outfield fence. The flashing lights in celebration of the home run. The jubilation of the team and stadium announcer as the batter rounded the bases. Though my wife and I were thousands of miles away from our home, the baseball experience at its core is delightfully universal.

Then, the pep band started playing the home run hitter’s personalized song, and the crowd chanted along. That part was different. 

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Let’s take a few steps back. I’ve been to a handful of epic games in my life. I took my wife to her first Kansas City Royals game in 2011, which just so happened to be Eric Hosmer’s MLB debut. We went to the Justin Maxwell walkoff grand slam game in 2013. I was at the 2014 Wild Card Game, and a handful of other playoff games since then. 

And while I don’t have a particularly impressive set of MLB parks I’ve been to, we try to go to a game when we travel domestically. We saw Shohei Ohtani hit a home run in Dodgers Stadium. We saw Pete Alonso hit a home run at Citi Field. We almost got heat stroke going to Coors Field and the Great American Ball Park in cloudless skies during the dead of summer. We had the high privilege of, uh, watching Eric Skoglund give up 12 runs in Cleveland before the Royals got their second baserunner.

So when my wife and I were planning our trip to Japan in celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary in 2024, there were a few key parts of our trip. One of those was attending a professional Japanese baseball game. 

Japan’s pro baseball league is called Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Since the country’s total geographic footprint is about as large as the state of California, there are way fewer teams–12, in total. Ten of those teams play on the main island of Honshu, with one playing on the northern island of Hokkaido and another on the southern island of Kyushu. 

We almost didn’t make a game. Even though we were in Japan for almost two weeks, a few factors conspired against us. One, there are only ever six games going on at one time, which doesn’t present a lot of options. Two, it just had to fit our schedule. And three, there was a typhoon that resulted in cancellations of the entire league’s schedule for multiple days (even those that played indoors).

But we did eventually get to see one close to the end of our trip. The contest: the Hiroshima Toyo Carp playing the Yokohama DeNA Baystars.

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Yokohama Stadium opened in 1978, and it’s located in the heart of the Yokohama city center right next to a train station. The stadium was fine; it had a small video board, but there were plenty of food vendors and seats were close to the action. Seating 35,000 in its baseball configuration, it looked like what you think a 1970s-era baseball-specific stadium looks like. It was a nice place to watch a game, but easily the least notable part about the experience.

As is the case everywhere in urban Japan, getting to the stadium was easy. We simply took a train from Shibuya Station and walked out of Yokohama-Koen station to find ourselves mere steps from the gates. Parking was nonexistent, and everyone was either getting off at the same station or simply walking from the many offices and apartments in the immediate area. 

The Japanness of it all started before we even got there. We took the train from Shibuya Station (yes, Persona 5 fans, that Shibuya Station) which dropped us off across the street from Yokohama Stadium. We had purchased tickets online and scanned them at the gate. There was minimal security; certainly less than in the States. From there, we went to our seats.

I know that a lot of folks try out food and drink at a stadium, and a friend of mine who visits MLB stadiums with his brother uses the cuisine quality as a core ingredient to judge the experience. We had already eaten, though, and even when I go to games here in the States I don’t usually eat at the stadium.

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Our seats were located along the first base side, the Kauffman Stadium equivalent of the sections in the low 140s. Notably, our seats were in the home section, which was specifically designated because the fans are very, very active in the game. In the photo above, you can see the Hiroshima Carp fans over along the third base dugout and, more notably, over in the outfield seats beyond the left field fence.

Baseball in Japan isn’t just another sport: it is the national sport of the nation, and it is an incredibly big deal there. Japanese fans therefore have more in common with European soccer fans than MLB fans. This means that they’re loud and proud all the time.

It also means that there are a bunch of chants. And when you go to an NPB game, you’ll hear bespoke chants for every player, and I do mean every player—even for American-born players, of which there were a couple in the game we went to. During the pregame lineup announcements, the Baystars pep band played the theme for each player. And yes, the Carp brought their own pep band, too, and played the themes for their own players.

The energy in the stadium was, as you might expect, incredible, and it only got more electric as the game went on. It was an early evening game, and more and more folks showed up directly from work, dressed in their work attire. When they got to their seats, they put on the Baystars or Carp gear that they brought with them and joined the chanting.

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The game itself was a fun time. It was a relatively high-scoring game considering the traditionally low-offense affair that is indicative of NPB play. There was a home run, and the home team ended up winning handily.

While playoff MLB games can be loud and raucous, the vibes of an NPB game are just so different. Not only do the players have individual chants, but these chants happen continuously when they are up to bat. It’s louder when the home crowd is up to bat, but remember that the away team also has a pep band and their own chanting fans in a block.

It was actually enjoyable to see the Baystars play the Carp. Earlier in the week, we had made a trip to Hiroshima. I had wanted to visit Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome, and the Peace Memorial Museum, and we did so—it was equal parts somber and historically fascinating, and every American who visits Japan should try to make a trip there. When we were there, we stopped by the official Carp merch store at Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium (its real name, I promise) and picked up some NPB merch, including a Carp jersey and a hat depicting a bowl of ramen swinging a baseball bat.

The charm of Hiroshima—a really lovely city with an expansive tram network—and their clear love for their baseball team won out, so I guess we’re Carp fans? So it was fun to watch that team play, even if we bought tickets in the wrong section. So it goes.

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All in all, watching an NPB game was an absolute blast and one of the highlights of a trip that included many, many highlights. Japan is a great place to visit; it’s got easily usable public transit, a wide variety of delicious food, and experiences for every kind of traveler.

And even though this trip happened a year and a half ago at this point, my wife and I are going back to Japan in April. The aforementioned typhoon prevented us from going to the Nagashima Spa Land amusement park, and that place has multiple bucket list roller coasters we wanted to ride.

Of course, that means another opportunity to watch NPB baseball. At the moment, that’s looking like a game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, although it could be a few others. I can’t wait to experience it again.

Last week, in our Rangers Reacts Survey, we asked where folks thought the Texas Rangers would finish in the American League West.

And I have to say, y’all were a bit of a downer, though this was before the MacKenzie Gore trade gave everyone a shot in the arm.

Almost half of those who responded said that the Rangers would finish third in the division. The second most common result, though? Fourth place. I don’t know if it is the homeless A’s or the reclamation project Angels that folks feel the Rangers will be beat out by.

In fairness, first place and second place were barely behind fourth place in the voting. And only 3% said that the Rangers would finish last, so that’s something.

The Mets capped off their most active week of the offseason in a big way, acquiring Freddy Peralta and Tobias Meyers for Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat. It’s likely the last large addition the Mets will make this offseason, but boy it sure is a great way to round things out.

Peralta is obviously the centerpiece. Since moving to the rotation full time in 2021, he’s tossed 738.1 innings of 3.30 ERA ball. In that timeframe, he’s one of only 25 qualified starters to post a 20% or better K-BB%. At this juncture, he’s probably something like a top-15 or top-20 arm in the majors – not quite good enough to meet the definition of “sure fire ace”, but undoubtedly a solid number two starter who will complement Nolan McLean at the top of the rotation.

We should note that despite being generally healthy (outside of a shoulder strain in 2022), Peralta is not a exactly a work horse. The Brewers were extremely judicious with how they deployed him, frequently pulling Peralta early and leaning on their bullpen to get the rest of the way. That was much the same in 2025, when he averaged a hair over 5.1 innings per start and didn’t face a single batter four times in a single game all season. Not a typo, the most batters Peralta faced in a game last season was 27, and he only topped 23 batters 7 times. There’s nothing wrong with this per se, particularly in the modern game, but it is a limitation that the Mets’ field staff will have to manage. (Raise your hand if you have faith in Carlos Mendoza here.)

The Mets are also getting the chance to extend Peralta here, and he’s already indicated a willingness to sign a long-term deal. We can look to Tyler Glasnow as a reasonable comp; a pitcher traded one year prior to free agency in his age-30 season. Glasnow ultimately received an additional three-years and $110M, with a club / player option for a fifth season. He was due a higher base salary ($25M), but Peralta has the better track record, so maybe that comes out in the wash. Something in the low 9-figure range that takes Peralta through his age-34 season would seem to make sense, and that’s a good deal for the Mets in all likelihood. And, if this doesn’t work out, the Mets can QO him and get a pick back for their troubles.

Three paragraphs later, we get to Myers, who is far more than a throw in despite the narrative delay. Now four years and three teams removed from being traded for Junior Caminero (a real oopsie by Cleveland), Myers has settled in as a valuable swing-man with five seasons of team control remaining. No, the stuff doesn’t totally leap off the page, and his strikeout rate dipped in 2025, possibly because he had a lingering oblique injury. He also doesn’t have the same upside of Sproat in all likelihood (more on that in a moment). What he does do is fill a very similar role for the Mets’ roster with a similar amount of team control and some untapped potential. It’s a great get as the second piece.

Now, for the cost. Williams and Sproat were set to rank 4th and 5th respectively on our upcoming top-10 list. I was a bit lower on both than our final consensus:

#4: Jett Williams

I don’t disagree that much with Jett’s ranking here (I had Ewing above him, but no one else), but I still find myself pretty down on him as a prospect, and I don’t think it’s just prospect fatigue. I began voicing concerns about Jett’s hit tool ~2 years ago, and in that time he’s not really assuaged any of those worries. Sure, injuries have played a role and the strikeout rate has held steady in the low-20s, but that’s not because Williams is great at putting bat on ball, it’s because he just doesn’t swing. He ranked in the 6th percentile for hittable pitches taken, nuking his SEAGER down to 3.9 despite the aforementioned healthy walk and strikeout rates. Couple that with what is still just okay damage on contact and a tweener-ish defensive profile and this is trending more towards “high quality bench bat” or “second division starter” rather than the sort of player we were extolling as the future of the team in 2023.

#5: Brandon Sproat

Brandon Sproat does a lot of things well. He throws pretty hard, he finally landed on a breaking ball shape that works, and the change is still a decent pitch. Put in terms of physical skills, you can say that he has good arm speed and feel for spin. However, this has never really all come together for him, in large part because his fastball shape just isn’t viable at present. Even with the addition of a sinker last season – one that grades out better but still not great – I’m still not convinced he’s the type of arm who can make it through a lineup two or three times. If you couple that with the lack of development runway relative to other arms (Sproat is older and was selected as a senior out of a major college program, which would normally mean there’s less juice to squeeze) in the back of the top-10 and I think I’d actually prefer Sproat a good deal lower, even though he’s a totally justifiable top-100 prospect.

Both are definitely top-100 prospects, but neither are in the tier of guys that it particularly hurts to move. Especially when you’re the Mets and are inducing jumps on both sides of the ball these days – it’s a lot easier to move Brandon Sproat when you have Jonah Tong and Jack Wenninger, and it’s a lot easier to move Jett Williams when you have A.J. Ewing and Jacob Reimer.

This price is also roughly in line with another trade made by the Brewers, that being the Corbin Burnes deal. Burnes was a better arm making nearly double what Peralta will make in 2025, and he wasn’t likely to sign an extension either. Nevertheless, the Brewers gave up two prospects in the back half of the top-100 (Joey Ortiz and DL Hall, a package I would argue is of lower quality than what the Mets gave up but not by a huge margin) for one year of Burnes’ in 2024.

Had the Mets only received Peralta, this would’ve been a totally fine deal, a market-value acquisition for a #2 starter rental. With the addition of Myers and Peralta’s seeming willingness to extend, it looks even better. This deal receives an A.

23. RJ Petit (115 points, 12 ballots)

RJ Petit is a tough guy to miss. Colorado’s pick in the 2025 Rule 5 draft from the Detroit Tigers organization is a 6’8”, 300-pound titan of a right-handed relief pitcher. Originally drafted by the Tigers in the 14th round of the 2021 draft out of Charleston Southern, the 26-year-old has mostly served as a reliever after dabbling with starting during his draft year. As one might surmise given his size, Petit can throw in the mid to high-90s with a downward plane. He pairs that velo with a hard, sweeping slider that tunnels well with the fastball and a developing change-up.

Petit entered 2025 back at Double-A Erie for the third season in a row (where he was of league-average age) despite posting decent results there in 2024 and being unprotected and unselected in that year’s Rule 5 draft. In 27 games with Erie, Petit posted a 2.28 ERA with a dominant 0.95 WHIP and a 9.6 K/9 rate against a 2.5 BB/9 rate in 43 1/3 innings.

Petit finally got the call up to Triple-A Toledo (which is in the much more pitcher-friendly International League) in mid-July. Petit appeared in 20 games at the level with a 2.74 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, an outstanding 12.9 K/9 rate, and a 3.9 BB/9 rate in 23 innings, including a save. Petit was strong against both righties (.629 OPS against) and lefties (.579 OPS) while allowing just four homers in 66 1/3 innings during 2025. Despite the success at the Triple-A level, Petit was again left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and this time the Rockies took him with the first pick.

Here’s some video of Petit from his time in the 2023 Arizona Fall League:

Here was Eric Longenhagen’s scouting report on Petit after the Rule 5 draft:

Petit is a pretty standard mid-90s fastball (94-97 mph, touch 98) and a plus slider reliever. He utilizes his slider in all counts because his size creates hittable plane on his fastball, but the addition of a second fastball type (he throws both elevated four-seamers and in-zone two-seamers) helped limit opponents’ contact quality against his heaters in 2025, as both had a sub-.300 xwOBA against. Petit also creates enough sink on his changeup to keep lefties in check, so his role isn’t at risk of being minimized to that of a righty specialist if he throws enough strikes (no guarantees) to make the Rockies bullpen next spring.

Longenhagen ranked Petit as a 40 FV player last March, 25th in Detroit’s system.

Petit ranks 26th on MLB.com’s Rockies prospect list as a 40 FV pitcher with a 60 grade on the slider:

Standing at 6-foot-8, Petit is a tremendous presence on the mound. He doesn’t get big extension out of that frame, instead using his height to create a steep downward plane leading to solid groundball rates. There is some velocity here, touching 98 mph while sitting 94-96, and he’s worked to generate a bit more heat. Petit’s 83-85 mph gyro slider is much better at generating swing-and-miss and chase low in the zone with strong depth, and the Rockies think it’s the kind of breaking ball that should play in Coors Field. He can tunnel his 86-89 mph changeup well enough off the fastball with just enough velocity separation for it to be effective.

Petit has shown the ability to get righties and lefties out at the upper levels, and he was able to get his walk rate back down in 2025 to 3.0 per nine after seeing it creep up in 2024 (4.1 BB/9). He’ll get his chance to stick with the Rockies, who see him as a potential bulk reliever.

Petit is almost certain to be a one and done PuRP, as he will either stick on Colorado’s roster long enough in 2026 to exhaust his rookie eligibility or he won’t and will be returned to the Tigers. He represents a good multi-inning mop-up relief a la Anthony Molina in his Rule 5 year in 2024, with the size and breaking ball to be better than that. I ranked him 23rd on my ballot at the bottom of my 40 FV tier due to the floor.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

The birthday series we’re running here at Pinstripe Alley is interesting for multiple reasons, primarily because we’re introduced to players who may not have as much exposure as the stars of today’s game or had their time in the majors but end up in the weeds of Major League Baseball history. With the Yankees being an old franchise relative to most of MLB, the latter is bound to happen to plenty of different players from the olden days of our great game. Fred Heimach is one of the names that might be lost to time, but he still made his impact in his short stint with the Bombers.

Frederick Amos Heimach
Born: January 27, 1901 (Camden, NJ)
Died: June 1, 1973 (Fort Myers, FL)
Yankees Tenure: 1928-29

Fred “Lefty” Heimach was born on this day in 1901 and worked his way up to the major-league ranks as a pitcher despite never playing high school baseball as a teenager. When the United States entered World War I, Heimach enlisted and trained to become a mechanic before being sent overseas to France, where he helped organize a baseball team for his unit in Romorantin in the spring of 1918. Tom Turner, who was then working as a quasi-scout for the Philadelphia Athletics and was the athletic officer for a team that was defeated by Heimach’s, said to him, according to Bill Nowlin from the Society of American Baseball Research, “When this war is over, and you still have two legs and two arms, see me without fail. You have a job with the Athletics waiting for you.”

And he did. Heimach returned to the United States, fresh off the war, at 19-years-old, and was signed by the Athletics. He was sent for some conditioning and made his MLB debut in a 13-3 loss to the Washington Senators on October 1, 1920.

However, despite the poor start and a 14.40 ERA to his name at the MLB level, he came back strong in his second season. At the Three-I League (Class B) level, he helped his squad, the Moline Plowboys, to a championship. He finished the year with a 24-8 record and led the league in wins and ERA with a 2.38 before making his second MLB start against the Chicago White Sox, where he pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only seven hits.

Heimach pitched 117 games more for the Athletics and started 64 of them before being moved to the Boston Red Sox in 1926. He finished with a 4.67 ERA in those games and a 5.65 ERA in 20 games with Boston. His next move, following an entire season in the minor leagues in 1927, was a pickup by the Yankees, who thought he could be a special player for them. He was acquired for $20,000 and a player to be named later, and in 13 games and nine starts, “Lefty” posted a 3.31 ERA in 68.0 innings pitched. He saw no action in the 1928 World Series against St. Louis but still walked away with a championship to his name.

Heimach was brought back for his 29-year-old season with the Yankees as well and had another decent season on the mound, finishing with a respectable 4.01 ERA and an 11-6 record. However, despite his two decent seasons in pinstripes, his contract was sold to the Toledo Mud Hens, and manager Bob Shawkey somewhat ominously told the New York World Telegram, “There are some things that this club will not elaborate.”

Heimach’s last MLB appearance came on August 30, 1933, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, before his retirement was forced by a back injury. He pitched four seasons for the Dodgers from 1930 to 1933, finishing with a 4.31 career ERA with the team. His final career ERA came out to 4.46, and he finished with a career record of 62-69.

After his MLB career ended, Heimach headed south and joined the Miami Beach Police Department, where he spent 20 years as an officer before retiring in 1956 and moving to Arizona before returning to Florida. Heimach passed away in Fort Myers, on June 1, 1973, at the age of 72, and is buried at the Fort Myers Memorial Gardens.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

In Mariners news…

• The Mariners are reportedly closing in on a deal with the top teenage prospect in the 2027 international draft class, Dominican switch-hitter Mairon De La Rosa.
• Don’t forget to vote for our very own Ryan Blake in this year’s SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards for his article on the T-Mobile Park batter’s eye.

Around the league…

• The San Francisco Giants have signed free agent outfielder Harrison Bader to a two-year/$20.5 million contract.
• Veteran reliever Hector Neris has agreed to a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals.
• New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was impressed with his initial look at new third baseman Bo Bichette. Although having played shortstop his entire career, Bichette looks comfortable in his new position for the Mets.
• The Minnesota Twins have agreed to a one-year/$6.1 million contract with RHP Joe Ryan to avoid arbitration. The deal additionally includes a $13 million mutual option for 2027.
• Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson is eager to prove himself in a healthier 2026 season.

Last week, I wrote this article noting that a number of owners were “enraged” about the Dodgers signing Kyle Tucker and that some owners were going to push for a salary cap “no matter what.”

The Dodgers are doing a pretty good job of playing MLB’s villain team, the equivalent to the “Evil Empire” the Yankees were back in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Now comes a report written by Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing, citing ESPN’s Joon Lee, who says the Dodgers have been getting favorable revenue-sharing treatment for their TV revenue — and that this break for the Dodgers will continue for another 13 years. Here are the details:

In a recent report, Lee outlined how the Dodgers have historically benefited from the revenue-sharing system as a result of the club’s bankruptcy and subsequent sale in 2012. Lee reports that teams typically share about one-third of their local television revenue, but the Dodgers, in the midst of their bankruptcy proceedings in federal court, secured a much more favorable rate of about 10%.

Given the Dodgers have by far the most lucrative local broadcast deal in MLB (a ludicrous $334 million per year), Lee estimates the team could avoid contributing about $66 million per year to the league’s revenue-sharing pool under its special arrangement. That, of course, doesn’t sit well with fans of other clubs, who in recent years have seen the Dodgers buy their way to one of the most stacked rosters in the history of the game.

Previously, it was unknown exactly how long the Dodgers would retain these favorable terms. But Lee revealed in his report, citing a league source, that the agreement goes through 2039, when the Dodgers’ current local broadcast deal expires. In other words, the team’s built-in advantages could benefit them for another 13 years.

You can watch Lee’s full report at the link in that quote, or a summary of it here.

This was done, as noted, because the Dodgers declared bankruptcy during the Frank McCourt ownership era, which ended more than 13 years ago. New ownership took advantage of that, as well as the revenue coming in under their huge Charter Communications RSN deal, to become the most dominant team in the league. L.A. has won the NL West in 12 of the last 13 seasons, missing out only in 2021 when the Giants had that freak 107-win year and the Dodgers won “only” 106, which is tied (with 2019) for the second-most wins in Dodgers franchise history. They’ve played in five World Series in those 13 years, winning three (and probably would have made that four if not for the Astros cheating scandal in 2017).

From the Awful Announcing article, here’s how much the Dodgers have their proverbial thumbs on the scale:

Charter Communications, the telecom giant that owns Spectrum SportsNet LA, the television home of the Dodgers, would reportedly have to declare bankruptcy to wiggle its way out of the $334 million-per-year deal. That’s not something Charter, whose main business is providing broadband service to tens of millions of customers nationwide, necessarily wants to do.

So while other clubs are accepting cuts to local broadcast revenue as cord-cutting threatens regional sports networks, the Dodgers are sitting pretty. And it makes the team’s favorable arrangement look even more absurd to the average fan.

Whether the Dodgers will be able to maintain this arrangement with Charter until 2039 remains to be seen. The league may have an opportunity to rewrite some of its revenue-sharing procedures once the current collective bargaining agreement expires after this season.

But for now, the optics do not look great. The Dodgers aren’t paying their fair share and are able to buy whatever players they want.

The conclusion is absolutely correct, in my view. The Dodgers are getting a break that might have been reasonable 13 years ago, but it certainly isn’t now. As noted, this will almost certainly be something that’s brought up in the CBA negotiations coming up later this year.

One thing is certain. There’s not a level playing field in MLB. There should be, in my view, so that the teams that win most aren’t just the teams with the most money — they should be the teams with the best baseball management. If a salary cap, along with a floor and a guaranteed portion of MLB revenue to players, is how to accomplish that — then bring it on.

The other day, MLB Pipeline dropped their new top 100 rankings and it featured four Nationals in the top 80. Out of all the public rankings I have seen, Pipeline is the highest on the Nats prospects. They have Eli Willits at 13th, Travis Sykora at 54th, Harry Ford at 71st and Jarlin Susana at 80th.

This is very exciting for Nats fans, who are very attached to prospects these days after all the losing that has come this decade. If these guys pan out, they can lead the next generation of winning Nats baseball. After all of the losing, Nats fans deserve it.

Let’s dive into the rankings and what they have to say about each player. Former first overall pick Eli Willits is the top ranked Nats prospect. Pipeline is higher on him than most other outlets, ranking him at 13th. Willits is the highest ranked player drafted in 2025, despite being 5th on their draft rankings. A strong pro debut combined with questions about Ethan Holliday’s hit tool allowed him to move past the more famous prospect.

Willits has three 60 grade tools according to Pipeline. His hitting, running and fielding all have 60 grades, meaning they are plus tools. Players with a 60 hit tool and 60 defense at shortstop do not come around very often, and that is why Willits was taken first overall. He showed both of those skills in his pro debut, where he hit .300 and flashed the leather at shortstop.

The biggest question mark about Willits is his power. Pipeline gave his power tool a 45 grade, which is slightly below average. Due to how great the rest of his game is, that is okay. Willits has the chance to be a 15 home run guy, which is more than good enough considering the rest of his profile. I have always liked the comparison of Geraldo Perdomo when discussing Willits.

One of Pipeline’s more interesting rankings is Travis Sykora. While Baseball America and Keith Law dropped him out of their top 100 list after his Tommy John Surgery, Pipeline still has him at 54th. Personally, I would probably have him somewhere in between, on the back end of a top 100.

Sykora was one of the most dominant minor league arms in the sport before going down with injury. In his pro career, Sykora has a 2.14 ERA and 208 strikeouts in 130.1 innings. He overwhelmed lower minors hitters with his three potentially plus pitches and strong feel for pitching.

Sykora will need to throw his fastball in the zone more often when he comes back, but outside of that, he does not have many weaknesses on the mound. He fires a mid to upper 90’s heater from his unusual delivery. Sykora also has a slider and a splitter that can be plus pitches. The splitter was particularly effective in 2025 according to Pipeline. 

Unfortunately, Sykora will miss most, if not all of this season due to the surgery. If he looks as good as new when he comes back, Travis Sykora has the chance to really surge up the rankings. He has top of the rotation upside, and I cannot wait to see him pitch again.

The next player on the list is the only Nats top 100 prospect who was acquired this offseason. That would be Harry Ford, who the Nats got in the Jose A. Ferrer trade. Ford is the closest to the big leagues of all these guys, having already made his debut.

Seattle developed Ford for a number of years, but had no room for the catcher due to Cal Raleigh. That made him expendable, and the catcher needy Nats took advantage. Ford, who ranks 71st on Pipeline’s list, has average hitting ability and power, but that is amplified due to his elite plate discipline.

Ford has a real chance to be a strong offensive catcher. He has 18-20 homer power and can be a .260ish hitter. That .260 average will come with a .350+ on base percentage. In his minor league career, Ford has a .405 career OBP in 1,693 at bats, despite only having a .266 average. That ability to get on base gives him a strong offensive floor. Ford is also a great runner for his position and has a chance to steal up to 15 bags a season.

The defensive side of the game is more of a question mark. Pipeline gives his glove a 45 grade, meaning he is a slightly below average defender behind the plate. With how important defense is behind the plate, this is not ideal, but he is certainly playable as a catcher. 

Pipeline notes that he is a solid thrower, but his framing is not very good, even if it has gotten better over the years. With the challenge system coming in, that weakness could be mitigated. Ford’s leadership has been praised, which is something you like to see from a catcher. He will never be confused for Yadier Molina, but Ford should be able to stick behind the plate. 

The last National on the top 100 list is Jarlin Susana, who ranks as the 80th best prospect. Like Sykora, Susana had season ending surgery, but his recovery from lat surgery should not take as long.

Susana has some of the most electric stuff in the minor leagues. His fastball sits at 100 MPH and can get up to the 103-104 range. He also has the rare ability to hold his triple digit velocity deep into games. However, some scouts think his slider is even better than his fastball. Pipeline gives both pitches a 70 grade, which is plus-plus stuff.

After struggling with injuries and inconsistency early in the season, Susana had a crazy run in the second half before his lat injury. Unfortunately, durability has been a problem for Susana in his career. He has had a few injury scares, which comes with the territory for pitchers with his velocity.

There are also some control issues, with Pipeline giving it a below average 40 grade. However, his stuff is so insane that he still has the chance to be a front of the rotation arm. If the injuries and control move him to a relief role, he could be one of the most dominant closers in baseball. 

As long as Susana stays healthy and is anywhere near the strike zone, he will be an impactful pitcher, either as a starter or a high leverage relief arm. Hopefully we can see him on the mound early in the 2026 season. His stuff is just so ridiculous.

It is nice to see Pipeline being higher on some of the Nats prospects. Having four guys in the top 80 is a good sign. There are also other players that could rise on to the list with good seasons. Paul Toboni traded for intriguing prospects like Gavin Fien, Luis Perales and Devin Fitz-Gerald this offseason. I see all of them as having top 100 upside.

This will be something to monitor as we head into the season. Right now the Nats have four top 100 guys. While Ford should graduate, there should be plenty of other Nats prospects waiting in the wings to take his spot on the top 100 list. MLB Pipeline is a great resource for fans, and I really appreciate their lists, especially when the Nats are well represented.