PROSPECT REVIEW: ELIJAH GREEN

Age on opening day 2025: 21

How acquired: Drafted No. 5 overall in 2022 from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Ranking: No. 21 per MLB Pipeline, No. 19 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2026
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

As the final week of the major league season gets underway, the Nationals took some time this afternoon to honor some of their top minor league players at the conclusion of the season on the farm.

The Nationals today announced the winners of their 2024 minor league awards, with those not already on the major league roster joining the team in D.C. for a pregame ceremony before the series opener against the Royals:

* Hitter of the Year – Dylan Crews
* Pitcher of the Year – Travis Sykora
* Defensive Player of the Year – Elijah Green
* Baserunner of the Year – Darren Baker
* Nationals Way Award – Daylen Lile and Brad Lord

Although Crews, 22, is currently playing every day with the Nationals, the top prospect in the sport, per MLB Pipeline, had a strong season in the minors leading up to his major league promotion.

He finished his 2024 minor league campaign hitting .270 with 21 doubles, six triples, 13 home runs, 68 RBIs, 36 walks, 25 stolen bases and 60 runs scored in 100 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester. He ranked in the top four in Washington’s system in extra-base hits (second, 40), triples (second), slugging percentage (third, .451), OPS (third, .793), RBIs (third), doubles (tied for third), home runs (fourth), average (fourth) and stolen bases (tied for fourth) prior to his big league call-up on Aug. 26.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The Nationals have a plethora of top outfield prospects getting closer to the major leagues.

Top prospect James Wood just rejoined Triple-A Rochester’s roster after a three-week stint on the injured list. And he’s now reunited with the Nats’ No. 2 prospect Dylan Crews, who just earned his first promotion to Triple-A and hit his first home run with Rochester in his second game.

Robert Hassell III remains at Double-A Harrisburg, where he finds himself on the IL after a strong start to the season. And Daylen Lile has moved up from High-A Wilmington to get his first taste of Double-A ball.

But there is another top outfield prospect that may seem like he’s getting left behind.

Elijah Green still finds himself at Single-A Fredericksburg, unable to yet move out of the lower levels of the minor leagues now in his second full season in the Nats system.

After making a point to keep a group of their top prospects together in the minors late last season and throughout big league camp this spring, the Nationals have split those players up to begin 2024.

James Wood, Trey Lipscomb, Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell III, Brady House and Yohandy Morales all finished the 2023 season with Double-A Harrisburg, an arrangement that allowed all to get comfortable playing with each other and to grow together on their eventual path to D.C.

But as the 2024 minor league season was set to begin, Wood and Lipscomb were bumped up to Triple-A Rochester, while the others all were re-assigned to Double-A for the time being.

Lipscomb, of course, never even played a game at Triple-A, promoted to make his major league debut after Nationals third baseman Nick Senzel fractured his right thumb during fielding drills prior to Thursday’s season opener in Cincinnati.

So it’s Wood all alone among the prospects in Rochester, though there are several other intriguing names playing for the Red Wings to begin the season.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Joan Adon is back at Nationals spring training competing for a spot in the major league rotation.

His locker in the clubhouse is next to the regular starters. He’s being stretched out as a starter. And he works out with the other starters.

Even so, there is hardly an expectation when the Nats break camp for the regular season that Adon will be on the flight to Cincinnati for Opening Day. But he’s still getting a fair shot at it.

Adon took a positive step forward in his camp with three shutout innings in the Nats’ 7-3 win over the Twins at Hammond Field.

After mixed results in his first two Grapefruit League appearances, both of which came out of the bullpen, the 25-year-old right-hander finally made his first start of the spring. He only gave up two hits and one walk while being efficient with his five-pitch mix, throwing 40 pitches, 27 for strikes.

WEST PALM BEACH – Let’s try this again, shall we?

After yesterday’s rainout against the Marlins, the Nationals return to CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches to face the other team from Jupiter: the Cardinals.

Trevor Williams’ spring debut was supposed to be yesterday, but the Nationals pushed it back to today after he reported to camp late after the birth of his fifth child and scheduled Zach Davies to start instead. This will be Williams’ first Grapefruit League appearance this spring as he attempts to hold onto his spot in the Nationals rotation.

With Davies, Jake Irvin, Jackson Rutledge and Joan Adon also fighting for the fourth and fifth spots and already removed from their spring debuts, Williams will have to impress every chance he gets in order to stick in the rotation. Otherwise, he could be headed to the bullpen as a swing man, which he did to mixed results with the Cubs and Mets from 2021-22.

Being that it’s his first outing, the right-hander will likely be limited to one or two innings and 20-30 pitches. Tanner Rainey, Richard Bleier, Robert Gsellman and Derek Law are among the pitchers listed to follow Williams out of the bullpen.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As the Nationals enter their fourth week of spring training, the minor league side of camp officially gets underway in the coming days.

Around 50 minor league players have already been in West Palm Beach over the past couple of weeks. All pitchers and catchers officially reported Saturday and the rest of the position players are set to show up in the coming days.

On Friday, Davey Martinez decided to bring some of the minor league guys over to major league camp to participate in drills with their veteran teammates.

“We're gonna bring them over and let them work out with us today,” the big league manager said. “I just wanted to get some of these young kids with us and let them go through the programs.”

On the first backfield at the complex, major league infielders were practicing running down baserunners caught in the basepaths. Who were they chasing? Minor leaguers wearing red workout T-shirts and batting helmets.

The Nationals took one step closer to the start of spring training yesterday by announcing the first round of non-roster invitations to major league camp.

The first batch of invites includes top prospects Dylan Crews (No. 1 in Nats system per Baseball America), James Wood (No. 2), Brady House (No. 3), Robert Hassell III (No. 7), Trey Lipscomb (No. 16) and Darren Baker (No. 28), all of whom will be attending their first big league spring training.

Other non-roster players invited yesterday include outfielder Travis Blankenhorn, first baseman Lewin Diaz, left-hander Joe La Sorsa, catcher Brady Lindsly and first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez.

Two weeks from today, Nationals pitchers and catchers will hold their first workout to start the 2024 campaign at the team’s facility in West Palm Beach. Six days later the first full-squad workout will take place.

As general manager Mike Rizzo looks to fill out the roster before the team convenes in a few weeks, which top prospects just missed out on a major league camp invite?

There is only so much offseason content to put out with a month left to go before the start of spring training, but some major publications are starting to roll out some preseason topics.

Among those, Baseball America released its latest top 100 prospects list Wednesday morning with some familiar names from the Nationals making the cut.

Outfielder Dylan Crews was ranked as the No. 6 overall prospect in the sport by Baseball America’s staff, with outfielder James Wood coming in at No. 11 and third baseman Brady House at No. 55.

For these preseason rankings, the publication puts together the list of players based on “their long-term MLB impact.”

It’s no surprise that Crews was the highest ranked Nationals prospect after he was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in last summer’s draft after winning a national championship and the Golden Spikes Award with LSU. He entered the draft as the consensus top ranked position player.

When the Nationals selected outfielder Elijah Green with the fifth-overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, it was thought to be a steal for the rebuilding club.

How did MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 draft prospect fall to the Nats at No. 5? This would be the second year in a row one of the top high school bats seemingly slipped to the Nats after Brady House fell to them at No. 11 overall in the previous summer’s draft.

After posting a .939 OPS with four doubles, two homers and nine RBIs in 12 Rookie-level Florida Complex League games last year, we got the first glimpse of what Green brings to the table during his 75 games at Single-A Fredericksburg this year. And we potentially saw why four teams passed on him in the 2022 draft that made him available to the Nats at No. 5.

Green, who just turned 20 this last week, flashed his athletic skill set that made him a top draft prospect. He is an elite, yet raw athlete with speed, power and a strong arm. Per MLB Pipeline, his power (60), run (70), arm (60) and field (60) are all above average on a 20-80 grading scale.

He stole 30 bases in 35 attempts with the FredNats while also posting a .982 fielding percentage in 607 innings in center field.

Last month, the Nationals promoted longtime front office staffer Eddie Longosz to vice president and assistant general manager of player development and administration after spending the last 13 years in the club’s scouting department, most recently as the director of scouting operations for the last eight.

Before the promotion, Longosz, a D.C. native, assisted general manager Mike Rizzo on all aspects of the organization's amateur, professional and international scouting operations.

That means he is now in charge of developing the players in the Nats’ farm system that he helped scout and draft.

The upper echelon of the farm system is now loaded, especially with position players, thanks to high draft picks, numerous trades and impressive international signings over the last three years, all with Longosz’s input.

At the top of the board is top prospect Dylan Crews, this year’s No. 2 overall draft pick, reigning national champion from LSU and Golden Spikes Award winner. The other recent first-round picks include third baseman and No. 3 prospect Brady House (No. 11 overall pick in 2021) and outfielder and No. 5 prospect Elijah Green (No. 5 overall pick in 2022).

PROSPECT REVIEW: ELIJAH GREEN

Age on opening day 2024: 20

How acquired: Drafted No. 5 overall in 2022 from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Ranking: No. 5 per MLB Pipeline, No. 5 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2026
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

We are just minutes before the trade deadline, and although the Nationals have made a few roster moves this afternoon, none of them have been in the form of a trade like last night’s deal of Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs for two prospects.

This afternoon the Nats announced they recalled infielder Jake Alu from Triple-A Rochester to take Candelario’s spot on the active roster.

“I was excited,” Alu said back in the Nats clubhouse. “I kind of understood the scenario of everything. Like I said, I was playing baseball just one day at a time and kind of just staying focused as much as I could. That's kind of how I went about it.”

This marks Alu’s fourth major league stint this season. He has appeared in five games, going 3-for-14 (.214) with one walk and one stolen base with the Nats.

On the farm, Alu, 26, has been having another strong season. He's tied for first among Nationals farmhands with 22 doubles and ranks in the system in hits (third, 90), runs (fifth, 48), batting average (sixth, .293), OPS (seventh, .777), RBIs (tied for seventh, 43), slugging percentage (eighth, .420) extra-base hits (eighth, 28) and on-base percentage (10th, .357).

CHICAGO – Brady House’s double-promotion in the last month from Single-A Fredericksburg to High-A Wilmington to Double-A Harrisburg was an aggressive one, Mike Rizzo readily admits. But the Nationals general manager believes the 2021 first-round pick can handle that jump, and didn’t hesitate to make the move earlier today.

“We just thought he was ready,” Rizzo said. “We’re going to challenge him to the next level, and we’ll see how he does. No expectations. It’s an aggressive level for him.”

House, the 11th overall pick two summers ago from Winder-Barrow (Ga.) High School, has enjoyed a major bounceback season after spending much of 2022 on the injured list dealing with a nagging back ailment. The organization had him return to Fredericksburg to begin the season, but promoted him to Wilmington one month ago and then watched him continue to perform at a high level.

House posted a .908 OPS in 16 games at High-A, even better than the .869 mark he produced in 36 games at Single-A. He also took well to his position switch from shortstop third base, all of which convinced the Nationals he was ready for another jump so soon.

“With the transformation over to third base, I think he feels very comfortable defensively,” Rizzo said. “And he’s done so well offensively, we felt he was going to end the season at Double-A anyway in our minds. So when he was performing so well, we thought: ‘He’s performing well. We’ll get him to Double-A, since he’s going there anyways.’”

James Wood and Elijah Green can’t hide in the Nationals clubhouse. With lockers in the back of the oval-shaped room among the veteran position players, the towering prospects already look like they belong on a major league team.

Their pedigrees – Wood as one of the players the Nats received for Juan Soto who shot up prospect rankings over the offseason and Green as the No. 5 overall pick in last summer’s draft – say they’ll be on the major league roster soon. But their limited professional experience – Wood hasn’t reached High-A and Green hasn’t made his Singe-A debut – say they’re still a ways away.

Nevertheless, the Nationals obviously hold them in high regard. They headlined a group of six prospects the team brought with them from Florida to D.C. for Tuesday’s exhibition game against the Yankees. As the Nats broke camp, two of their top prospects got to experience life in the big leagues if only for one day.

“Having Elijah and Wood here is kind of nice to get to see the facility and stuff,” manager Davey Martinez said.

With the major league season kicking off tomorrow, Wood and Green will rejoin their minor league teammates for another week of camp before their minor league seasons start. Green knows he’ll start the season at Single-A Fredericksburg, but Wood has yet to be told where he’ll report, presumably High-A Wilmington after hitting .293 in 21 games with the FredNats to end last year.

In the final spring tuneup before Opening Day on Thursday, two starting pitchers made their first appearances as members of the home team at Nationals Park this afternoon.

Trevor Williams, who signed a two-year, $13 million contract this offseason, and MacKenzie Gore, one of the top prospects acquired from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade last summer, made their Nationals debuts on South Capitol Street during a 3-0 exhibition win over the Yankees in front of 13,012 fans.

The plan for both was to pitch three innings and throw about 50 pitches. But Williams, who had a strong spring, was so efficient, he was able to go out and complete a fourth frame, allowing just one hit, two walks and a hit batter with a strikeout of Aaron Judge and a pickoff at second base on 52 pitches, 30 strikes, over a scoreless outing.

“It was good to complete four. We were shooting for about 50 pitches,” Williams said. “So to get up there, get four ups and have some clean innings was good. It's nice to pitch in a big league atmosphere, a big league stadium. It was a fun first date wearing a white jersey here or white pants here. I took a minute to kind of look around the ballpark from a different angle today and I can't wait to get the regular season started.”

Williams has actually made five appearances (three starts) at Nats Park while being a member of the Pirates and Mets over his seven-year career. But his first appearance with the Nationals, one that still doesn’t officially count, was still about getting ready for when it actually matters.

With just one more exhibition game against the Yankees this afternoon, eyes are starting to look ahead to the start of the regular season against the Braves on Thursday.

We’ve figured for some time how the Nationals rotation would be lined up to start the season: Patrick Corbin was officially announced as the Opening Day starter on Friday, with Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl (replacing the injured Cade Cavalli) seemingly following suit.

Manager Davey Martinez, keeping his cards close to his chest, confirmed Corbin will get the ball for Opening Day on Thursday and Gray will start the second game of the season Saturday.

“I know who's going to start on Thursday,” Martinez said with a grin during his first pregame meeting with the media back in the press conference room at Nationals Park. “I can tell you Gray will start the second game.”

Williams and Gore are both scheduled to pitch three innings today, with the right-hander getting the start based solely on his veteran status. That means they will both be in line to pitch Sunday for the series finale against the Braves.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – At an earlier point in his career, Trevor Williams might have viewed the top of the third this afternoon at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in a much different light. The Astros had just scored three runs off him, one via homer but the rest via groundball singles in which Nationals infielders were unable to make the plays necessary to record three outs.

That left Williams with the kind of unsightly final line – three earned runs, seven hits in 4 2/3 innings – that would’ve bothered him in the past. At this stage of his career, with a two-year contract and a secured spot in the Nats’ Opening Day rotation, he understood the process of that inning (a bunch of ground balls) mattered more than the results.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “I executed the pitches I wanted to execute. … Results are results. Thankfully, I have a spot on the team, so I don’t have to necessarily read too much into results. It’s more making sure I’m ready to go once the season starts.”

Williams believes he took an important step toward that ultimate goal this afternoon when he became the first member of the Nationals rotation this spring to reach the fifth inning. He did so despite an elevated pitch count that stood at 60 after the third, retiring the last five Astros batters he faced on a mere 14 pitches.

It was a strong finish to what briefly looked like a rough outing, even if it wasn’t all Williams’ fault. He did serve up a leadoff homer to Houston minor leaguer Grae Kessinger to open the third, but then induced six consecutive ground balls, the first four of which did not result in any outs, the fifth of which resulted in only one out, the last of which finally resulted in an inning-ending double play.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Position players officially reported for spring training today, and everyone was present and accounted for. Most guys had already been trickling in over the last few days, but now the entire roster is in place for good.

The first official full-squad workout is set for Tuesday morning, but all of the position players made a point to take the fields for an informal round of batting practice and defensive work. Their manager couldn’t help but notice how they looked.

“Did you watch our infield today,” Davey Martinez asked as he sat down for his daily media session. “Woooo. Man, they were moving the ball quick. We talked this winter about how it’s a quick game. Move your feet, get rid of the ball under control. Man, I was excited to see what I saw today. Double plays were crisp. They’re moving their feet. Backhands. Everything. There was good chatter, a lot of energy. It was fun to watch. I got a little excited. Hairs stood up a little bit.”

The defensive drill had the projected infield all together for the first time, with newcomers Dominic Smith (first base) and Jeimer Candelario (third base) joining the returning middle infield duo of CJ Abrams (shortstop) and Luis García (second base). For now, utility infielders Ildemaro Vargas and Jake Alu are at second base, though Martinez said both will bounce around to other positions throughout the spring.

Also bouncing around positions is Joey Meneses, whose primary job this season will be to continue hitting like he did in August and September (.930 OPS, tied with Manny Machado for tops among all qualifying National League batters). Meneses will serve as designated hitter many nights, but he’ll also get time at first base and in left field, according to Martinez.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As the 67 players in big league camp retreat to the clubhouse following their daily workout here, they pass by another group of players in Nationals uniforms. They are younger, less experienced, though not necessarily less noticeable.

The organization’s top prospects who reported early for spring training ahead of the rank-and-file minor leaguers who will arrive in a few weeks are a physically impressive group. This is particularly obvious in the outfield, where James Wood, Robert Hassell III, Elijah Green and Cristhian Vaquero strike an imposing presence.

Add Jeremy De La Rosa (already in major league camp after he was added to the 40-man roster over the winter) to the mix, and the Nationals have every reason to believe they’ve got at least three future outfield studs in their farm system right now.

For these young players, the opportunity to work out alongside each other this spring is superseded only by the possibility of playing alongside each other in D.C. someday down the road.

“It’s exciting, for sure,” the 6-foot-7 Wood said Sunday. “I just want to get up there and keep doing my thing. And hopefully that becomes reality pretty soon.”