WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – He’s the forgotten prospect, the one who used to be ranked ahead of James Wood, the one who was touted as one of the best pure hitters in the minor leagues, the one who was supposed to be the first of the bunch to reach the major leagues.

Robert Hassell III lost all of those designations over the last 12 months, a disappointing 2023 season in the wake of a wrist injury suffered the previous fall in Arizona turning him into something of an afterthought for those following the Nationals farm system.

The hype coming into spring training was about Wood and Dylan Crews and Brady House and Cade Cavalli. Hassell no longer showed up on those top-100 prospects lists he used to be all over, deemed by multiple evaluators one of the top 30 prospects in the game.

Perhaps the diminishing luster will be proven accurate, and Hassell will never become the player the Nats hoped they were getting in the Juan Soto trade. But there’s still plenty of time for the 22-year-old to flip the narrative back into his favor. And if his performance in the early portion of spring training is to be taken seriously, he’s already on track do just that.

It began in Saturday night’s Grapefruit League opener. Wood had barely finished rounding the bases on his titanic fifth-inning homer when Hassell followed by driving the very next pitch to left-center for an easy triple. He came back two at-bats later with a single to the same direction, a couple of opposite-field hits that lived up to his longstanding reputation.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Spring training results are a tricky thing to decipher. The final scores of games mean nothing. Individual performances can mean something, but you always have to include the context in which they were achieved.

What, then, to take away from the Nationals’ spring training opener tonight, a 7-4 loss to the Astros that started off in unsightly fashion with starters in the game but then turned far more compelling as a host of young prospects took over?

Patrick Corbin’s laborious start – two runs, three hits, 49 pitches in only 1 2/3 innings – and a pair of shaky defensive plays behind him by Lane Thomas and Victor Robles set an ominous tone for the evening. But by the time James Wood demolished a baseball, Robert Hassell III tripled and singled, Dylan Crews made a diving catch in center field and Jackson Rutledge cruised through two innings on the mound, the events of the second half of the game felt more important than the events of the first half.

“This is going to be a fun spring training,” manager Davey Martinez said. “One, we’ve got to get our guys ready. And two, we’re going to see a lot of these young kids. I get to see them, put eyes on them, and work with them all camp. It keeps me busy, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s a good busy.”

Yes, it’s important for Corbin and Thomas and Robles to prepare for the season, and all three of them will need to execute better than they did tonight. But the 2024 season is probably going to be as much about that next wave of prospects – whenever they arrive in the majors – as it will be about the players returning from last year.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – These early days of spring training are supposed to be reserved for pitchers and catchers. Position players technically don’t report until Tuesday.

Stroll through the Nationals clubhouse, though, or walk around their practice fields, and you can’t help but notice how many position players already are here.

Of the 29 position players invited to big league camp this spring, all but two were on the field today for informal workouts. Only prospects Dylan Crews and Darren Baker have yet to be seen, and if they show up Saturday they’d still be reporting three days early.

This isn’t a byproduct of any message from club officials, subtle or unsubtle. It’s been up to the individual players to arrive at their own preferred pace, and nearly all of them chose to arrive early.

“The message is to make sure they’re ready go for spring training,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I always tell them: Be in shape as if you’re coming in to play a game. And they took it to heart. A lot of them – because the weather’s so good – they came here early and started to work out. When I came here, we already had 15-16 guys working out. I thought that was pretty impressive. I’m happy they’re here. I’m happy they’re working this early.”

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.

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: ROBERT HASSELL III

Age on opening day 2024: 22

How acquired: Traded with MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood, Jarlin Susana and Luke Voit from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell in August 2022; originally drafted No. 8 overall by Padres in 2020 from Independence High School in Thompson’s Station, Tenn.

Ranking: No. 8 per MLB Pipeline, No. 4 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

If you’re of the belief the Nationals could exceed expectations and be a surprise wild card contender next year, you’re probably also of the belief Dylan Crews and James Wood, plus perhaps Brady House and Robert Hassell III, are going to play a big role in the club’s ascension.

That may very well become reality. Any or all of those top prospects could make his major league debut in 2024 and make an immediate impact for a lineup that could use some more thump to go along with CJ Abrams, Keibert Ruiz and Lane Thomas.

But it’s also entirely possible none of that happens. Before any of those prospects can become contributors in D.C., they need to actually make it to D.C. And before any of them can do that, they need to actually have success in the upper levels of the minor leagues.

At this moment, all are underwhelming at Double-A Harrisburg to some extent.

Wood, widely believed to be closest to major-league-ready of this group, has mashed 16 homers and driven in 46 runs in 76 games at Double-A. That’s good. His .223 batting average and .315 on-base percentage are less good. And his 109 strikeouts in 324 plate appearances really aren’t good.