PROSPECT REVIEW: KEVIN MADE

Age on opening day 2024: 21

How acquired: Traded with DJ Herz from Cubs for Jeimer Candelario and cash in July 2023; originally signed as international free agent by Cubs from Dominican Republic, July 2019

Ranking: No. 15 per MLB Pipeline, NR per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: JEREMY DE LA ROSA

Age on opening day 2024: 22

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2018

Ranking: No. 17 per MLB Pipeline, No. 13 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: TREY LIPSCOMB

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Drafted in third round in 2022 from the University of Tennessee

Ranking: No. 14 per MLB Pipeline, No. 15 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: CRISTHIAN VAQUERO

Age on opening day 2024: 19

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, January 2022

Ranking: No. 9 per MLB Pipeline, No. 9 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2027
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: YOHANDY MORALES

Age on opening day 2024: 22

How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2023 from the University of Miami (FL)

Ranking: No. 7 per MLB Pipeline, No. 8 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2026
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: DAYLEN LILE

Age on opening day 2024: 21

How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2021 from Trinity High School in Louisville, Ky.

Ranking: No. 6 per MLB Pipeline, No. 14 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

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

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

PROSPECT REVIEW: BRADY HOUSE

Age on opening day 2024: 20

How acquired: Drafted No. 11 overall in 2021 from Winder-Barrow High School in Winder, Ga.

Ranking: No. 3 (No. 40 overall) per MLB Pipeline, No. 3 (No. 56 overall) per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: JAMES WOOD

Age on opening day 2024: 21

How acquired: Traded with MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III, Jarlin Susana and Luke Voit from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell in August 2022; originally drafted in second round by Padres in 2021 from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Ranking: No. 2 (No. 7 overall) per MLB Pipeline, No. 2 (No. 7 overall) per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: DYLAN CREWS

Age on opening day 2024: 22

How acquired: Drafted No. 2 overall in 2023 from LSU

Ranking: No. 1 (No. 4 overall) per MLB Pipeline, No. 1 (No. 3 overall) per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

Now that the 2023 season is a wrap, we’ve taken broad looks at the year that was for the Nationals. Individual player reviews will start coming out on a daily basis this week, with Mark Zuckerman handling the major league roster and me taking a look at some of the top prospects.

But before we take a deeper dive into each player's performance, I wanted to have one overarching view of the minor league system in the form of a fun exercise.

Overall, the Nats’ minor league system did not fare too well this year in terms of win-loss records. The Dominican Summer League Nationals finished 11-39, the Florida Complex League Nationals 24-25, Single-A Fredericksburg 65-63, High-A Wilmington 55-75, Double-A Harrisburg 59-77 and Triple-A Rochester 66-80.

But among those results, there were some really strong individual performances.

“The best part of the minor league season was that all the players that we really were looking forward to take a step forward, we believe have,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “We think that was a success in that regard.”

Nationals' general manager Mike Rizzo likes to create competition.

It’s something he talks about every spring training. Whether it’s bringing in an experienced veteran, a struggling journeyman or a rising prospect, the longtime GM has always believed the more competition the better,

He has brought that philosophy to the minor league farm system, as well, adding an influx of young talent over the past couple of years through the draft, trades and international free agent market.

Looking at the Nationals’ top 16 prospects per MLB Pipeline, 10 were drafted by the organization, five were acquired via trade and one was signed as an international free agent. Eight of them at one point played at Double-A Harrisburg, a handful of them together for an extended period of time.

“It's been good. Really just creating competition between those affiliates, like within the affiliates,” said Jackson Rutledge, who made his first 12 starts of the season with Harrisburg before eventually making his major league debut with the Nats two weeks ago. “Even in Harrisburg when we were there, we had so much talent there it was like guys were competing to see who was going to be the dude that week. And that changed from time to time. And I think that's always positive just to have internal competition in a healthy way. And I think we have that. Certainly, a lot of the pitching staffs I've been on there's been a 'Who's gonna be the top guy' sort of competition and I think that just creates a good training environment, a good competition environment. Something that's gonna be good for us.”

As we get closer to the end of the season, a new season is upon us: award season.

The Nationals kicked things off yesterday by announcing their 2023 Minor League Award winners:

* Hitter of the Year – James Wood
* Pitcher of the Year – Andrew Alvarez
* Defensive Player of the Year – Trey Lipscomb
* Baserunner of the Year – Johnathon Thomas
* Nationals Way Award – Jacob Young

Wood, 21, led the Nats’ minor league system in most offensive categories by setting a lot of career highs: first in home runs (26), RBIs (91) and slugging percentage (.520); second in OPS (.873), doubles (28) and triples (eight); and third in hits (124).

The Nats’ No. 2 prospect per MLB Pipeline and Baseball America finished the season slashing .262/.353/.520 with 28 doubles, eight triples, 26 home runs, 91 RBIs, 65 walks, 18 stolen bases and 80 runs scored in 129 games between High-A Wilmington and Double-A Harrisburg.

MIAMI – Jacob Young wasn’t in the minor leagues for too long before finally getting the call to the major leagues.

The 2021 seventh-round pick out of the University of Florida played 26 games at Single-A Fredericksburg the year he was drafted by the Nationals. He spent all of last year with the FredNats, slashing .262/.360/.331 with a .691 OPS, 118 runs, 52 stolen bases in 59 attempts and 152 total bases on his way to being named the Nationals’ 2022 Minor League Base Runner of the Year.

Young was one of two players in all of Minor League Baseball to steal at least 50 bases and score at least 100 runs in 2022. His 118 runs scored were tied for the most in all of the minor leagues, while his 52 stolen bases were the most among Nationals minor leaguers.

The 24-year-old started this season at High-A Wilmington, where he hit .307 and stole 22 bags in 56 games. That earned him a promotion to Double-A Harrisburg, where he hit .304 with an .805 OPS and 17 stolen bases in 52 games.

Even with top prospects James Wood and Robert Hassell III patrolling the Senators outfield with him, Young was still the standout prospect in Harrisburg.

It was a race against time. We knew last week was the perfect opportunity to go see Dylan Crews.

The No. 2 overall pick was either going to be playing about an hour south of D.C. at Virginia Credit Union Stadium with Single-A Fredericksburg or about an hour and half north at Ripken Stadium, where High-A Wilmington was facing the Aberdeen IronBirds (Orioles).

Either way, last week was probably going to be our best chance to see the Nationals’ newest top prospect play locally before he possibly moved two-plus hours away to Double-A Harrisburg, who don’t come back to the area to play the Bowie Baysox (Orioles) anymore this year, or even 6 ½ hours away to Triple-A Rochester before the end of the minor league season.

So Amy Jennings and I considered ourselves lucky when “MASN All Access” arrived in Fredericksburg last week and Crews was still there wearing FredNats gear.

“It's all kind of happening so fast, honestly,” Crews said of the weeks leading up to his first taste of professional baseball. “From the national championship to getting drafted and having to go to Florida for training for a little bit and then getting promoted here. It's an awesome feeling. But it's been hard to kind of soak everything in. It's just been one just fun ride for these past few weeks.”

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – As they showcase themselves before a national audience for the first time this season, the Nationals are moving their top picks from this summer’s draft a step closer to the big league stage, including a big jump for their No. 1 prospect.

The Nats are promoting outfielder Dylan Crews to Double-A Harrisburg, a source familiar with the decision confirmed, after the No. 2 overall pick dominated at Single-A Fredericksburg in his professional debut.

Crews hit a robust .351 with five homers, 24 RBIs and a 1.073 OPS in only 13 games with Fredericksburg, proving more than capable of competing at that level only months after he led LSU to the College World Series title.

The fact the Nationals are bumping Crews up to Double-A, skipping the High-A level altogether, underscores how advanced they believe he is, not to mention how soon they believe the 21-year-old could be big league ready.

Crews will join a Harrisburg lineup already loaded with top prospects, including outfielders James Wood and Robert Hassell III and third baseman Brady House.

Cole Henry has had a long road in front of him. Ever since he decided to undergo surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome last August, he has faced an uphill climb to get his career back on track.

All things considered, it’s been so far, so good for the Nationals’ No. 12 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

Thoracic outlet syndrome surgery has a negative stigma surrounding it in baseball, especially here in Washington as it derailed the careers of Stephen Strasburg and Will Harris.

Granted, those pitchers were older than the now 24-year-old Henry was when they had their surgeries. But any procedure in which a rib and a neck muscle are removed would come with tales of caution.

But Henry is on the path to being a success story having been able to report to spring training just six months after his own surgery and pitching in minor league games three months after that.

Dylan Crews will soon arrive at the Nationals’ spring training facility in West Palm Beach and start getting acclimated to his new organization. It will be a two-way street of him getting to know his new coaches and the coaches getting to know their new player.

Someone who already knows Crews well as a player and as a person is his college coach: LSU head coach Jay Johnson.

Johnson, who attended Crews’ introductory press conference on Saturday donning a purple sports coat, was beaming while talking about the second of his former players who went Nos. 1-2 overall in this year’s draft.

“I think it’s the combination (of) that's an elite player, that’s an elite person,” Johnson said of Crews to a group of gathered media members at the conclusion of the press conference. “I think if you stack up his three seasons of college performance, you’d be hard pressed to find anybody any better. But there’s this humility that he plays with, this edge that he plays with, this ability to lift everybody up and make everybody else around him better on top of these baseball tools that show up every single day to help his team win. I mean, it’s a truly special player. After not going number one, there was really no decision, probably, for Washington to select him.”

Johnson’s first head coaching job came in 2014 at the University of Nevada. After two seasons with the Wolfpack, he accepted the gig at the University of Arizona, where he coached for six seasons before leaving to become the head coach at LSU in 2021.

It was another monumental day for the Nationals franchise and its future.

After making the signing official, the organization officially introduced No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews as its latest highly touted prospect.

“Another exciting day here at Nationals Park,” said general manager Mike Rizzo to begin the introductory press conference in front of members of the Lerner family, Crews family and local media. “Over the years that I've been here, we've been here many times and few occasions can match the excitement that we have today. To get into the organization one of the most decorated, accomplished, winning-type of players in collegiate history to join the Washington Nationals is a special occasion for us.

The Nationals made the LSU outfielder the No. 2 selection of the 2023 MLB Draft two weeks ago. Crews reportedly signed a deal worth $9 million, the highest ever given to a position player in the bonus slot era of the draft. His college teammate, Paul Skenes, set the overall record with a $9.2 million bonus as the Pirates’ No. 1 overall pick.

Jim Callis of MLB.com reported the final number.