Top prospects are getting early work, plenty of attention
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — At one point Saturday afternoon, James Wood, Elijah Green and Brady House took batting practice simultaneously, their thwacks almost reaching unison.
Wood, a 20-year-old outfielder and the Washington Nationals’ consensus top prospect, pulled liners into the right-center gap. Green, a 19-year-old outfielder and the fifth pick in last summer’s draft, shot a few over the fence. House, 19 and the 11th pick two summers ago, swung at full strength, an important step after he missed most of 2022 with lower-back issues.
A few members of the front office positioned themselves so they could watch each player hit. It was hard to blame them.
“It’s the best group of upside players we’ve ever had here,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said a day before. “I’ve been here since Day One. I’ve never seen it like this before.”
Sure, part of Rizzo’s job is to sell an optimistic view of the team’s future — especially after it followed a third consecutive last-place finish with limited spending in free agency. And, yes, the farm system’s sharp improvement was driven by trading Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Max Scherzer, among many others, within three years of winning the World Series. But Wood, Green and House are intriguing young players, as are outfielders Robert Hassell III and Cuba native Cristhian Vaquero. Most of them are also very large.
A club official called Green “The Monster” after he sent a homer far up the netting behind one field. Another said, “We have a bunch of tight ends in the outfield.” Green is listed at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds. Wood stands 6-7. House, who recently moved from shortstop to third base, is 6-4. Vaquero, 18 and playing in the United States for the first time, is 6-3 and the most wiry of the group. Hassell is listed at 6-2 and is back to full strength after offseason surgery for a broken hamate bone in his right hand.
When Rizzo first saw reporters Thursday,
he fielded congratulations for his newborn son — Santino “Sonny” Rizzo — then suggested everyone “spread out” in the afternoons and see as many minor leaguers as possible. It is true that, in the bigger picture, what happens in the afternoons these days is far more consequential than what happens in the mornings, when the Nationals are holding major league camp.
That’s generally how it should be for a rebuilding club.
These minor league workouts are part of an extended early camp, which compensated for instructional league play being shortened by weather in September. All pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report March 1, then the rest of the system by March 7.
“It’s exciting for sure,” Wood said of possibly one day making the majors with Hassell, Green and CJ Abrams, who was Washington’s shortstop for the final six weeks of last
season. “I just want to get up there and keep doing my thing. Hopefully that becomes reality pretty soon.”
Here’s what else to know from the first week of Nationals spring training:
Hassell doesn’t feel like surgery slowed him down much.
”Maybe about a month,” he said Sunday. “But when I got back into the groove of things, it didn’t take long . ... The hand felt good from the time they told me I could swing. I took it easy at first. It delayed me a bit, I but don’t feel like I missed any [developmental] steps.”
Abrams arrived Sunday and took live batting practice against Cade Cavalli.
Abrams, 22, is entering his first full season in the majors (and has played in just 204 professional games since he was drafted out of high school in 2019). After joining the Nationals
as part of the package for Soto and Josh Bell, he appeared in 44 games and finished with a .603 OPS.
Drew Millas has a little black sponge in his catcher’s mitt for a little extra protection.
Good thing, too, because left-handed reliever Jose Ferrer was pumping 97-mph fastballs during a live batting practice session Saturday. Afterward, Millas’s left index finger was red and swollen to about three times its usual size. The sponge was a suggestion — no, a requirement — from his mother.
“She was like, ‘You’re going to have that finger amputated if you don’t put something else in there,’ ” Millas said. “That’s a mom for you. She knows best.”
The 25-year-old is trying to push his way into the Nationals’ catching mix. In Millas’s second big league camp with Washington, he is behind Keibert Ruiz, Riley Adams and Israel Pineda, who’s younger but on the 40-man roster.
Millas arrived from the Oakland Athletics in the Yan Gomes/Josh Harrison trade at the 2021 deadline. He battled an oblique strain last spring before his strikeouts spiked (53 in 86 games in 2021; 86 in 88 games in 2022). This winter, Millas trained in St. Louis, Houston and New Jersey, meeting current and former teammates in the latter two cities. Tres Barrera, now with the St. Louis Cardinals, was a hitting partner in Houston. Jake Alu, currently fighting for his own roster spot, hosted Millas in New Jersey. Millas’s main offseason goal was to improve against high fastballs with good vertical break. Behind the plate, he wanted to get better at blocking sliders while moving to his left.
Ferrer spiked a slider during live BP, and Millas sprung to the right-handed batter’s box, picking it clean out of the dirt. He considered that a small victory.