Earlier today, the rosters were selected for this year’s edition of the SiriusXM Futures Game. Every season, the Futures Game gets played two days before the All-Star Game at the All-Star Venue, which this year is the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. This year, the Nationals got two players from their farm system selected to take part in the game on July 12.
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The two representatives for the Washington Nationals will be right-handed pitcher Lucas Giolito and shortstop Trea Turner, who joined the Nats organization a little over a week ago. They will both be on team USA as part of the World vs. USA format, which has taken place since 1999.
Giolito took part in last year’s Futures Game at Target Field in Minnesota. The 20-year-old went 2/3 of an inning and gave up a home run to Cubs prospect Javier Baez, but the US won the game 3-2. This season, Giolito is 2-4 with a 3.71 ERA in eight starts with high-A Potomac. He has 57 strikeouts (tied for seventh in the Carolina League) in 43.2 innings of work. Giolito is starting tonight’s game for Potomac against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Kansas City Royals). He is currently the number one ranked prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.
As for Turner, the 21-year-old shortstop has been in the Nationals system since June 16 after officially being acquired as the player to be named later in the offseason trade that featured Wil Myers and Steven Souza. In ten games with double-A Harrisburg, he hit .359 with four RBI’s after hitting .322 with five home runs and 35 RBI’s for the Padres’ double-A affiliate, the San Antonio Missions.
On the same day that Turner found out he was going to the Futures Game two weeks from Sunday, he also found out he is going to be moving up the ranks in the Nats system. According to James Wagner of the Washington Post, Turner has been promoted to triple-A Syracuse. He is the number three prospect in the Nats system (MLB Pipeline). He will be joining Joe Ross, who was also acquired by the Nationals in that same trade. Ross makes his triple-A debut tonight for the Chiefs.
The United States have won each of the last five Futures Games. You can watch the game on July 12 at 3:00 PM ET on MLB Network and MLB.com. Tony Perez will manage the World team while Ken Griffey Sr. will be the manager of the USA side.