If you can remember back to last August right around when Travis Sykora was just beginning to make waves among fans of Minor League Baseball and prospects, you might remember that I compared him to Paul Skenes, who was having one of the best rookie seasons for a pitcher in MLB history. It seemed admittedly lofty at the time, but it was just because I was so sure about the upside of Sykora that I was willing to go all-in on his potential.
Fast forward about 10 months later, and it's easy to see why Sykora is getting so much hype. So far in his professional career, he has looked so utterly dominant to the point that he might legitimately already be pushing for a bigger challenge, despite having recently turned 21-years-old. This season, in 6 starts across 3 levels while rehabbing before being promoted to High-A Wilmington, Sykora has an absurd 0.47 ERA and an even more insane 38 strikeouts in just 19.0 innings.
Making it even more impressive is that he has just a 0.47 WHIP, and after 2 starts in High-A, he is already staking his claim for a quick promotion. Following Saturday's start for the Blue Rocks, in which Sykora threw 4.0 shutout innings and allowed just 1 hit, 1 walk, and struck out 6, the hype around him is continuing to grow online, with some prospect writers even calling him the best pitching prospect in all of baseball.
This is extremely high praise for Sykora, but he deserves absolutely all of it. In the start before his last one, his debut one at the High-A level, Sykora pitched 4.0 scoreless,allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk, while striking out 9 batters. The sample size is small, but this is just more of the same when it comes to what we've seen from him in his professional career, and at the rate he's going he might be moved up to AA Harrisburg by the end of the summer.
Sykora in his professional career has made 26 starts, pitching in 104.0 innings, and has a 5-3 reocrd, 1.99 ERA, and an absurd 0.83 WHIP. His swing-and-miss stuff has been genuinely amazing, with a 167:32 K:BB ratio, as his command of the strike zone has been incredible to watch.
There is a reason why he is the #1 prospect in the organization, and by the time MLB Pipeline redoes their rankings later this season, he should easily be a consensus Top 50 prospect in all of baseball, as he sits at #62 overall right now.
While the Nationals have produced a lot of useful rotation arms that they drafted and developed like Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker, Cole Henry, and others, they have yet to really develop a true ace outside of MacKenzie Gore, who of course was drafted by the Padres. Sykora has the chance to not only be the next ace of the Nationals, but potentially also one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, if he can continue to look this good.
Obviously he still has a long way to go before reaching the big leagues, but at the rate is going, I would not be surprised if he gets called up some time late in 2026, and has a Stephen Strasburg-esque big league debut at Nationals Park. If Sykora ends up being anywhere close to the level of pitcher Skenes is, you'll always have to remember that I was the first one to call it, mostly because you won't hear the end of me bragging about it.
What do you think of Travis Sykora so far? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.