The Washington Nationals might have fallen 5-2 in disappointing fashion to drop a series in Miami at the hands of the Marlins, but Sunday was not all bad news. Elsewhere in the Nationals' organization, good things continued to show themselves, and the new front office is already looking good.
Actually, the one guy that definitely should be making plans to victory lap is Mike DeBartolo, who was the interim GM of the Nationals last year and helped lead the organization through the trade deadline. He also was the one who made the selection of top prospect Eli Willits, who has been an absolute star so far this season after a slightly slow start.
But back to the trade deadline, perhaps his best moment was getting infield prospect Ronny Cruz back from the Chicago Cubs along with Christian Franklin in exchange for Michael Soroka. Obviously hindsight is 20-20, but giving up Franklin and a now Top 100 prospect in Cruz for 8.1 innings of Soroka is definitely a deal Chicago would want a mulligan on.
At the time, Cruz was not as highly-ranked as he is now. In fact, until this weekend, Cruz was still the 25th-ranked prospect in the Nationals system, but he now is up to #6 in the organization, and should continue to climb even higher. As the newest Top 100 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, Cruz saw a massive bump in his value grades as well.
Most notably, Cruz saw his overall prospect score jump from a 45 at the beginning of this year to a 55 now, indicative of the leap that talent evaluators have seen from the 19-year-old infielder. While there are definitely still some things to figure out with his swing as he continues to advance levels, the early returns for him so far have been incredible, and he might just continue to rise.
Since being promoted to High-A Wilmington a few weeks ago, Cruz has already established himself as a problem, and he currently owns a .319/.397/.536 slash line, good for a .933 OPS to go along with 4 homers, 12 RBIs, and 4 stolen bases as well through 17 games and 78 plate appearances. The strikeouts have increased a bit, but that is to be expected when moving up levels. Nonetheless, the inclusion of Cruz now gives the Nationals 6 Top 100 prospects, with potential for even more additions in the near future.
What do you think of Ronny Cruz having his prospect profile get a major bump? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
Add us as a preferred source on Google