Washington Nationals Have New High-Level Prospect at High-A Wilmington
With the Major League debut of Washington Nationals top prospect Dylan Crews just a couple of days away, the Nats found themselves with a new Top 100 prospect on Saturday.
Pitcher Jarlin Susana, a right-hander with High-A Wilmington, moved into the MLB Pipeline Top 100 after the graduation of San Francisco Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong.
Birdsong, who made his MLB debut earlier this year, had the service time to graduate from the rankings.
Susana joins Crews — who is the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball — third baseman Brady House and pitcher Travis Sykora are the Nats’ other three Top 100 prospects.
Susana, a 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic who is the Nationals’ No. 4 overall prospect, started the season with Class-A Fredericksburg. Combined he is 4-8 with a 4.67 ERA in 21 starts, with 130 strikeouts and 43 walks in 88.1 innings.
The Nats promoted him on July 1 even though his record at Fredericksburg looked awful — 1-7 with a 4.47 ERA. He’s turned it around with Wilmington, where he’s 3-1 with a 5.01 ERA in seven starts.
MLB Pipeline projects him as a 2026 call-up. He’s a fastball/slider pitcher who can reach 103 mph on the radar gun, as the site ranked his fastball as a 70, just below the top scouting score of an 80.
Susana didn’t start his pro career with the Nationals. He signed as an international free agent with the San Diego Padres in 2022, as he received a $1.7 million bonus.
The Padres started him in the U.S. and he posted a 2.45 ERA in eight games with San Diego’s Arizona Complex League rookie team.
The Padres didn’t keep him long. He was part of the return the Nationals received in the Juan Soto trade at the 2022 deadline. The Nationals sent him to their Florida Complex League team for two games before he was promoted to Fredericksburg.
Combined he didn’t figure in a decision, but he finished with a 2.40 ERA in 13 games with 66 strikeouts in 45 innings. It's that high strikeout rate that makes him an intriguing prospect.
He spent all of 2023 with Fredericksburg and went 1-6 with a 5.14 ERA in 17 starts, with 62 strikeouts and 40 walks in 63 innings.
While Crews, the Nationals’ first-round pick in 2023, will debut on Monday after he is formally called up, third baseman Brady House, the Nationals’ No. 2 prospect and MLB’s No. 69 prospect, is with Triple-Rochester.
The Nats’ highest-ranked pitching prospect remains Travis Sykora, last year’s third-round pick, who is also the No. 98 prospect in baseball. He is with Fredericksburg and is projected a 2027 call-up.
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