Washington Nationals Star-Studded Young Core Climbing up MLB Rankings

The Washington Nationals have a great young group of players that have ground to make up to be among baseball’s best cores.

Jul 13, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Washington Nationals shortstop C.J. Abrams (5) hugs second baseman Luis Garcia (2) after hitting a 2-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers in the ninth inning at American Family Field. / Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Last weekend, the Washington Nationals did something they had never done before — they started seven rookies in a game.

That came about a week after they did something for only the third time in franchise story — start six rookies in a game.

The Nationals are young, but they’re undeniably talented. In a year or two, perhaps three, Washington could be one of the best teams in baseball.

But, for now, in ESPN’s recent player core rankings, the Nationals were listed at No. 25.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were No. 1, followed by the Atlanta Braves and the Baltimore Orioles.

This is the third year ESPN has conducted the rankings. The basic idea is to rank teams based which players they have team control over for the next two seasons. The rankings exclude age and salaries.

The site used WAR (wins above replacement) to rank players as elite (5+ WAR talent, or MVP candidates), plus (3-5 WAR types) and solid (1.5-3 WAR, or lower-end starters and valuable role players).

If there is good news for the Nationals, it’s that they’re slowly moving up in these rankings, though it’s a bit of a crawl. In 2022, Washington was No. 29 and last year they were No. 28.

For the moment, none of their players were ranked as elite, but rookie James Wood — the Nationals’ former No. 1 prospect who was called up in July — was the only player on the plus tier. With just two months under his belt, it isn’t much of a sample size.

The rest of the players listed were on the solid tier, and there were a bunch of Nationals listed — 15 in all. Some have been in the Majors for a while, such as shortstop CJ Abrams and outfielder Jacob Young. Some are young pitchers like D.J. Herz and Mackenzie Gore. Others are prospects who are in the Majors but haven't graduated from those rankings yet, such as outfielder Dylan Crews.

Some minor-league prospects are listed too, including infielder Brady House, pitcher Travis Sykora and infielder Seaver King, who was just taken in July during the MLB draft.

ESPN points out that general manager Mike Rizzo’s emphasis on building a core of young talent is starting to pay off with a critical mass of players who could be stars soon.

“If two of Woods, Crews and Abrams can turn into stars next season, this looks a lot better.”

Washington recently had four players ranked in Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects for September — Crews, House, Jarlin Susana and Sykora.