Washington Nationals Star Prospect Showcasing Mind-Blowingly Dominant Pitch in Spring
In this story:
The Washington Nationals have endured a lot of losing over the last few years, but the light at the end of the tunnel is moving near.
Their Major League roster is full of high-upside young players making up the foundation to build around for hopefully years to come.
While a lot of the focus has been on positional players, as a majority of their prospects called up in recent years have been sluggers. But, they are certainly not short on exciting young arms, as the next wave includes several of them.
One of the players who is starting to garner attention in spring training is Jarlin Susana.
The youngest player in the return package from the San Diego Padres in the Juan Soto blockbuster is making some noise in camp and Grapefruit League games.
Standing an imposing 6-feet-6 and 235 pounds, he is an intimidating force every time that he takes the mound. It comes as no surprise that he throws the ball with incredible velocity and has been tough to face off against.
Susana has made three appearances thus far in spring, throwing three shutout innings. He has allowed only one hit and has been effectively wild, walking four batters and striking out three.
Turning only 21 years old in March, he is far from a finished product. There is work to do with honing his control, as he has a career 4.6 BB/9 as a professional.
That isn’t going to cut it on his path to the Major Leagues, especially if he is going to remain a starter. But the raw stuff that he possesses is legit, as he has also recorded a K/9 of 12.1 over that same span.
In his most recent outing against the St. Louis Cardinals on Mar. 1, the full Susana experience was on display.
He pitched one inning, walking two batters and striking out one. But it was his numbers shared by Pitch Profiler on X that really garnered a lot of attention.
Susana had a proStuff+ score of 110, a whiff rate of 40.0% and a barrel rate of 0.0%, all above-average to elite numbers.
The pitch that stood out the most during his outing was a sinker, which, based on the numbers, could be the single nastiest pitch anyone is throwing during the spring.
It registered an unheard of 170 proStuff+ score and 100% whiff rate as hitters had no chance of even making contact with it.
He throws that pitch even harder (101.7 mph on average) than his four-seamer, which clocked in at 99.5 mph.
The scariest part about his sinker is that it isn’t a primary pitch for him. He threw his four-seam fastball predominantly and worked in his slider about 5x as often as the sinker.
170 PROSTUFF+ SINKER????? pic.twitter.com/o0KnSooV1p
— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) March 3, 2025
But, that is a ratio that could very well change as he ramps up his preparation for the 2025 campaign, as it may be too good of a pitch to be No. 3 in his arsenal.
With stuff that good, Susana should make his way through the minor league system rapidly, especially if he can improve his control and cut down on the walks.
