Nationals Promote Former Superstar Prospect After His Tumultuous Early Career

Cade Cavalli, Brady House, Elijah Green and Dylan Crews. Those were the Washington Nationals' first-round picks from the years 2020-23, respectively.

All of those players have something in common except for Green: they've all made it to The Show.

Some of those timelines are a little unfair when comparing them to Green since he was drafted out of high school. But so was House, and he made his MLB debut in 2025 four years after he was selected. Some fans reading this might not remember who Green was. After all, after he was taken No. 5 overall in the 2022 draft, the furthest he's ever made it up the pipeline was to High-A, where he's spent the entirety of this season.

That is until now. The Nationals announced that the 22-year-old has been promoted to Double-A Harrisburg for the first time in his career, which at least signals there is some upward trajectory for a player who was viewed as a potential superstar when he was drafted.

Elijah Green Still Having Major Issues on the Farm

Washington Nationals prospect Elijah Green | USA TODAY Sports

This promotion isn't necessarily from anything that Green has done on the field, though. Across 90 games with High-A Wilmington, he has slashed .227/.324/.390 with 12 home runs, 28 extra-base hits and 38 RBIs. His biggest issue continues to be what's plagued him throughout his career, as he's been struck out a head-turning 168 times this year to bring his K total to a staggering 672 strikeouts over 372 minor league games.

That is pretty unconscionable. And it's confusing as to why a front office regime -- which didn't draft Green in the first place and seems to be gearing towards clearing out those type of players and prospects throughout the organization -- would be promoting a player with those numbers.

Well, it seems like this player development machine -- which has already had some major success this year -- has had a bit of a breakthrough when it comes to Green.

Player Development Team Trying to Get Elijah Green's Career on Track

Before this promotion, Green slashed .347/.411/.571 across his previous 14 games played. He recorded 17 hits during that span, with two of them being home runs and five of them doubles. He also had seven RBIs with six walks, and he showed off his speed with six stolen bases. Green finished the month of July with a .296/.363/.444 slash line.

It wasn't all positive, however. The 22-year-old still struck out an absurd 40 times across 22 games in July, which has aided in his K rate sitting at a sky-high 44.6% this season.

But the hope is that Green has finally found something at the plate. He was projected to have a high ceiling, with MLB Pipeline even stating that he had "superstar potential" early on in his career when he was considered Washington's No. 3 prospect and was ranked No. 46 overall in the sport in 2023. So there are at least some raw tools the player development staff can work with.

Unfortunately, based on the poor swing decisions and all the swing-and-miss that Green has in his game, it feels like a longshot for him to ever live up to his potential as the No. 5 overall pick. But now that he's been promoted to Double-A, he's starting to move up the farm system.

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