Recent Scouting Report on Nationals Top Prospect Devin Fitz-Gerald Was Not Positive
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When the Washington Nationals traded MacKenize Gore to the Texas Rangers this past offseason, the headliner of their return package was 2025 first-round pick Gavin Fien.
The talented prep player was seen as having a high ceiling, so landing him to pair with 2025 No. 1 overall pick Eli Willits was considered to be a huge development for this franchise. However, there were other pieces of that package that this front office liked, and someone who was rumored to be a preferred target was infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald.
To start this year, he showed why he was coveted by president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and this front office. He had an incredible eight home runs during a 10-game road trip, and that caused the Nationals to move him up from High-A to Double-A. But unfortunately, Fitz-Gerald has cooled off in a major way, and the most recent scouting report from Keith Law of The Athletic (subscription required) was not a positive one.
Devin Fitz-Gerald Might Have to Reset His Entire Swing
"... he's swinging much more uphill now than he was at the start of the year, which is producing more swing-and-miss without more production to balance it out," Law wrote. "It's like watching a completely different player from the one I saw in April. ... I think he needs to reset his swing and approach to where he was before that fateful road trip, focusing on hard contact wherever it goes rather than trying to lift and pull everything."
There are certainly growing pains that are taking place right now when it comes to Fitz-Gerald, as the 21-year-old entered Thursday with a .221/.295/.308 slash line with Double-A Harrisburg. He's also hit just four homers with five doubles and 16 RBIs through 50 games, while he's drawn 15 walks compared to being struck out 57 times.
Those numbers are a far cry from what he did with High-A Wilmington. Across 51 games at that level, he slashed .267/.373/.530 with 12 homers, 11 doubles, three triples and 37 RBIs. He also had 30 walks to 42 strikeouts, which shows he was much more in control at the plate.
Fitz-Gerald still has the ceiling to become a difference maker in the bigs. The fifth-round pick from the 2024 draft is ranked No. 5 in Washington's improved farm system, and while MLB Pipeline doesn't consider him to be a top 100 prospect in the sport, some evaluators do. And based on what he did to start this season, it's easy to see why that's the case.
But he needs to get things figured out offensively. Whether that is a full swing reset like Law suggested or something else entirely, Fitz-Gerald is far too talented to be performing in the way he has, even if he's playing at an advanced level of competition during the early stages of his career.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai