Surprising Youngster Tabbed as Nationals' Breakout Prospect of the Year
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The future looks bright for the Washington Nationals.
While it could still take a while for that to be realized on a grand scale, the major league roster is full of ascending stars while their pipeline is in the midst of a full-on resurgence led by a front office that is determined to get the best out of every young player they have on their farm system.
From Eli Willits to Devin Fitz-Gerald. From Jarlin Susana to Travis Sykora. And from Seaver King to Chris Hacopian and others, the Nationals have a pipeline that is filled with high-upside prospects who look like they will be the next crop of elite players for this franchise.
But was there someone in particular who broke out this season? According to MLB Pipeline, it was infielder Ronny Cruz.
Ronny Cruz Considered Nationals' Breakout Prospect of the Year
At the beginning of the season, it was hard to argue with this pick.
Cruz got off to a red-hot start, as he slashed .333/.460/.627 across his first 14 games with Single-A Fredericksburg with three home runs, four doubles, a triple, 14 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. That caused him to be a massive riser in prospect rankings, and it prompted Washington to promote him to High-A Wilmington.
At that level, he ran into some trouble, though. His aggressive-swinging nature caught up to him. He was striking out a ton while struggling to put the ball in play, and his projection to the upper level of the minors and eventually the majors wasn't clear.
However, Cruz was able to rebound to close out the season. He finished on a high note with just a 16.7% strikeout rate across his final 24 games, and he combined that with a slugging percentage of .511 during that same span. Because of that, MLB Pipeline is still high on what the No. 7-ranked prospect for Washington can become in his career.
"Entering his age-20 season, Cruz still has Top 100 potential with his power-speed combination, and after being ranked No. 25 to start his age-19 season, he's trending back toward prominence in an emerging Nats system," they wrote.
The emergence of Cruz was a huge boost for this farm system. When the Nationals acquired him in the Michael Soroka deal last year, he was the long-term project in the return package that featured outfielder Christian Franklin. No one really had much idea of what to expect out of Cruz, which was why he was ranked towards the bottom of Washington's top 30 prospect coming into the season. So getting this type of performance out of him was massive, and it makes sense why he would be tabbed as their true "breakout" prospect this year since he entered the season as a relative unknown.
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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