The MLB Draft is one of my favorite things to cover here at Federal Baseball. Every year, there is an infusion of talent coming into pro organizations. It is fun to keep up with that and follow the names in the draft. The draft is not until July, but MLB Pipeline released their first top 100 rankings for the 2026 draft.
Due to the draft rules, the Nationals are locked into the 11th pick this year. That means they likely will not have access to the top ranked guys like Roch Cholowsky and Grady Emerson. However, with a whole spring season to play, it is hard to say who will rise and fall. We are going to look at some intriguing names and talk about their scouting reports.
After selecting high school players with four of their first five picks in the 2025 class, the focus should be on college players this year. College pitching is a demographic I want the Nats to explore early in this upcoming draft. We will brush through a few of the top college players that could be available, as well as one high schooler that stands out.
Since there is only one high schooler to discuss, we will start with him. Tyler Spangler is a high school shortstop who ranks 11th on the Pipeline board. That is exactly where the Nats will be picking, so he is certainly in range.
Spangler is a really well rounded player with a tantalizing hit/power combination. He has a smooth swing that scouts love and at 6’3 195 pounds, it is easy to envision at least above average power. Pipeline mentions that scouts have compared him to Corey Seager and even Cal Ripken Jr. Those comparisons come a lot when discussing talented shortstop prospects who are taller than most who play the position. However, it is still high praise.
At that size, Spangler is not a lock to stick at shortstop, but has good instincts and can make all the plays. For the Nats, he does not need to stick at shortstop with Eli Willits in the system. If they want to go the high school route, Spangler is my guy.
On the college side, we discussed a few of the prospects in the Nats range already last month. We talked about Drew Burress, Jackson Flora, Cameron Flukey and Chris Hacopian in that piece. Those are all still options, but we are going to discuss a few others here today.
One pitcher we did not discuss was Liam Peterson because I thought he would go before the Nats selection. However, MLB Pipeline has him ranked 13th. The right hander from the University of Florida has a prototypical frame and prototypical stuff.
His fastball lives in the mid-90’s and he can crank it up to 99 MPH. He also throws a pair of above average breaking balls with a slider and curveball. Peterson threw more sliders but some scouts think the hook is even better. There is a changeup that is improving and could be at least an average pitch.
Peterson is not an elite strike-thrower, but his command is not bad either. He walked 4.2 batters per 9 innings last year at Florida, which is not amazing. However, for a sophomore it is not terrible. Despite all of this potential, Peterson posted an ERA of 4.28 last year. This has a chance to be a breakout season for the Gators ace though.
On the offensive side of the ball, Sawyer Strosnider is a name that intrigues me. The TCU outfielder is a draft eligible sophomore and has all the tools in the world. He is a tremendous athlete with a sturdy 6’2 200 pound frame. Despite that size, he projects to be a center fielder in pro ball.
Strosnider has plus speed and power. There are some hit tool concerns, but they are not extreme. He did hit .350 in his freshman year at TCU last season. The one thing he will need to solve is left handed pitching. He only hit .204 against lefties his freshman year. Even if you have all the tools, being unplayable against left handed pitching limits the ceiling.
Right now, MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the 10th best prospect. There is real 5 tool upside here. If he solves his issues against lefties, the Nats may not have a chance to take him due to his upside. However, if he falls to pick 11, he is a name to watch.
Interestingly for Nationals fans, there is a catcher who is ranked 12th on the Pipeline big board. That would be Vahn Lackey from Georgia Tech. He is an athletic catcher with promise on both sides of the ball. Lackey is an above average hitter, who had a .347 batting average last year for the Yellow Jackets.
He also has a plus arm and Pipeline grades him as a 55 defender. There is also power potential here, but he only has 10 homers in his two college seasons. That is mostly due to hitting the ball on the ground too much. This is a slight red flag for me, but this new regime could help Lackey optimize his angles.
The Nats desperately need a catcher of the future. They took Caleb Lomavita in the 2024 draft, and while he did not have a bad season, the former Cal star still has warts on both sides of the ball. Lackey is a much better prospect than Lomavita and would slide in as the Nats catcher of the future.
You do not draft for need, but if Lackey is near the top of your board, that positional value could be a tiebreaker. He was not great as a freshman, so Lackey only has one real year of production. This junior year will tell scouts a lot about him.
Lastly, I want to discuss AJ Gracia from UVA. The slugging outfielder played his first two seasons at Duke before transferring to UVA to follow his coach who took that job. If you want a pure hitter, Gracia is your guy. He has tremendous power, good enough bat to ball skills and an advanced approach.
Gracia walked 57 times while only striking out 36 times last year. He has also hit 29 homers in his 120 career college games, which is highly impressive. Gracia is a top 5 talent purely on the offensive side of the ball in this draft.
However, he does not provide a ton of value on the bases or in the field. Right now he plays center field, and he has a chance to stick there, but his lack of athleticism is likely to move him into a corner. His fringy arm makes left field more likely than right field.
Gracia has good instincts, so he could be an above average left fielder, but he is not the traditional up the middle profile that teams crave. However, the Nats could use a middle of the order bat and that is what Gracia projects to be.
I am excited to see how he does at UVA. Despite the Nats having a lot of outfielders, they still need to add talent. Gracia could be the most talented player on the board when draft day comes. For Paul Toboni to create the scouting and player development monster he wants, he will need to bring talent to the MLB in waves.
This 2026 draft projects to be very strong. While it is a bummer that the Nats can’t pick in the top 10, there will be a very good player that will fall to them. I am very confident that Paul Toboni can make the right pick. After all, the draft is his wheelhouse. It is not for a while, but I am very excited to see what Paul Toboni can do in his first draft in DC.
