Eli Willits becomes a top 3 prospect in new MLB Pipeline update

Yesterday, MLB Pipeline updated their top 100 list, which now features six Washington Nationals. The combination of depth and high end talent in the system is very impressive. While the depth is great, it is clear that Eli Willits is the crown jewel of the system, and is ranked as the third best prospect in all of baseball.

Willits was already having a great season before his promotion to High-A, but has taken things to the next level in Wilmington. He has 6 home runs and an OPS over 1.000 in 15 High-A games. When Willits was selected, some Nats fans were upset because he was not the flashiest or most well known option. However, he is turning into a superstar before our eyes.

While most of Willits’ homers have been of the over the fence variety, we did get to see the youngster show off his wheels the other day. Willits prides himself on how hard he plays, and we got to see him sprint around the bases for an inside the park homer a few days ago. If you want to learn more about Willits’ personality and what makes him click, we wrote a feature on him about a week ago.

In a Baseball America article today, they said that Willits’ average exit velocity is already 89 MPH. That is already pretty close to the big league average. For an 18 year old whose biggest question mark is power, that is an awesome number. He has also been pulling the ball in the air at a nice clip in High-A. 

There is no doubt that Eli Willits is the Nats top prospect and could be the top prospect in all of baseball at some point. However, this system is much more than just Eli Willits. There are now five other top 100 prospects in the system. Those players are Travis Sykora, Jarlin Susana, Ronny Cruz, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Seaver King.

The turnaround from this farm system has been absolutely outstanding. Before the season, only Willits, Sykora and Susana were top 100 guys. Fitz-Gerald had helium entering the year, but King and Cruz have really emerged from the shadows to become top 100 prospects.

Ronny Cruz is one of the cooler stories in the system. He spent most of his youth in the Dominican Republic, but after an IFA deal fell through, he moved to the US and played high school baseball here. After impressing, he was drafted in the 3rd round by the Cubs in 2024. However, at the 2025 trade deadline, he was part of a package that sent Michael Soroka to Chicago.

Cruz only played in rookie ball last year, but his tools were loud. At the start of this season, the buzz around him was loud and he showed what all the fuss was about, tearing Low-A to shreds. Cruz has not had the same sort of success in High-A, but he still has a sky high ceiling. There is rawness in his game that will need to be ironed out, but he is still just 19 years old.

As for Seaver King, he is another great story. After being a top 10 pick in 2024, he fell on his face in his first pro season, posting an OPS of .631 across two levels. However, he made some swing adjustments and improved his approach, which led to him tearing up AA.

He got promoted to AAA, where he has been really solid despite his approach regressing a bit. In Rochester, King has a .278 average and .795 OPS. He is looking like the power, speed and contact guy the Nats were expecting when they drafted him out of Wake Forest. King hits the ball very hard and does not strike out a ton, but still needs to work on that approach.

Right now, the 23 year old King looks like a quality player who can play all across the infield. While King has the athleticism to play shortstop, he has been fairly mistake prone over there. The Nats have given him some exposure to second base and he played third in college. I think King has the chance to be a super utility weapon the way Chris Taylor was for the Dodgers a few years back.

Overall, this is the deepest I can remember a Nats system being. Even beyond the top 100 guys, we have the likes of Gavin Fien who is red hot, Miguel Sime Jr., Landon Harmon and more. There are about 20 to 25 guys in this system who are legitimately exciting. 

A lot of these players are at least a year away, but I cannot wait until the fruits of this farm system bloom. We are already seeing so many positive signs at the MLB level, but an army of prospects are coming. Paul Toboni is just getting started here.