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When it comes to the Nationals farm system, there are the Big Three, and there is everyone else.
Cade Cavalli, Jackson Rutledge and Cole Henry not only sit on the top of MLB Pipeline s Washington prospect ranking. They all fit a similar profile right-handers standing at 6-foot-4 or above who were picked in early rounds of the 2019 and 2020 Drafts. Oh, they also throw hard and feature the requisite secondary stuff to become Major League starters some day. Now, all three are getting in work at the Nats alternate training site in Fredericksburg, Va., getting in the pitching experience necessary ahead of what would be each hurler s first taste of a full Minor League season.
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Cade Cavalli thinks back to the thousands of swings he took in hopes of one day becoming a big league player. He s reached that goal, only now he s facing hitters from the mound, not the other way around.
“It’s crazy that I’m a pitcher now, because I’ll talk to my dad and I’ll be like, ‘Man, we spent hours in the cages every night for years on years, and I’m pitching now,’” Cavalli said during MLB’s Rookie Program. “We aren’t doing what we were working on, so it’s funny.”
It’s a good funny that kind of “he became a Major League first-round Draft pick as a standout right-hander” kind of funny. When Cavalli was available at the 22nd pick last June, the Nationals believed they had gotten a steal in the former two-way player out of Oklahoma.
The Nationals hope Jackson Rutledge is their next great pitcher. He s getting there.
Jesse Dougherty, The Washington Post
Dec. 31, 2020
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Jackson Rutledge, shown on June 17, 2019, is one of the Nationals top prospects.Washington Post photo by Katherine Frey
Jackson Rutledge threw a pitch, felt his shoulder move in a way he didn t intend, then turned to Brad Holman, the Washington Nationals pitching coordinator, to break his delivery down. My scapula retraction was bad on that one, Holman recalled Rutledge telling him. This was this past summer at the Nationals alternate site in Fredericksburg, Va. The new stadium was empty. Few watched while Rutledge, the organization s top prospect, turned a routine bullpen session into a physics lab. The 21-year-old often pores over the spin efficiency of his pitches, horizontal and vertical break, how he can use his body - like his scapula, for example - to find optimal movement.