The Washington Nationals drafted Miguel Sime Jr. in the 4th round of the 2025 MLB Draft with the hopes that he can one day bring his 70-grade fastball to the nation’s capital. Well, by using his rocket for an arm, Sime Jr. could soon be rocketing up the league’s top prospect list.
Nationals Minor League Arm Could One Day Be a Top 100 Prospect
At just 18 years old, the 6’4″ right-hander will need to continue to hone his craft, but with the way he’s been mowing down hitters in Single-A, his potential will be hard for scouts to ignore.
Stellar Start to a Pro Career
Regardless of where he’s pitching, Sime Jr. turns heads when he’s on the mound. Originally committed to LSU, the imposing right-hander started last summer in the MLB Draft League, where he showcased his 100+ MPH fastball. After being drafted and signing for $2 million despite his slot value being $687,800, the Nationals put Sime Jr. on display in the Spring Breakout series, where he ran his fastball up to 102 MPH.
The 18-year-old’s official pro debut came on April 5th for the Fredericksburg Nationals when he struck out six in just 2.1 innings of work. Since then, Sime Jr. has only continued to prove why he should be ranked much higher in Washington’s system. In his most recent outing, the right-hander struck out nine while allowing just two hits over 3.2 innings. Following that outing, Sime Jr. is now pitching to a 3.07 ERA with 32 strikeouts, 11 walks, and six hits allowed in 14.2 innings.
Even with how hard Sime Jr. throws, it’s hard to survive as a starter with just a fastball, which is seemingly why the Nationals farmhand has developed a wipe-out slider. With his effortless velocity, that slider did not take long to become an outlier pitch, as Lance Brozdowski noted, with a 76% whiff rate heading into his most recent outing.
With two elite pitches and his early success, Sime Jr. has already started to make a move up prospect ranking lists. In Kiley McDaniel of ESPN’s latest prospect update for May, he had the right-hander listed as the Nationals’ tenth-ranked prospect after not having him ranked inside the top ten before the season. Being able to move up ranking lists after just five professional starts is certainly a strong indicator that Sime Jr. could be trending towards elite prospect territory by the end of the season.
Factors That Can Slow His Rise
With any prospect, no matter how talented, there is always the potential of hitting a wall. In Sime Jr.’s case, being unable to improve his command could halt his rise up the rankings. Entering the season, MLB Pipeline had a 40 grade for the right-hander’s command, and through this point in the year, he has a 18.6% walk rate. While the Nationals’ flame-thrower has had some outings where his command has been solid, the higher he moves in the system, the better the opposing hitters and their idea of the strike zone will be.
Sime Jr. has time to develop his command, but it certainly will not be easy with how much his arsenal moves. Inability to consistently locate his heavy fastball, gyro-slider, and change-up could eventually lead the Nationals front office to make the tough decision to move him to the bullpen.
At the end of the day, though, success is hard to ignore, and Sime Jr. has been nothing but successful since becoming a member of the Nationals organization. With the club’s analytics department and his natural talent, there is currently no reason to believe Sime Jr. can’t be a top ten right-handed pitching prospect across the league by the time his first pro season concludes.
Main Photo Credits: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images
