{"id":81921,"date":"2024-07-31T17:15:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T21:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=81921"},"modified":"2024-07-31T17:15:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T21:15:25","slug":"nationals-finally-building-deep-farm-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/31\/nationals-finally-building-deep-farm-system\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nationals are Finally Building a Deep Farm System"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo has been unable to build a deep farm system. Over the years, the Nationals have had plenty of stars at the top of their system, from Bryce Harper<\/a> to Juan Soto<\/a>, and now James Wood<\/a>. However, the system has long been top-heavy, with a massive drop-off after the first couple of names. Even after receiving all the assets from the Juan Soto trade, the depth of the system lagged behind. Things are finally starting to shift for the Nationals after some solid drafting and improvements in their player development. There’s a long way to go before they are churning out players like the Tampa Bay Rays, but there is reason for optimism.<\/p>\n

Nationals Building Deep Farm System<\/h2>\n

Building Through the Draft<\/h3>\n

Even Mike Rizzo’s biggest supporters will acknowledge that his drafting track record is spotty at best. Since 2014, only the San Francisco Giants have gotten less bWAR<\/a> from their first-round picks than the Nationals. This is inexcusable no matter how you slice it. However, Rizzo has realized a change in approach was needed and has taken a more hands-off approach to the draft over the past few years. This offseason has brought even more change, with the hires of Danny Haas and Brad Ciolek. Haas was a senior scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>, whose productive homegrown talent delivered them a National League pennant. Ciolek, who was the director of draft operations for the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>, is an intriguing hire. The Orioles have built one of the best teams in baseball through drafting and developing, something Ciolek has played a part in.<\/p>\n

The 2024 draft<\/a> showed the new philosophy. The Nationals went underslot on Wake Forest shortstop Seaver King<\/a>, passing up on sexier names. Based on the draft rankings<\/a>, King was a reach, but the reason they went underslot was to get better players later in the draft. Athletic catcher Caleb Lomavita<\/a> and infielder Luke Dickerson<\/a> were seen as borderline first-round talents and were paid accordingly. Dickerson received the largest<\/a> signing bonus of any second-round pick in draft history at $3.8 million. He is a toolsy player who has star upside but is a long way away from the big leagues. Catcher Kevin Bazzell<\/a> and pitcher Jackson Kent<\/a> are other guys who should slide into the Nationals’ top 30. It was a quantity-over-quality approach, but it did bring depth to the system.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udc51 the KING is crowned \ud83d\udc51@Seaver_2_<\/a> is officially a Washington National! pic.twitter.com\/qewltg2qPY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n