As this miserable 2025 season slowly drags towards its conclusion, it should be time to get some looks at younger players. The season is lost, so it is time to give some players a shot at the big leagues and see if they can show anything. Interestingly, Mike DeBartolo echoed this sentiment in a Washington Post article.
There are a few guys who deserve some looks. We are going to break them down and talk about what you need to know. Despite the obvious need for pitching, most of these guys are on the position player side of things. That is because there simply are not a ton of interesting pitchers in the upper minors. With that note, let’s break down some names to know.
The first player to discuss just joined the Nationals organization. Christian Franklin came over in the Michael Soroka trade and he is knocking on the door of the big leagues. While the Nationals have a crowded outfield, Franklin is a guy who can fit into the mix.
Franklin really reminds me of Alex Call in terms of profile. Like Call he is a very patient hitter who takes his walks. Franklin is walking over 16% of the time in AAA this season. His defensive profile is similar to Call as well. Franklin is a guy who can play a solid center field but is better suited to the corner outfield.
Another strength of Franklin’s game is his ability to crush left handed pitching, something the Nats really need. When the A’s backup catcher looks at your lineup card full of lefties and is thinking how easy it will be for his lefty starter, that is not a good sign.
Franklin would change that. He is hitting .347 with a 1.063 OPS against left handed pitching this year. Four of his eight homers have also come against lefties despite seeing way more right handed pitching. While the Washington Nationals outfield seems crowded, they do not have a guy like Franklin.
The next guy we will talk about is a player we have seen in the big leagues before in Andres Chaparro. Like Franklin, Chaparro is another lefty masher. He is a guy I would be more excited to see compared to veterans like Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe who are unlikely to be back next season. Bell is going to be a free agent and Lowe is likely to be non-tendered due to his high arbitration number and poor performance.
With that in mind, it would be nice to give Chappy another shot. He absolutely obliterates lefties. In Rochester, he is hitting .405 with a 1.511 OPS against southpaws. In his run with the big league squad last year, he was a lefty masher at the MLB level.
At 26, he is probably one of those quad-A guys who is too good for Triple-A but not good enough for the MLB. However, with the Nats season off the rails, they can afford to test that conclusion out for themselves. We know what we have in Lowe and Bell, but we are not 100% sure with Chaparro.
Another guy who could get some DH or corner outfield reps is Nick Schnell. He has been tearing it up down in Rochester with 16 homers, 12 steals and a .940 OPS in 56 AAA games.
The numbers he put up in July were insane. Schnell hit 11 homers with a .385 average and a 1.303 OPS. He is also a guy with some pedigree. Schnell was drafted 32nd overall in the 2018 draft out of high school by the Rays. He found his way to the Nats organization this year.
So what is the catch with this guy? Well the strikeout numbers are insane. He is striking out 33.5% of the time in AAA. It is tough to succeed in the big leagues when you strike out that much against Triple-A pitching.
While Schnell is a great power/speed guy, I have doubts that he can hit at the MLB level. However, the Nats are in a situation where they can find out for sure. While he has DH’d some, he is mostly an outfielder and the Nats have a lot of those. We will see if Schnell gets a shot though.
Waiver Claims and Dumpster Diving:
As I mentioned before, there are not a whole lot of interesting pitchers at the AAA level. Most of the guys performing well down there are players like Eduardo Salazar and Ryan Loutos, who we have seen flop badly in the MLB.
With that in mind, Mike DeBartolo needs to be aggressive on the waiver wire. We have seen him do that with guys like Luis Garcia and PJ Poulin. He needs to do more churning down the stretch.
A lot of guys claimed off waivers can become productive bullpen pieces. We have seen that with guys like Hunter Harvey and Robert Garcia. What the Nats need to do is throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
Teams like the Dodgers are constantly churning the back of their 40 man roster looking for options. If you see interesting arms on waivers like Poulin, take a shot on them. There are plenty of DFA candidates on the Nats 4o man roster, so it is not like you cannot create space for these guys.
A guy in Jorge Alcala who put up a 3.24 ERA in 54 outings in 2024 before struggling this year was just claimed by the Cardinals. There are always players like this just lingering on the waiver wire. The Nats are in a position to try a lot of these guys out. Just give guys some opportunities and if they are good keep them, if not get rid of them.
Overall, the Nationals need to find some diamonds in the rough here down the stretch. The way to do that is to give guys some shots. We learn nothing by playing guys like Paul DeJong, Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell. Even a guy like Jacob Young falls into this category, we know who he is.
However, if you give some lesser known guys chances, maybe a couple of them will surprise. It is not like this team is competitive as is. There is nothing to lose by giving some new faces some big opportunities.