The 2025 MLB Draft is finally over and the Washington Nationals have their class of players. It has been an event we have been discussing for so long at this point. There have been so many twists and turns along the way. It will be a topic I will miss talking about.
However, in the last 2 days, the Washington Nationals made 20 young mens dreams come true. Now it is time to discuss what kinds of players they got and what to make of the first draft in the post-Mike Rizzo era.
At the end of the day, the first five picks will be the most important ones. These guys are the meat of the draft class and we will mostly talk about them. However, we will look at a couple hidden gems the Nationals got in later rounds. In the end, how Eli Willits, Ethan Petry, Landon Harmon, Miguel Sime Jr. and Coy James perform will determine how good this draft class is.
All five of these players are exciting talents and should all rank inside the Nationals top 15 prospects once they sign. Willits will either be the number one or number two prospect in the system. The fact he was a surprise number one pick has some people underrating the kids ability.
He is much closer to Ethan Holliday than the average fan would think. In fact, he does a lot of things better than the more famous Oklahoma prepster. Willits makes much more contact, is a twitchier athlete and is far more likely to stick at shortstop. Sure, he does not have the 40 home run potential of a Holliday and likely has a lower overall ceiling, but his floor very well might be higher.
In the second round, the Nats made an interesting pick. I figured they would take an over slot high schooler, but the Nats ended up holding their fire until later in the draft. They selected South Carolina slugger Ethan Petry with the 49th overall pick. Petry is a bit of a one dimensional slugger, but he can really mash. He has homered off of Paul Skenes, Chase Burns and Liam Doyle in his college career.
Petry peaked as a freshman in college but has been a masher his whole career and was dominant in the Cape Cod League with wood bats. Acquiring power bats a theme for the Nats later on as well. A lot of their senior signs were guys with big power.
Boston Smith out of Wright State led all of college baseball in homers with 26. The likes of Wyatt Henseler, Hunter Hines and Jacob Walsh are all thumpers with limited defensive value as well. This is clearly something Mike DeBartolo and the scouting team identified as a weakness in the Nats system and they attacked it. The Petry pick was not my favorite in the draft, but I understand it.
The real meat of the Washington Nationals draft came in rounds three through five. This is where they used the money they saved by taking Willits over Holliday. First they selected high school arm Landon Harmon in the third round.
Harmon has one of the best fastballs in the draft with a great combination of velocity and shape. MLB Pipeline had him as a top 50 prospect in the draft. The Washington Nationals got him with the 80th pick in the draft. At 6’5 190, he might be able to add even more velocity and consistently sit in the high 90’s with added strength. Everyone praises his electric arm speed, and added size could help him put even more juice on his heater.
MLB Network compared this to when the Nats took Travis Sykora 71st overall in 2023. Both are big pitchers who fell to the third round but are due to get massive overslot deals to buy them away from their college commitments.
In the 4th round, the Nats took another high schooler with a massive fastball in Miguel Sime. Sime Jr. can already hit triple digits fairly consistently. At 6’4 235 pounds, he is an absolute unit with no projection required. He reminds me a lot of Jarlin Susana.
The Nationals scoop up Miguel Sime Jr.
The righthander is one of three high school pitchers who reached 100 mph this year on the mound pic.twitter.com/QQRe7B6uyX
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) July 14, 2025
I like how the Nats had a real idea of what kind of players they took. It shows a real plan and thoughtfulness that was not previously there. In the past, it often felt like the Nats would take who they thought the most talented player was and not really know how to develop that player.
With Sime Jr. and Harmon they have templates of what they can do. The Nats have had success developing Sykora and Susana. They can put Harmon and Sime into a similar sort of program. It feels like they have to have a plan on how to develop all these power bats as well.
In the fifth round, they saw a talent they could not pass up in Coy James. The high school shortstop had some first round buzz, with ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel mocking him to the Tigers at 24. However, due to sign-ability questions, he fell to the fifth round.
With their massive bonus pool and the money they saved with Willits, the Nats can pay James the money he wants to sign. James is a natural hitter with a strong combination of hitting ability and power. While he is likely to move off shortstop, he has a good chance of being a solid second or third baseman with a big bat.
These three picks were absolute home runs for the Nats. I would argue that no team got more talent in rounds 3-5 than the Nationals. They hit every pick out of the park and they could do that because of the Willits pick.
The rest of the draft did not have as much fireworks. They took a lot of older power first bats and some arms with relief potential. In the 19th round, they took high school two way player Mason Pike, who is a second or third round talent. However, he is unlikely to sign unless one of Harmon, Sime or James fail to reach a deal with the team. Pike is the backup plan.
One interesting arm they got was Ben Moore in the 12th round. He was inside MLB Pipeline’s top 250. Moore is a local kid who went to Old Dominion for college. He was great in the bullpen as a sophomore, but struggled in the Monarchs rotation as a junior. However, he has a solid fastball-slider mix.
So at the end of all of this, what is the grade. For me it is very high. I am a tough grader, so don’t expect many A’s. First off, it was a much better draft than last year. In 2024, the Nats had an odd draft and it has not aged well a year later. However, this 2025 group is different
I said I wanted Holliday and we did not get him, so that takes away some points. However, I do not think Willits was a back pick at all. He is a fantastic player in his own right and has a fantastic blend of ceiling and floor.
I did not see the Petry pick coming and have some questions about his profile. However, he has massive power and it is easy to see a world where he is a 30+ home run bat if everything comes together. Those kinds of guys don’t grow on trees.
Rounds 3-5 were absolutely phenomenal. Those picks were A+ selections across the board. It showed a real plan of attack and they got great talent. They are also profiles of players the Nationals have had some success developing lately. Love all three of those picks.
The rest of the draft was solid. Again, I like how there was a real plan of what kinds of players the Nationals took. A lot of power bats which the system really needed. There was not enough power, but that has changed.
OVERALL GRADE: B+/A-