The Washington Nationals were looking for the next Travis Sykora and Landon Harmon could be that guy
The Washington Nationals are likely to save some money due to taking Eli Willits at one. That money is going to help make high school righty Landon Harmon a rich man. The Nats took Harmon, a top 50 talent in the draft with the 80th pick in the draft.
When looking at this pick, I can’t help but be reminded of what the Nats did back in 2023 with Travis Sykora. They selected Sykora with the 71st overall pick in 2023, but gave him $2.6 million, which was roughly top 35 pick money. It looks like the Nats will do something similar here with Harmon.
Harmon ranked as the 48th best prospect according to MLB Pipeline. That is in a very similar range to Sykora, who was seen as the 40th best prospect in his draft year. Both are big right handed arms with massive velocity as well.
The Nats select RHP Landon Harmon with pick #80
Harmon is your Sykora pick.
Throws mid 90s touching 99. 65 grade FB
Also deploys 55-grade slider and a 45-grade changeup
6’5 but still finds the zone routinely. Great extension. Let’s go baby pic.twitter.com/yYbUzOunrD
— Nats Of The Future (@NatsOfTheFuture) July 14, 2025
Right now the fastball is Harmon’s bread and butter. Pretty much every evaluator considers it a plus pitch, with some even saying it could be a plus-plus offering one day. It is in the mid to upper 90’s while having fantastic shape as well.
If you could design a fastball in a lab, it would look something like what Landon Harmon has. Like Sykora, he has surprisingly good control for a big, hard throwing high schooler. It is not perfect, but for a high schooler, it is quite advanced.
The biggest thing for Harmon is to find consistent secondary pitches. He has a solid slider which has two separate shapes. Harmon has one sweeping breaking ball in the low 80’s and a harder cutter like offering in the mid to high 80’s. They are solid and he has some feel to spin, but it sounds like a development team could help him fine tune those offerings a bit. The breaking stuff has a chance to be above average with development.
Harmon does not have much of a changeup, but as a pitcher who dominates with his fastball, he has not really needed one. We will see what the Nats do there.
Like Sykora, Harmon is a moldable ball of clay with front of the rotation upside if everything clicks. However, he is a player we will need to be patient with. I am fired up to watch his journey to the show unfold and welcome to DC Landon!