Washington Nationals news & notes: Hope Row; Jarlin Susana hitting 103; Mike Rizzo talks prospects + more…

Notes and quotes from GM Mike Rizzo’s MLB Network Radio interview this past weekend…

HOPE ROW:

Davey Martinez talked last week on the MLB Network about the line of lockers in the club’s Spring Training clubhouse top prospects like James Wood, Robert Hassell III, Brady House, Trey Lipscomb, Darren Baker, and Dylan Crews were occupying next to one another which is being referred to as “Hope Row” by the team.

“We got them all line up in the clubhouse and they’re all together,” Martinez explained.

“They’re a good group of kids, and they have, really, they’ve united together and so I call that little section ‘Hope Row.’

“They’re the future of the Nats and they have done really well. They really have. They’re eager, they’re willing to learn, they’re willing to do anything we ask them to do.”

With all the prospects in camp getting an extended look this spring, the club wanted to be sure they were comfortable, so they left it in the capable hands of Clubhouse & Equipment Manager Mike Wallace, aka “Wally”, who is currently in his 51st year of MLB service.

Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“You know Wally, he’s been doing this for about 50 years he knows all the ins and outs and what we’re trying to accomplish,” GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told hosts Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio this past Sunday morning, “… and when we mentioned to him that we want all the kids together, he kind of put what Davey quickly described as ‘Hope Row’ together. It’s a cool pretty section of the clubhouse.”

Rizzo and Co. in the Nationals’ front office have been watching their top prospects closely this spring, and they like what they see.

“They’ve all played extremely well. These guys, for their chronological age — Brady House is a 20-year-old kid, that he walks around like he’s a veteran major leaguer.

“These guys are ears open, mouths shut, and they’re really soaking in information, with Wood, Crews, and Hassell and these guys learning from Gerardo Parra and taking a lot of information from Lane Thomas and those guys, it’s been great. And with the addition of [Jesse] Winker and Eddie Rosario, you’ve got some good, veteran guys in that clubhouse really willing to give of information and the most important thing in my mind is these guys have not been overwhelmed whatsoever by not only the pace of play here in the big leagues or the amount of velocity that there is. They really have a calm presence to them, they really have a major league routine already, which is important, and have performed very well.

Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images

“So they’ve really checked every box that we wanted them to check here, we can really see the impact that they are going to have in the future and they’re all good, young kids with great makeup and really they aspire to be great and not just good.”

SUSANA GETS @PITCHINGNINJA’S ATTENTION:

“Jarlin Susana is an 18-[now-19]-year-old, Dominican right-handed pitcher that’s 6’6’’,” GM Mike Rizzo told reporters after he’d acquired the hard-throwing prospect from San Diego, back in the Juan Soto/Josh Bell deal in 2022.

“He’s got a good, clean delivery, he throws the ball hard, he’s 98, we saw him twice in the last two weeks, he’s up to 102 MPH with a breaking pitch and a good feel for a changeup.

“He’s a guy who is high school age and we believe if he was in this 2022 Draft, he’d have been a high-to-mid first round pick, and that was a player that we really coveted.”

One of five prospects who came over in the deal, Susana pitched at Class-A Fredericksburg in 2023, with a 5.14 ERA, 4.54 FIP, 40 walks (5.71 BB/9), and 52 Ks (8.96 K/9) in 17 starts and a total of 63 innings pitched on the year.

“Susana’s struggles led to the Nationals placing him on the development list on Aug. 10 and having him finish the season at the team’s facility in West Palm Beach,” MASN’s writer Bobby Blanco noted this past winter.

Pitching in the Spring Breakout game in Florida last week, Susana lit up the radar, with triple digit readings on each of his first six pitches. He hit 103 MPH with his fastball in the outing, which was actually on a ball four, testing Rizzo’s posterized comment about not caring how hard you throw ball four.

“Susana, I’ve seen him, but that’s the first time I’ve seen him compete,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez said after the game, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato.

“When that ball comes out, it’s on you quick. We’ve noticed he gets quick in his delivery, so just got to get him to kind of slow down a little bit, keep attacking that strike zone.

“He’s going to be a good one.”

“He’s great,” Rizzo told MLB Network Radio hosts Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette. “He’s got all of the physical skills it takes to be an impactful pitcher. He’a got three pitches. He’s also has a good changeup that he seldom uses in those type of appearances, but it’s all about can he corral and command those elite pitches. This guys cruises at 98-100, he touches 103, and he’s got a power-power slider. Now the key to him is consistency. And we feel that the package is there, he’s very coachable, I think he’s come a long way since we got him to where you saw him the other night and I think that we’re going to be very patient with him because arms like that don’t come along too often, with three plus-plus pitches already and a chance to really impact the starting game.

“He’s one of the guys, he probably starts in Low-A this year and hopefully he works up and I think when the lightbulb goes off for him he could come fairly quickly.”

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