A closer look at the 4 top pitching prospects the Nats acquired at the Deadline

PHILADELPHIA -- In a series of pitcher-heavy returns, the Nationals added four arms to their Top 30 prospects list at the conclusion of Monday's Trade Deadline.

Of the 10 players acquired, nine are pitchers and six of them are still developing toward their Major League debuts.

“Looking backwards, we came onto a ton of pitching in these deals,” president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said. “Did we want to pursue it? Yeah, we wanted to pursue it to help this year’s team. We wanted to pursue it to hopefully allow us to roll out a better pitching group in the future. But we didn’t want to be overly dogmatic about it. We didn’t want to pass up on really good position players in favor of lesser pitchers. It worked out that way.”

Right-handers Jack Cebert, Ben Grable and Yovanny Cruz, along with left-hander Josh Hartle, joined MLB Pipeline’s top 30 for the Nats’ system.

“From a pitching standpoint, what we were looking for were players that ideally can miss bats, can fill up the zone and can induce weak contact,” said Toboni. “A lot of the time, pitchers can't really do all three. But there's a sliding scale between all those things, and we thought we came on to a number of pitchers that do those things well.”

No. 14 Jack Cerbert, RHP, Double-A

Acquired in: Luis García Jr. trade with the Yankees

Pipeline scouting report: Cebert spent his first three college seasons at South Florida before transferring to Texas Tech for his senior season last spring. … At Texas Tech, Cebert sat in the low-90s and topped out at 96 mph with a two-seam fastball that he backed up with a 78-82 mph slider and an upper-80s cutter. He didn't miss a lot of bats with any of his offerings, relying on throwing strikes and inducing ground balls to succeed.

At High-A, he went to a four-seamer that averaged 95 mph and touched 98. His high-spin slider added a couple of ticks of velocity and some sweep, while his cutter parked around 90 mph. He also showed an upper-70s curveball that could steal early strikes in his first full season at High-A and Double-A.

Cebert started as a sophomore and a junior in college, and New York returned him to that role before the trade. He hasn’t gone much to a changeup in the pros yet, though his splits are virtually even anyways. His control is more impressive than his command, and he can occasionally get banged when he catches too much of the zone, as he’s shown early in his pro career.

Organizational fit: Rotation piece

ETA: 2027

----------

No. 26 Ben Grable, RHP, Double-A

Acquired in: Garcia trade

Pipeline scouting report: Grable twice had his college career interrupted by elbow issues, missing 2022 at Northwestern and 2024 at Indiana following Tommy John surgery. He worked his way into the Hoosiers' rotation as a fifth-year senior in 2025, when the Yankees drafted him in the 11th round. He has enjoyed a spectacular pro debut this year, earning a promotion from High-A to Double-A three weeks into the season and later a spot in the Futures Game.

No big league pitcher this season can match Grable's combination of velocity (sitting at 96 mph, peaking at 99) and induced vertical break (an average of 20-21 inches) on his fastball. Hitters know his heater is coming because he throws it 75 percent of the time, but they still can't stop chasing it and rarely catch up to it. He backs up his fastball with a mid-80s slider that features enough horizontal action to make it effective against both lefties and righties.

Grable adds to his deception with a delivery that combines a high release height with good extension and unusual flexion in his arm action. It doesn't prevent him from filling the strike zone with either of his options. He was on the fast track to New York before the trade, and he gave Washington a high-octane bullpen arm on which to dream.

Organizational fit: Could be promoted to Major Leagues this season

ETA: 2027

----------

No. 29 Josh Hartle, LHP, Double-A

Acquired in: Foster Griffin trade with the Guardians

Pipeline scouting report: Hartle was one of the top prep lefties in the 2021 Draft class and entered his junior season at Wake Forest as perhaps the top college pitcher, but his stuff and control backed up and caused him to slip in the '24 Draft. He ended up signing for $850,000 as a Pirates third-rounder before the Guardians acquired him and fellow southpaw Michael Kennedy for Luis Ortiz.

The North Carolina native made it to Double-A in his first full pro season and earned High-A Midwest Pitcher of the Year honors after logging a 2.35 ERA with 100 strikeouts and a 1.05 WHIP in 103 1/3 frames for Lake County. He put up solid numbers at Double-A Akron in 2026 before being traded to the Nationals.

While he doesn't have overpowering stuff, Hartle throws strikes with a deep repertoire and creates unique angles from his 6-foot-6 frame and horizontal release. His best pitch is a slurvy slider that gets plenty of chase against lefties, and his changeup gets a decent amount of chase and miss but rarely lands for strikes. Hartle has a four-seam and two-seam fastball that each sit in the low 90s, and that velocity has mostly held in his second full season. He often works with his upper-80s cutter in the zone and limits hard contact on the pitch.

Hartle repeats his delivery well and throws plenty of strikes. He continues to profile as a potential back-end starter as he heads to his second organization. He's done a great job of preventing hard contact -- and home runs, in particular -- to date, but without velocity gains, that will be difficult against more advanced hitting as he’s seen with a slight uptick in homers allowed in ’26.

Organizational fit: Lefty starter

ETA: 2027

----------

No. 30 Yovanny Cruz, RHP, MLB

Acquired in: García trade

Pipeline scouting report: It has certainly been an odyssey through pro ball for Cruz. The right-hander signed with the Cubs for only $60,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2016 and never reached higher than the High-A level in Chicago's system. He saw Double-A time with the Padres and Red Sox as a Minor League free agent signing in 2024 and '25, respectively, before joining the Yankees last offseason. After a productive start at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he made his elusive Major League debut with New York on May 20.

In his age-26 season, Cruz has found a lane as an extremely hard-throwing reliever. His four-seam fastball touched 102 mph in Triple-A before the trade and averaged 99.4 mph. It comes with little extension -- it can look like he’s stepping and flinging -- an ordinary movement that keeps it from being a true plus-plus pitch, but that heat still plays. That said, his 89-91 mph slider is actually his most-used pitch in both the Minors and Majors in 2026. With batters sitting fastball, many often swing over the breaking ball with a good drop and some cut.

Cruz also flashes an upper-80s splitter to kill spin, but it was barely used in Triple-A. He still gets lefties out enough with the slider to not need the additional offspeed. The righty’s rise to The Show corresponded with much improved control numbers, and he worked out of the stretch exclusively to keep things as uncomplicated as possible, relying on the velocity of the heater and movement of the slider to do the talking.

Organizational fit: Hard-throwing bullpen arm

ETA: 2026