Back to pumping 103 mph (!), Susana racks up K’s in latest rehab start
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Almost a year to the day of when he recorded a career-high 13 strikeouts, Jarlin Susana and his 103 mph heat are back on the mound and looking in elite form.
The Nationals’ No. 3 prospect made his third start of the year on Friday night, striking out seven of the nine batters he faced across 2 2/3 scoreless frames in High-A Wilmington’s 2-1 win over Frederick in Game 2 of a doubleheader at Frawley Stadium.
It was over two years ago that Susana first put baseball on notice, ramping his fastball up to 103 mph during the Nationals’ Spring Breakout game in March 2024. Much has changed around the organization since then, but Susana’s top-tier velocity has remained.
MLB’s No. 68 prospect has been working with a limited pitch count as he continues to ramp up from surgery on his right lat that both ended his 2025 campaign prematurely and caused his ‘26 one to not get underway until Aug. 11. Equipped with one of Minor League Baseball’s most explosive fastballs, the 22-year-old has ridden that 70-grade offering to strike out 13 of his first 25 batters faced this year.
Batters understandably have to gear up for Susana’s triple-digit heat, which makes his slider -- a 70-grade offering in its own right -- one of the most effective secondary weapons in the Nationals system. The 6-foot-6 righty got a pile of funky swings against his breaker Friday, racking up 10 whiffs on 21 swings in total. All told, he pumped 28 of his 39 pitches for strikes, and maybe most encouragingly, didn't walk a batter.
Susana has long possessed some of the highest-octane stuff of any prospect in baseball, as evidenced by being one of just three ranked prospects to have a pair of 70-grade-or-higher pitches in his arsenal. Signed for $1.7 million in January 2022 by the Padres (an enormous sum for a teenage pitching prospect on the international market), he joined the Nationals as part of the ballyhooed Juan Soto deal that summer.
Susana’s journey since has involved lighting up radar guns while trying to limit free passes. He recorded 157 punchouts in 103 2/3 innings across two A ball levels in 2024, but after pushing to Double-A Harrisburg for the first time early in ‘25, he missed more than two months to a Grade 1 UCL sprain.
His outings for Wilmington over the past two weeks have officially been rehab appearances, chances to rein in his arsenal before he returns to the upper Minors. Susana cleared every hurdle at the club’s complex back in Florida this summer and his first few outings back at an affiliate indicate that the stuff has bounced back … and then some.