WILMINGTON, Del. – Nationals assistant general manager Devin Pearson faced a familiar question during his first Spring Training with the club.
Before their arrival, the organization drafted Eli Willits (the No. 1 prospect in the system) and Coy James (No. 17) in July. It had teenagers Angel Feliz (No. 23) and Ronny Cruz (No. 25), who had each spent the majority of their 2025s in the complex leagues, and 20-year-old Luke Dickerson (No. 8) already in the pipeline. The Nats then acquired Gavin Fien (No. 5) and Devin Fitz-Gerald (No. 9) from the Rangers in the MacKenzie Gore trade in January.
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Tally that up: seven infielders, all of whom could have been sent to Single-A Fredericksburg to begin 2026. Sorting out that group could have proven to be a headache. Or in this case, an opportunity.
“The reality is,” Pearson told MLB Pipeline in March, “some of them are probably going to have to go to Wilmington to start.”
Two months later, it’s Fitz-Gerald and Cruz who have been most aggressively pushed to High-A, and with each passing week in the South Atlantic League, both prospects not only look like they belong, they’re exceeding expectations.
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Fitz-Gerald was perhaps the biggest surprise out of the gate, having joined Wilmington’s Opening Day roster despite playing only 41 games last year in the Texas system: 31 in the Arizona Complex League and 10 with Single-A Hickory before a left shoulder injury ended his season early.
Well-known across the industry – including by many in the Nats organization including Wilmington manager Ted Tom, who gave the switch-hitter his first college offer while at Central Florida – as the son of Stoneman Douglas HS head coach Todd Fitz-Gerald, the 2024 fifth-rounder had a reputation for getting the most out of his tools, particularly when it came to making good swing decisions – a central tenet of Washington’s current player-development group. It was that advanced approach and ability to move around the infield that helped the Nats feel comfortable sending the 20-year-old to High-A, even if it caught him aback.
“I was kind of shocked,” Fitz-Gerald said. “I had an idea that it could have been a possibility, but also I thought I was going to go to Low-A. But honestly for me, it shows that the org believes in me. They don't think I'm afraid to fail, and they think I can handle adversity.”
There hasn’t been much failure early on through the first month-plus.
Entering Tuesday, Fitz-Gerald is hitting .293/.435/.511 with three homers and 10 steals through 23 games. He’s walked as many times (19) as he’s struck out, making him the only High-A qualifier aged 20 or younger with a K/BB ratio of 1 or better. He’s done that while balancing his defensive time at shortstop, third base and second.
“His baseball IQ is through the roof, and he carries himself like a true pro,” Tom said. “He doesn't really say much but leads by example. … He knows what winning looks like at a really high level. He expects to win, and he expects to win in everything he does.”
Cruz, if it’s possible, has been the even bigger surprise as the breakout prospect of the young 2026 Minor League season.
Acquired from the Cubs at last year’s Trade Deadline in the deal for Michael Soroka, the 2024 third-rounder didn’t play an official game for the Nationals after the move due to the end of the Florida Complex League regular season. Before then in the Arizona Complex League, he had flashed above-average power and speed and a real ability to stick at shortstop, but in contrast to Fitz-Gerald, he had seemed overly aggressive, having walked only 5.3 percent of the time in his first taste of the pros.
Cruz didn’t jump to Wilmington straight away but forced the Nationals’ hand by hitting .333/.460/.627 with three homers and 15 steals in his first 14 games with the FredNats. His 184 wRC+ is still third-best among 281 Single-A hitters with at least 60 plate appearances this season. There was still some of that aggression and willingness to expand, especially against sliders, but if Cruz got a grooved pitch in the zone, he often punished it over those three weeks in the Carolina League.
That hasn’t stopped since his High-A debut on April 21. He’s hitting .354/.436/.604 with three homers and three steals in his first 11 games with the Blue Rocks. Taking his combined numbers from both spots, he’s the only Minor Leaguer with more than five homers and 15 steals, and he has six and 18 respectively in those categories. He’s maintained that performance while being more of a priority shortstop since he got out of Willits’ shadow in Wilmington.
“You want to be around him because he's always got that big smile on his face,” Tom said. “Hitting for power, being able to run, being able to throw, he has all the tools, right? So you’re planning for the day that you might get the opportunity to be around him, and when they send him, it’s business as usual.”
There might be a time when Cruz’s aggression catches up to him – a 57.9 percent contact rate early on in Wilmington is a flag that will grow redder by the week if it doesn’t improve over a larger sample – but his other physical tools, which came as products of physical maturation and work, continue to outshine the concerns.
“I worked a lot with heavy balls, and I gained a lot of weight in the offseason,” Cruz said through teammate and translator Randal Diaz. “I’ve been working the heavy bats too, stuff like that. That's helped me to drive the ball more.”
Cruz, who moved to the US from the Dominican Republic, and Fitz-Gerald have a history before 2026. Their alma maters Miami Christian and Stoneman Douglas sit roughly 43 miles apart in southeast Florida, and the pair participated together in the 2025 Draft Combine. Fitz-Gerald admits, “I’ve always had to talk to him on Google Translate” but adds that he’s constantly asking Cruz how he’s become so explosive on the diamond and how specifically he controls his leg kick in the box.
There might come a time when their competition for each other for a full-time role on the DC dirt. Or maybe they’ll be teammates sharing the same infield as they’re doing now in Delaware.
Either way, recent trends tell us they could push each other to The Show quicker than anyone else anticipated.
“I think it's a blessing for the org to know that there's a lot of guys in the Minors that are young and still growing into themselves,” Fitz-Gerald said. “No one's at their max potential. We can all go out, compete together, push each other and get better.”