This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Amid the Nationals' prospect headliners like Eli Willits, Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana, there was a name that came up repeatedly during Spring Training.
He is relatively new to the organization, acquired last year at the Trade Deadline in the Michael Soroka deal with the Cubs, yet he had made a strong impression in that short period of time.
“Ronny Cruz, everybody keeps raving about,” assistant general manager Devin Pearson said toward the end of camp. “What he’s been able to do has been awesome. We’ve just got to keep building off of that.”
Cruz, the Nats’ No. 25 prospect, is living up to the Spring Training buzz this season.
The 19-year-old shortstop was promoted from Single-A Fredericksburg to High-A Wilmington on Monday, and he’s already been mashing. In his first four games with the Blue Rocks, he went 7-for-19 with two home runs, five RBIs and a walk.
Entering Saturday, Cruz ranked atop Washington’s Minor League leaderboards:
• First in: batting average (.343), home runs (5), RBIs (19) and total bases (45)
• Tied for first in: runs (20, tied with Nats’ No. 1/MLB No. 10 prospect Willits)
• Second in: slugging (.643, behind No. 20 prospect Yeremy Cabrera), OPS (1.089, behind Cabrera), OBP (.446, behind Cabrera) and stolen bases (15, behind Willits)
• Tied for second in: hits (24, tied with Cayden Wallace, behind No. 28 Yohandy Morales)
• Fourth in: extra-base hits (10, behind No. 8 Luke Dickerson, Cabrera, Wallace)
Cruz was a third-round pick by the Cubs in the 2024 Draft out of high school. He was playing Rookie level ball when he was traded to the Nationals, along with No. 18 prospect outfielder Christian Franklin.
MLB Pipeline evaluated Cruz with the following scouting grades: hit (40), power (55), run (55), arm (60), field (55), overall (40).
“Cruz hits the ball really hard at good angles, [has a] plus range at shortstop,” Pearson said. “Needs to get stronger, needs to continue to prove his swing decisions.”
Cruz was called up to appear in four Grapefruit League games with the Nationals. In addition to the two-run homer he hit off the Astros, manager Blake Butera enjoyed getting to know Cruz off the field.
“He's a great kid,” Butera said at the time. “Always smiling, having fun, very loose. It looks like he is not putting a lot of pressure on himself and just playing baseball.”