When the Washington Nationals picked up Ronny Cruz as part of the return in the Michael Soroka deal, he was seen as a high upside lottery ticket. You could see the upside, but he was very raw and put up middling numbers in rookie ball. However, that upside is being realized and Cruz has had a meteoric rise in the prospect world.
Fangraphs just released their updated Nationals prospect rankings. There were not that many changes with the exception of Ronny Cruz. They ranked Cruz as the Nats number four
prospect, ahead of guys like Devin Fitz-Gerald, Gavin Fien and Travis Sykora. The site also noted that Cruz was moving into their top 100 prospect list with the update.
That last part was what really stood out to me. Before the season Cruz was not on anyone’s radar as a potential top 100 prospect. Heck, in July he was only half of a package that landed the Cubs half a season of Michael Soroka. In just 17 games, everything has changed for Ronny Cruz.
Now you could make the case that Cruz is the Nats second best teenage infield prospect, only behind number one overall pick Eli Willits. I actually think that Cruz has a higher ceiling, though he is not as polished of a prospect. For a guy with a wiry frame, Cruz generates an insane amount of power due to his elite bat speed.
Cruz’s bat speed, raw power and twitchy athleticism have led to some lofty comparisons. Geoff Pontes of Baseball America said Cruz looks a lot like Fernando Tatis Jr. did at the same point in their development. Obviously Cruz has a long way to go to become that kind of player, but it shows you what kind of athlete he is and what sort of upside he has.
The fact Cruz was traded early in his career makes the Tatis comparison a bit ironic. Like Cruz, Tatis was traded by a Chicago team for a middling pitcher very early in his development. With Tatis, it was the White Sox who traded him. Hopefully Cruz can haunt the northsiders in the same sort of way.
You have to credit Mike DeBartolo for identifying Cruz and trading for him in his stint as interim GM. The work he did at the draft and the deadline has been aging very well so far. However, it seems like Cruz is his biggest win. Getting a future top 100 prospect for a rental Michael Soroka is brilliant work. He is still in the organization, so hopefully he can help Paul Toboni find more gems like this.
If you want an indication of how much Cruz’s stock has risen since the start of the season, you just have to look at the prospect rankings. Baseball America, the same outlet comparing Cruz to Fernando Tatis, ranked him as the number 26 prospect in the Nationals system. MLB Pipeline had him in a similar range, ranking him 25th. Pipeline had the other piece of the Soroka trade, Christian Franklin ahead of Cruz.
Once they update their lists, I would imagine Cruz will move into a similar range as the one Fangraphs has him in. On a Baseball America podcast, they indicated that Cruz would be in their top 5 once they update the rankings.
While Cruz’s ascent has been about as steep as Mt. Everest, you could see some of this coming if you read the tea leaves. There was a lot of buzz surrounding Cruz during Spring Training. Paul Toboni himself name dropped Cruz a couple times. He said that Cruz was the prospect that impressed him the most this spring during an interview with Grant Paulsen.
My first real exposure to Cruz was when I went down to West Palm Beach for Spring Training. He actually appeared in one of the big league Spring Training games I went to and proceeded to hit a home run off of JP France, an Astros righty who has pitched in the big leagues.
I also saw him get a couple hits on the back fields as well. After seeing how good his swing looked and the kind of power he could produce, I was impressed. I made a point of including him when discussing the Nats more famous teenage infield prospects like Eli Willits, Coy James, Luke Dickerson and Gavin Fien.
However, he is shattering even my most optimistic expectations this spring. He started the season like a house on fire for the Fred Nats. Cruz hit .333 with 3 homers and a crazy 15 steals in 14 games. He posted an OPS of 1.087 and often looked like the best player on the field for a stacked Fred Nats team.
Despite never playing above rookie ball before this season, Paul Toboni decided to promote Cruz to High-A Wilmington after those 14 games. That decision made me even higher on Cruz because it showed just how much faith the organization has in him. The fact he was promoted before guys like Luke Dickerson and Yeremy Cabrera is telling. Those other two guys were also performing well and had much more Low-A experience, but it was Cruz who got the promotion.
When he got to Wilmington, I figured Cruz would slow down a little bit. If you looked at his underlying data, he was chasing a bit more than you would like and his contact rates were not amazing as well. That, combined with Wilmington being a very pitcher friendly environment led me to believe Cruz would take a few lumps before eventually figuring things out.
It has only been three games, but so far Cruz has disproven my theory. He has homered twice in three games and has taken to the new level like a duck to water. Cruz is 5/14 with an OPS of 1.186 as a 19 year old in High-A. It is absolutely bonkers to see what this kid is doing.
He has gone from a high upside flier to a top 100 prospect in the span of a few weeks. This guy has an incredible level of upside and ability. He has a natural feel for the barrel and does a great job hitting the ball at good angles. That allows him to tap into his impressive raw power. He is also a great athlete who could play all over the field if needed.
This season he has split time between shortstop, third base and second base. He has spent the most time at third, but could feasibly play at any of those spots. Cruz has good hands and actions on the dirt. That only makes his overall profile even more tantalizing.
Cruz is the real deal and is the Nats breakout prospect of 2026 so far. His plate discipline and hit tool are still a bit raw, but not to the point where it is truly problematic. We have seen so much development in this player already that you can project future growth as well.
I am curious to see what Cruz does as he sees better pitching. Will he eventually hit a wall as he sees better breaking balls or is this rocket ship only starting its ascent? Only time will tell, but Nationals fans have a new prospect to get excited about and his name is Ronny Cruz.
