Kuzul

The Washington Nationals have some of the most exciting prospects in baseball, and contrary to popular belief, they’re not all starting pitchers. 

The Nationals do have a surplus at that position, but shortstop Trea Turner’s late addition to the fray and the major league service that second baseman Wilmer Difo and reliever Abel De Los Santos have logged highlight the top talent in the rest of Washington’s farm system. 

Using MLB Pipeline‘s prospect rankings, here are the Nationals’ top minor leaguers at every position.

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The Washington Nationals needed something.

Some sort of a boost, a spark, whatever, but it had to be the kind of performance that kick-started their stalling, sputtering second half. Because as things stood going into Saturday night, Washington was a flailing club in danger of falling out of arm’s reach of the rival, first-place New York Mets.

While desperation might be a strong word, the Nationals should have felt something similar, despite what a misguided Jayson Werth said this week about the National League East being their division to lose.

Stephen Strasburg was what they needed to quell whatever discouraging recent history they created for themselves. Upon his return from a second prolonged disabled-list hiatus Saturday, the right-hander delivered what other similar recent returns by Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman and Werth had not.

Aside from a blemish or two, Strasburg was mostly brilliant, dazzling and energizing at home in his seven innings pitched against the Colorado Rockies, and Washington won, 6-1, behind the 27-year-old’s three hits allowed and 12 strikeouts.

It was the 17th time in 123 career starts he reached double-digit strikeouts and the sixth time he did so without issuing a walk. It was the first time since May 12 that his ERA dipped below 5.00.

He retired the last 11 batters he faced and even went 3-for-3 with the bat. The Nationals shared Strasburg’s stat line:

The line on Stephen Strasburg tonight: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K — 91 pitches, 65 strikes. #Stras #LikeABoss pic.twitter.com/qQknm01ryt

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 9, 2015

Strasburg’s fastball reached 97 mph at times. He located it well and used the threat of it to effectively dash in a quality curveball and the occasional slider and changeup. It was the kind of outing that reminds us why Washington took him as the first overall pick in 2009 and why the club still believes he can be one of the game’s legitimate aces.

Going into Strasburg’s return, the Nationals were 7-13 in their last 20 games. That stretch included being swept by the Mets—the reason they now trail them by 1.5 games in the NL East and are four games out of the second wild-card spot with the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants ahead of them.

Those 20 games have also seen Rendon, Zimmerman and Werth come off the DL, yet the team still has a losing record since their return.

And the vaunted pitching staff the team was supposed to have this season had a 4.19 ERA in those games as it has been anything but historically dominant over the entire summer.

That is why Strasburg, healthy and good, means so much to Washington over the final 52 games, of which he is on track to start 10.

“He’s got to be a critical piece,” former major league pitcher and current ESPN analyst Dallas Braden said on the network. “This is a team that is finding themselves going in the opposite direction than we all thought they would be at this point in the year. To get a healthy Stephen Strasburg back, we know what he can do. He’s only going to add punch to that rotation, and they’re going to need him.”

Strasburg looked like he did Saturday after his first DL trip back in June. After recovering from a trapezius strain, Strasburg made two healthy starts. He threw 12 innings, allowed two runs and struck out 15 while walking two. His average fastball velocity in those outings was 96.6 mph, according to the team’s MASN broadcast. It normally sits at 95.2 mph for the season, according to Baseball Info Solutions (h/t FanGraphs).

But in his third start back, Strasburg strained his oblique.

It is now five weeks later, but the Nationals have lost 5.5 games in the standings within that time. In the second half, the rotation has a 3.87 ERA, a pedestrian seventh in the NL. Part of the reason for that is ace Max Scherzer is no longer carrying the other four starting pitchers.

In his four second-half starts, he has a 3.38 ERA through 24 innings, and while he is averaging six innings in those outings, it is far from the 7.1 innings he averaged over his 18 first-half turns.

Doug Fister, who was arguably the team’s best pitcher down the stretch last season and into October, has a 4.60 ERA this season. And in his eight starts since returning from the DL this season, his ERA is 4.86. Strasburg’s return boots Fister to the bullpen, and that alone should help the rotation’s bottom line.

For now, Strasburg has to combine with Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Joe Ross and Gio Gonzalez to propel Washington back into playoff position.

“We’re happy to have Strasy back in the rotation,” manager Matt Williams told reporters Friday. “He’s feeling good. He’s got the ability to go out there and shut anybody down on any given day. We’ll hope for that, prepare and see if we can get them.”

Strasburg has a couple of handfuls of starts remaining to help the Nationals do so.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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From the moment we first heard his name, we were told how great Bryce Harper would be.

He was 16 when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated, 17 when he was the first overall draft pick, 19 when he showed up in the major leagues. He was “Baseball’s Chosen One,” Sports Illustrated famously told us, baseball’s LeBron James, the kid who was going to grow up and become one of the game’s all-time greats.

He was going to have seasons like the one he’s having now, seasons where the only real comparable ones would be Ted Williams’ or Babe Ruth’s or Barry Bonds’, and we were all going to see it.

And now we have seen it…and yet we’re still talking about what Harper could become someday.

“Watch Bryce in five years, when he’s 27,” Washington Nationals broadcaster F.P. Santangelo said the other day. “Then look out. When his knowledge of the game collides with his talent, you’ll see.”

It’s a fair comment, but it also makes you wonder. If we keep talking about what Harper could become, will we lose sight of what he already is?

By one significant measure, Harper is already having a season to match with the greats. If you go by OPS+, a stat that attempts to equalize OPS (on-base plus slugging) by conditions of the era and the ballparks he plays in, Harper’s 2015 season has been one that is basically reserved for Hall of Famers.

The idea with OPS+ is that 100 represents major league average, and that every point above 100 represents a percentage point above average. Harper’s OPS+ has consistently stood above 200, or more than 100 percent better than average.

The last guy to end a season there was Bonds, 11 years ago. The last guy to do it at 22—the only guy ever to do it at 22—was Williams in 1941, the year he hit .406.

“It’s a blessing to be mentioned [in that company],” Harper said. “I’m humbled. But I don’t think about it.”

Harper can still be brash, and he can still show signs of his youth. Nationals people talk about how much he has grown up, on and off the field, but they also note there’s still a ways to go. Just last Friday, Harper lost his cool in extra innings and got himself ejected, leaving the Nats in a bad position in a huge game against the New York Mets.

But the Nationals also acknowledge Harper is already the best player on a team with other stars. They call him the best player in the National League, and it’s hard to argue otherwise.

“He’s doing great things for us,” $210 million ace Max Scherzer said. “And he’s continuing to get better.”

Scherzer spent the last five years in Detroit watching Miguel Cabrera, and he sees comparisons to Harper. Santangelo played with Bonds in San Francisco, and he sees comparisons there too.

“I don’t know if I’m seeing history [this year],” Santangelo said. “I know I’m seeing the evolution of a great player.”

Harper leads the NL in home runs (29), runs scored (70), slugging percentage (.667), OPS (1.121) and WAR (6.9). He’s second in batting average (.330) and fourth in RBI (68).

But it’s OPS+ that more easily allows comparisons across eras and more clearly shows how brilliant Harper’s season has been.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, only 18 players in history have finished a year with an OPS+ above 200 (Ruth did it 11 times, the most of anyone). Thirteen of the 18 went to the Hall of Fame. The other five are Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Norm Cash.

Only eight players have done it more than once. Only Williams and Ty Cobb did it before turning 24.

(And if you’re wondering about Mike Trout, his OPS+ is 185, which would be a career high).

“He’s got all the potential in the world,” Nationals pitcher Doug Fister said. “He’s the one who puts the limit on where his ceiling is.”

Already, Harper has learned to lay off pitches out of the strike zone, which Nationals people cite as the biggest improvement he has made this year. But they all insist there’s more to come.

“There’s untapped potential,” manager Matt Williams said.

“It’s not that he’s going to hit 80 home runs in a season, or hit .450,” Scherzer said. “But he’s going to be more consistent in situations.”

There it is again, the talk of what Harper could become. He won’t turn 23 until Oct. 16, so it’s fair to expect improvement, fair to talk about what he could be.

He could go on to do special things. Just understand he already is.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Before the season, I could’ve written down the names of the Washington Nationals‘ five starting pitchers and it would have only been a slight exaggeration to submit that as a list of the team’s top five All-Star Game candidates. 

But with the game just two weeks away, the Nationals’ rotation is only likely to send one representative to Cincinnati. 

A list of Washington’s potential All-Stars reads much like the script of the Nats’ season as a whole. The starting pitchers are, for the most part, nowhere to be found, and several other players have maxed out their potential to pick up the slack. 

If Bryce Harper failed to put up All-Star numbers for the first half of the season, there would’ve been No. 34 jerseys burning in the streets of D.C. in frustration. But he did, so there aren’t.

The more unlikely candidates come in the form of an aging center fielder who began the season on the DL and a newcomer who’s played out of his natural position for the entirety of his short Nationals career. 

With fan voting determining the starting position of players, Washington is essentially guaranteed to have one starter come July 14 after the latest update revealed Harper is more than five million votes clear of the next closest outfielder. 

But the players and the managers get their voices heard next, when they name the All-Star pitchers and fill out the bench. And that’s where the Nationals can earn the most All-Star nods. 

Five Nats have a shot to join the NL roster at the Midsummer Classic. Here they are, ranked for your convenience, based on likelihood of selection. 

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Admit it: Somewhere around the fifth inning of Max Scherzer‘s start Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies, you were expecting history. Not just hoping for it or believing it was possible. You assumed it would happen.

“It,” of course, being a second consecutive no-hitter. If Scherzer had managed the feat—and he teased us, not allowing a baserunner in this 5-2 road win until Freddy Galvis doubled with one out in the sixth—he’d have become just the second big league pitcher to do so. The other, Johnny Vander Meer, did it in 1938.

For now, Vander Meer remains alone in his exclusive club. But the mere fact that Scherzer came so close, and had basically everyone convinced he could do it, tells you all you need to know about how far the ace right-hander has elevated his game.

Yes, he was facing the woeful Phillies, cellar-dwellers in the National League East who saw their manager, Ryne Sandberg, resign earlier in the day, as reported by Philly.com‘s David Murphy.

And yes, Scherzer has been good for a while now. He won an American League Cy Young Award in 2013 with the Detroit Tigers, after all, and posted a career-high 252 strikeouts last season.

But something seems to have clicked since Scherzer arrived in the nation’s capital, some other gear we didn’t know he had. Maybe even he didn’t know he had it.

Scherzer‘s overall numbers with the Washington Nationals are excellent: 1.79 ERA, 110.1 innings pitched, 130 strikeouts.

But over his last three starts, he’s truly become a one-man, must-watch event.

On June 14, he took a perfect game into the seventh and wound up with a complete-game, one-hit, 16-strikeout shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Then, on June 20, came the no-hitter, during which he retired 26 straight Pittsburgh Pirates before beaning Jose Tabata. It was a painfully close pass at perfection but still a transcendent performance.

By comparison, Friday’s win over the Phils was second-tier, B-side Scherzer, as he lasted “only” eight frames and surrendered two earned runs.

In the midst of all that stellar pitching, Scherzer put together an eye-popping scoreless stretch, as CSN Washington’s Mark Zuckerman highlighted:

CBS Sports‘ Mike Axisa joined in the praise parade:

Scherzer is on an extended run of dominance right now, the likes of which we don’t see very often. A one-hitter, a no-hitter, then eight innings of two-run ball? Any one of those three would represent the best start of the season for most pitchers. Scherzer‘s done all that in the span of two weeks. He is the best pitcher in baseball right now…

“[This] is some of the best baseball I’ve thrown, best pitching I’ve done,” Scherzer said after his no-no, per MLB.com‘s Jacob Emert and Tom Singer. “I just feel like I’m executing with all my pitches. I just continue to keep getting better and it shows you hard work pays off.”

Hard work and, perhaps, a move to the Senior Circuit. Not to take anything away from Scherzer, who looks like he could get anyone out right now without breaking a sweat, but it’s worth noting that his uptick from very good to great has coincided with his move to a league that doesn’t feature the designated hitter.

A look at Scherzer‘s PITCHf/x data, per FanGraphs, doesn’t reveal anything radical, though his fastball velocity is up a tick compared to last year (93.6 mph versus 92.8 mph). He’s also relying a bit more heavily on his slider and a bit less on his changeup.

Whatever the reason, Scherzer has attained elite status. He gives off that vibe every time he takes the hill that something is happening. Think Clayton Kershaw during last year’s Cy Young/MVP campaign (but not so much Kershaw in the playoffs).

Can it continue? Can Scherzer ride this wave straight to a second Cy Young Award and join an elite fraternity of hurlers who have won the prize in both leagues? Right now, that group includes Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Gaylord Perry.

With the way he’s been throwing, Scherzer‘s name fits right in. Perhaps he’ll hit a few bumps this summer, as even the great ones do. But there’s every reason to assume the Nats can ride him straight through to October.

OK, here’s one more testimonial of how dominant Scherzer has been. In compiling the latest installment of Bleacher Report’s Team of the Week, I gave Scherzer only an “honorable mention,” even after his no-hitter (the week in question didn’t feature either of his other starts).

My reasoning was simply that anything less than perfection feels like less than what Scherzer is capable of. He’s being judged on another level because he’s playing on another level.

Call it unfair. Call it stupid. Just don’t forget to call him flat-out filthy.

All statistics current as of June 26 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Washington Nationals infielder Anthony Rendon has been placed on the disabled list for the second time this season. 

Continue for updates. 

Rendon Has Quad Strain

Friday, June 26

According to Amanda Comak of MLB.com, Rendon went on the 15-day disabled list with a quadriceps strain in his left leg. 

“The Washington Nationals selected the contract of infielder Emmanuel Burriss from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday and placed infielder Anthony Rendon on the 15-day disabled list with a left quadriceps strain, retroactive to June 25,” Comak wrote. 

Mark Zuckerman of CSN Washington added “Rendon said it didn’t bother him at plate, only in field and on bases. Good news is he can keep swinging while on DL, just can’t run.”

Per Zuckerman, the Nationals made room for Burriss on their roster by transferring Reed Johnson to the 60-day disabled list. 

Injuries are starting to pile up for Rendon, whose issues staying on the field date back to his college days at Rice. The 25-year-old has appeared in only 18 games this season after starting the year on the disabled list with a left knee issue. 

The Nationals activated Rendon on June 4. He hadn’t hit for power yet this season, with a .362 slugging percentage, but his .375 on-base percentage trails only Bryce Harper for the team lead. His absence creates another void in a lineup that’s also missing Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman.   

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The Washington Nationals‘ erratic first half of the season has been a learning experience for the fans as they come to grips with a team that may not, after all, be the first-ever 162-game winner, and for the clubhouse staff as they conduct detergent-related science experiments to get chocolate sauce out of jersey fabric. 

Baseball rarely ever follows a script, but it looks like the Nationals didn’t even attempt to learn their lines. After opening the season as consensus World Series favorites, Washington promptly started said season with a 3-8 record. The team followed that early face-plant with three months’ worth of peaks and valleys. 

With heroic individual performances serving to balance out inconsistent pitching, the Nationals were one of the hardest teams to predict in the first half of the year. But Washington hasn’t been without flashes of dominance on its way to a 37-33 record and a seat atop the NL East. 

The Nationals are still finding their identity, and once that process is complete the team’s raw talent could overwhelm the rest of baseball. But to hazard any guesses regarding the second half of the season would be just that: guesses. 

So while we wait for the team to advance the story for us, here’s a look back at the anatomy of the Nationals’ first half of the 2015 season. 

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That asking price isn’t looking so outrageous right now.

Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer surprised nobody by throwing his first career no-hitter Saturday. It came against the Pittsburgh Pirates and with little drama, as there was hardly a close call. And considering how dominant the ace right-hander has been recently, this might have been the least surprising no-no in Major League Baseball history.

Scherzer entered this home start against the Pirates coming off a road outing in Milwaukee in which he lost a perfect game on a broken-bat blooper by Carlos Gomez in the seventh inning last Sunday. This time, the perfect game was broken up with two outs in the ninth inning—by Jose Tabata’s elbow. Scherzer hit him with a two-strike pitch before polishing off what ended up being somewhat of an anticlimactic finish despite the zero hits, zero walks and 10 strikeouts.

He became the first pitcher since 1944 to allow one or fewer hits in consecutive complete games. Just, wow.

And his next start could come against a putrid Philadelphia Phillies lineup. That will be a must-watch game involving a last-place club.

#MadMax is not from this planet. #LightsOut pic.twitter.com/tL2VmVCYGR

— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) June 20, 2015

Because we are in about the sixth installment of the Year of the Pitcher, feats like Scherzer’s do not have as much pizzazz as they once did. There have been 25 no-hitters since the start of the 2010 season and at least two per year since the 2007 season. We have also seen pitchers in both leagues sweep the Cy Young and MVP awards since 2011. 

Regardless of the regularity of no-hitters and overall pitching dominance in this era, the Nationals are looking marvelous for shelling out the seven years and $210 million it took to land Scherzer over the offseason. In Year 1 of the deal, he has produced a 1.76 ERA, 123 strikeouts and 14 walks in 102.1 innings, and the Nationals have won nine of his 14 starts. 

“Tenacity is the key,” Nationals manager Matt Williams told reporters Saturday, prior to the no-hitter. “He’s a fun-loving guy for four days a week, and then the fifth day when he pitches, he’s a different animal.” 

Scherzer has been a bargain in an age when we know 30-something pitchers with long-term contracts do not get to hold that kind of distinction. As the game penalizes higher payrolls with taxes and teams try to curb their long-term spending, Scherzer is a rarity so far.

Even some of his teammates think so.

Someone give that guy a raise. @Max_Scherzer

— Drew Storen (@DrewStoren) June 20, 2015

The Pirates were evolved enough to comprehend the kind of sheer dominance Scherzer had just smothered them in.

“You have to find it in your baseball heart,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle told reporters, “to appreciate that performance.”

Scherzer will turn 31 in about a month, and he is well on his way to a third consecutive season of pitching at least 200 innings. He is already the National League Cy Young Award front-runner and has easily been the most dominant pitcher in the majors. 

He has shown signs of only getting better, and now that he is in the more pitcher-friendly league, we could see more of this from Scherzer for the next few seasons.

Because he just reached his prime in 2013, it is entirely possible for Scherzer to abuse lineups well into his next decade. Comparing him to one of the best pitchers the sport has ever seen might not be totally fair at this point, but it’s not an absurd thought that Scherzer could go into his late 30s with the same kind of production Randy Johnson had—125-42, 2.63 ERA, 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a 175 ERA-plus— between ages 32 and 38.

There is risk. Everyone knows that. The Nationals knew that when they signed Scherzer, as did every team that was unwilling to plop more than $200 million on the table for a pitcher entering his 30s—a time when pitchers typically do not age well and decline is imminent.

That history aside, Scherzer looks like the best free-agent pitching signing in a long time. While CC Sabathia (pre-extension) and Zack Greinke have been good, even great at times, Scherzer’s start with the Nationals has already been otherworldly in an era when such pitching hyperbole is commonplace. This near-perfect game is just more early proof.

Whenever he declines—which he will over the duration of his seven-year deal, and the Nationals are funneling him $35 million annually—it could all be worth it. If Scherzer is the ace who leads the franchise to a World Series, its first ever, at any point in the next seven years—again, if he is the arm leading—the entirety of the contract will be worth spending for the softer years.

If he puts a trophy in the case, then yes, Scherzer will be a bargain.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Player: Mariano Rivera III

Position: RHP

DOB: 10/4/1993 (Age: 21)

Height/Weight: 5’11”, 155 lbs

Bats/Throws: R/R

School: Iona

Previously Drafted: 2014 (29th round, NYY)

Background

When the New York Yankees selected the son of legendary closer Mariano Rivera as a draft-eligible sophomore last season in the 29th round, it could have been viewed as a favor to one of the team’s all-time greats.

Rivera III was not satisfied with simply being drafted, though, and he returned to Iona for his junior season in an effort to boost his stock.

“I feel like as a person, I was always hard on myself,” Rivera III told Ian Sacks of Iona College (via YouTube). “I wanted to go in the top 10 rounds. That didn’t happen last year, but hopefully this year it will. I feel like I’ve done good enough to have that well under the 10th round. It’s all a mystery right now. I left it all on the field. Let’s see what happens.”

After posting a 7.25 ERA and 1.94 WHIP in 36 innings of work as a freshman, Rivera III took a step forward as a sophomore, but he was still far from a highly regarded prospect.

Joining the rotation full time, he went 2-6 with a 5.40 ERA, 1.40 WHIP and 6.43 strikeouts per nine innings with five complete games and a shutout, but his stuff was still mediocre at best for someone projected to be a reliever at the next level.

With his chances of following in his father’s footsteps and playing in the majors looking like a long shot, a crazy thing happened this spring—his stuff took off, and he emerged as a legitimate prospect.

His fastball velocity spiked, and his slider emerged as a legitimate out pitch, and his numbers were dramatically improved as a result.

Stepping into the role of staff ace, Rivera III went 5-7 with a 2.65 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 113 strikeouts in 85 innings to win Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year honors.

That was enough for him to rank as the No. 170 draft prospect according to MLB.com, with Baseball America even higher on him as its No. 142 prospect.

Pick Analysis

He’s not the same pitcher as his father, starting with the lack of that signature cut fastball, but he still has late-inning potential.

Consider the following scouting report from Baseball America:

Some scouts feel that his arm speed is unparalleled and after pitching in the low 90s last year, Rivera has consistently worked 92-95 this spring, having begun to fill out his shoulders, and he still projects for more velocity. Rivera’s delivery isn’t very conventional, with heavy lean to his glove side and an artificial over-the-top arm slot. He struggles to repeat his landing, and may have to tone down his delivery at the next level. Rivera is effective when he pitches down in the zone with his fastball and late-breaking slider.

He projects as a solid middle reliever, with the upside to pitch even later in the game.

With a full-time move to the bullpen and a focus on his fastball/slider combination, Rivera III could take off with that conventional two-pitch combination in the late innings.

Considering how much his stuff has improved in the past year, there is also some legitimate hope that he has room for further improvement over the next few years.

MLB Player Comparison: Jason Frasor

He still has a decent amount of work to do on his secondary pitches, but Rivera III currently features the same three-pitch repertoire of longtime setup man Jason Frasor with a slider/splitter combination to back his mid-90s fastball.

Rivera Jr. throws a bit harder than Frasor, who topped out at 93.9 miles per hour on his average fastball back in 2008, via FanGraphs, but the two could turn into similar pitchers serving in a similar role in the big leagues.

If his slider takes off as a second truly plus offering, Rivera III has legitimate closer potential, but as things currently stand, he looks like a useful middle-relief arm.

Projection: Setup reliever with closer potential

Major League ETA: 2018

Chances of Signing: 90 percent

Considering his personal goal of going in the first 10 rounds has been reached, Rivera III looks like a safe bet to sign this time around.

All statistics and background information on Rivera Jr. come courtesy of The Baseball Cube and icgaels.com.

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Bryce Harper has been on a torrid pace in May, leading the Washington Nationals into first place in the National League East. Unfortunately, the star outfielder will be out for at least one game with a sore back.

Continue for updates. 

Harper Scratched With Sore Back

Saturday, May 30

According to the Nationals’ official Twitter feed, Harper was scratched from the lineup Saturday with a sore back:

Harper said he has a bruised spine, and may need Sunday off as well, according to Dan Kolko of MASN.

Per CBS Sports MLB, Harper was hit with a fastball in the back by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tony Cingrani on Friday night:

The good news is that this doesn’t sound like a significant injury, which has happened to Harper in the past. He’s played in only 218 out of a possible 324 games from 2013-14, but fully healthy this year, the 22-year-old is off to a spectacular start. 

Harper leads the league with a 1.201 OPS and 18 home runs in 48 games. He’s been in the big leagues for four seasons, yet it’s easy to forget how young he still is. The Nationals have been waiting for this performance from their young superstar, so keeping him healthy for the entire season is paramount to their success.   

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