Get ready for four-days of top prospect baseball when all teams will showcase top prospect games with the inaugural SPRING BREAKOUT held from March 14-17 at Grapefruit and Cactus league stadiums starting a week from today and through that weekend. The Washington Nationals and New York Mets Spring Breakout game will be played on March 15 in a Friday afternoon showcase game at 3:10 PM EDT with a big league game following in a doubleheader.
The “Spring Breakout” game, which is a new concept this year, fields rosters of team’s future stars for a showcase in the middle of the Spring Training schedule. Teams are paired against nearby teams in the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues, and the Nats prospects will travel to face the Mets at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie.
The event’s concept is to showcase each organization’s best prospects against another team’s in a game that’s part of a doubleheader with a regularly scheduled Spring Training game. The only downside to this is taking top prospects out of Big League games in the Spring Training schedule. But for most top prospects, they are out of sight on the backfields at the team’s Spring Training complexes — and this will put them front-and-center.
“Spring Breakout will provide a new opportunity to showcase the future stars of the game as they continue on their journey to the Major Leagues.”
— MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement
“Our fans will get unique opportunities to meet our best prospects, get autographs, and see the next generation of Major Leaguers up close.”
“We are thrilled that Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and all of our Clubs are working closer than ever to grow the game and to shine a brighter light on our future All-Stars.”
The Washington Nationals might have inspired this idea when they announced that they were doing an exhibition game on March 26th of their top prospects versus Nats’ MLB players in an exhibition game called “On Deck: Nationals Futures Game”. By the way, tickets are on sale now on this link.
For the “Spring Breakout” games, MLB envisions in-person autograph sessions and other meet-and-greet opportunities with prospects. This is a chance to broaden baseball’s appeal with the stars of tomorrow. Certainly, a perfect time to travel to Spring Training to see this game or you can watch and listen via MLB Digital (MLB.TV, MLB.com, MLB App), SNY, Nationals.com audio webcast, ESPN+, Gameday
The Nats lineup could look something like this:
1. Dylan Crews CF
2. Brady House 3B
3. James Wood RF
4. Yohandy Morales 1B
5. Robert Hassell LF
6. Elijah Green DH
7. Trey Lipscomb SS
8. Darren Baker 2B
9. Drew Millas C
The Nats chose to go the maximum of 27-players on their roster and teams had to select no less than 23 to the maximum that the Nats went to of 27 prospects. Here’s the Nationals’ Spring Breakout roster with MLB Pipeline’s rankings:
PITCHERS
Jarlin Susana, RHP, No. 10
Travis Sykora, RHP, No. 11
DJ Herz, LHP, No. 12
Jackson Rutledge, RHP, No. 15
Mitchell Parker, LHP, No. 22
Cole Henry, RHP, No. 25
Dustin Saenz, LHP, No. 29
Andrew Alvarez, LHP, NR
Lucas Knowles, LHP, NR
Andry Lara, RHP, NR
CATCHERS
Drew Millas, C, No. 20
Israel Pineda, C, No. 26
Maxwell Romero Jr., C, NR
INFIELDERS
Brady House, 3B, No. 3 (MLB No. 48)
Yohandy Morales, 3B, No. 5
Trey Lipscomb, 3B, No. 16
Kevin Made, SS, No. 23
Darren Baker, 2B, No. 27
T.J. White, INF, No. 30
Armando Cruz, INF, NR
OUTFIELDERS
Dylan Crews, OF, No. 1 (MLB No. 7)
James Wood, OF, No. 2 (MLB No. 14)
Elijah Green, OF, No. 6
Daylen Lile, OF, No. 7
Robert Hassell III, OF, No. 8
Cristhian Vaquero, OF, No. 9
Andrew Pinckney, OF, No. 17
For the first time, we might get to see Travis Sykora in a game as he was a 2023 draftee who didn’t pitch in any games, and Daylen Lile who was injured in a scary looking tumble over the outfield wall is on the roster, and he is still day-to-day with a back contusion.
While Nats’ fans have been able to see James Wood, Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell III, and Brady House extensively in big league Spring Training games, we have only been able to see glimpses of some of the other players, and as a group, these players have never been in one game together.
The Mets will feature newbie outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford, and infielder Luisangel Acuña who were all acquired by trades last year. Some of their other top prospects with Colin Houck, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean as draft picks last year, and top prospects Jett Williams and Kevin Parada are all scheduled to play for the Mets.
This will be a “must see” game, and that is what MLB wants. If this works out well, expect it to be expanded in 2025.
