The Nationals are calling up top pitching prospect Cade Cavalli for his Major League debut on Friday, per a club announcement. Grant Paulsen of 106.7 FM The Fan first reported Cavalli would be getting the call to the big leagues. The 2020 first-rounder will need to have his contract formally selected to the Major League roster before Friday’s game.
Cavalli, 24, was the No. 22 overall selection in 2020. The Oklahoma native and former Sooner star has enjoyed a solid season in Triple-A Rochester, where he’s notched a 3.71 ERA with a 25.9% strikeout rate, a 9.7% walk rate and a 43.1% grounder rate. Cavalli has gotten more comfortable in Triple-A and gotten stronger as the season wears on; after some rocky outings throughout his first 13 trips to the hill, he’s now rattled off a 1.47 ERA with a 43-to-12 K/BB ratio (29.7 K%, 8.7% BB%) in his past seven starts — a total of 36 1/3 innings.
The 6’4″, 240-pound Cavalli, in addition to his lofty draft status, currently ranks as one of the sport’s top pitching prospects. He checks in at No. 20 on FanGraphs’ most recent prospect rankings and is also featured prominently on the latest leaguewide lists from Baseball Prospectus (No. 29), Baseball America (No. 52) and MLB.com (No. 58).
Cavalli made the Futures Game roster in each of the past two seasons, though he was a late scratch from this year’s game due to a blister issue on his pitching hand. Fans who tuned into the 2021 game saw Cavalli touch 102 mph on the radar gun with a powerful heater that generally draws 70 grades on the 20-80 scale. Command issues, stemming in part from a violent delivery that gives some scouts concerns he’ll ultimately move to the bullpen, have been the big knock on Cavalli. He also works with a slider, curveball and changeup, each drawing praise as anywhere from an above-average to potentially plus pitch. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs writes in his scouting report that while there’s relief risk, “…if things click, Cavalli is going to be a monster.”
For the Nats, the hope is that Cavalli can achieve that top-of-the-rotation ceiling and join left-hander MacKenzie Gore and righty Josiah Gray as the nucleus of the team’s rotation for years to come. Because he’s being called up this late in the season, Cavalli can’t earn a full year of Major League service time and is also well past the point at which Super Two status is attainable. That means he’ll be controllable for six more seasons beyond this one — all the way through 2028 — and won’t be eligible to reach arbitration until after 2025 season. Of course, future demotions back to the minors could push back either of those trajectories.
Gore and Gray haven’t impressed very much yet at the major league level. Hopefully, Cavalli has a better start to his MLB career.
What are you looking at??? Gore, in this his rookie season, in 8 of his 13 starts, allowed 0 or 1 run. One of his bad starts was in Colorado. For Gray, only 24, is striking out 10 batter per 9IP. Both should be solid 2/3 starters if they remain healthy.
Gray’s biggest issue right now is the long ball. 2.3 HR/9. But I believe he can improve. He’s in the top 70th percentile of exit velocity and top 55th percentile of hard hit rate. Gray has a 19% HR/FB ratio. Get that down to around <12% and he could be a pretty good pitcher.
All of the ML teams are dumping their players in favor of promoting their prospects except Pittsburgh:
The one player that should never again hold either a glove or bat, Josh Van Meter, committed 2 costly errors in the same inning yesterday accounting for 5 unearned runs.
The only thing I do not like about this management team is their roster management. JVM shouldn’t have ever been acquired. Why did we need a sub-par utility man when we had Hoy Park and Cole Tucker also on the same roster? At least Park and Tucker could field and run the bases well. DFA him and get anyone else in the majors.
Whatchu talkinbout Willis? Try watching a game every now and then. If Cade has a better start than those two, he’s an All-Star.
Says the guy who has zero baseball sense
Please be good.
Hope he does better than in the spring training game against St. Louis. Gray’s numbers look good except in one department. He gives up a lot of homers. 2..3 per nine innings. It would be great if he could get it down to 1.5.
And here I thought Strasburg and Corbin were supposed to be the #1 / #2 starters for the Nationals for the next couple of seasons….
You’re close Dorothy, Corbin is the #1 loser & Strasburg is the #1 IL candidate.
I’m anxious to start seeing the “new” Nationals.
Last time I had faith in Washington’s # 1 & 2 starters, they were named Coleman and Bosman.
Scherzer and Strasburg weren’t that bad in 2019
A Friday call-up puts Cavalli’s first two starts against the Reds and A’s. Can’t ease him in much better than that.
They might pass you guys if you’re not careful MarlinsFanBase..
Trade him!
It’s all about timing, remember
..
He and Hassell are too early! All Nats prospects @2025!
Trade them both!
Nats will be stacked in about three years.
The Soto/Bell trade really restocked their farm system with one trade. Abrams, Hassell, Gore, and Wood, all in one trade. Give Susana another year or two and he’ll probably be another top 100 prospect. Heck July alone was a big month for them, not only because of the trade deadline, but the draft netted them three guys in their top 30 prospects (for FanGraphs).
I’m rooting for Cavalli and all of the prospects Washington picked up for Soto to bring this team back to relevance again. It will probably take until 2024 to see a true return from the young talent acquired in the Soto deal, but if Cavalli can pitch well for the rest of this season, he should secure his spot in the rotation for 2023, as should Gore given his success in SD this season (before he got run down and hit hard). CJ Abrams should be a starter in 2023 as well; he just needs more consistency with the bat. These 3 could be the building blocks for the next competitive Nationals team.
With all of this new, young talent and new owners on the horizon, the Nationals might be the next Baltimore Orioles which is funny given their proximity and their rivalry with media coverage / cable deals. They could become two of the more exciting young teams in all of baseball. The Nationals have more work to do to get to the level of where Baltimore is now (and where they project to be next year) but one thing is for sure: the future of the Nationals is much more exciting than it was prior to the Soto deal. Let’s hope Cavalli can help jump start this organization and it’s upcoming youth movement.
Cade Cavalli would be a better name for a guy who jumps motorcycles over ramps with pools of sharks and alligators under them while wearing a cape.
And while the Nats are promoting him to the ML rotation, Farhan passed on him and several other decent pitching prospects to draft a catcher who is still only hitting .216 in A+ ball. Cade could have been brought up this year to the Giants’ rotation, and been there for years along with Webb and Harrison (next year) to go along with Rodon.
Zaidi is a genius, I tell ya.
If it makes you feel better, we drafted Ross Detwiler 4 picks ahead of Madison Bumgarner
Nats drafted Rutledge who is still in A over George Kirby who already looks like a complete stud MLB SP…
This stuff happens to alot of teams.