Road to The Show™: Nats’ Susana

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at fourth-ranked Nationals prospect Jarlin Susana. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

There are signs that hang in the bullpen at the Nationals’ Spring Training facility that say, “I don’t care how fast you threw ball four.”

The organizational mantra was meant not only for the Major League staff, but it’s likely to also apply to pitchers like Jarlin Susana, who was acquired from the Padres as part of the Juan Soto blockbuster Deadline deal in 2022.

According to Baseball America, there is data that shows that Washington’s No. 4 prospect was the hardest-throwing pitcher in the Minors this season. Both his four-seamer and two-seamer sit in the high-90s and he’s reached 103 mph with the heater.

Susana’s walk rate, which finished at 14.1 percent with Single-A Fredericksburg in 2023, improved to 10.8 percent overall this season. He also got better as he progressed this year, posting a 12.3 percent walk rate with the F-Nats and a 9 percent mark with High-A Wilmington in just nine fewer innings.

Across both levels, Susana finished with a 4.34 ERA and 157 strikeouts over 103 ⅔ innings in 24 starts. He finished 12th in the Minors in strikeouts and his 13.63 K/9 was the highest among all Minor Leaguers to complete 100 innings this season.

Despite the elite velocity, MLB Pipeline notes that Susana’s fastball lacks much bite or movement. But Susana also has a hard, 60-grade slider that can reach 96 mph and prevents hitters from sitting on the heater. He also has a developing changeup and a curveball with the former being the more effective offering.

The No. 90 overall prospect has appeared as a starter in all but one of his 54 Minor League outings, and the Nats seem to prefer that he remain in that role as long as possible. But, given his size and arsenal, there is belief that he can be a dominant closer in the future. So far, in his lone MiLB stint as a reliever – which came with the ACL Padres in 2022 – he yielded three runs and allowed a homer for the first time as a professional over three innings.

“When that ball comes out, it’s on you quick,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told MLB.com after the club’s Spring Breakout game in March. “We’ve noticed he gets quick in his delivery, so just got to get him to kind of slow down a little bit, keep attacking that strike zone. He’s going to be a good one.”

The Padres have been big-game hunters on the international market in the past few seasons. San Diego signed each of MLB Pipeline’s past two top-ranked international prospects – Ethan Salas ($5.6 million) in 2023 and Leodalis De Vries ($4.2 million) in 2024.

In a way, that trend began with Susana, the native of Villa Isabela, Dominican Republic. He emerged as the top-ranked pitcher, ranking No. 31 overall, in the 2021-2022 international class when international scouting re-opened after the pandemic.

Instead of signing in January 2021, when he was first eligible, he remained an amateur and signed the following year – when teams had more room in their bonus pools for players like Susana who were late bloomers. In January 2022, just before his 18th birthday, he agreed to a deal worth $1.7 million – the largest bonus of that Padres class. San Diego scouts were impressed not only with his tremendous fastball but his full four-pitch mix, which they called an “eye-popping” arsenal.

Susana made his professional debut in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League in June. He struck out 44 batters and yielded eight runs over 29 ⅓ innings (2.45 ERA) in eight appearances. Those would be his only outings as a member of the Padres. At the Trade Deadline, Susana was one of five prospects traded to the Nationals along with veteran Luke Voit in a deal that sent Soto and first baseman Josh Bell to the Padres.

Susana ranked as the Padres’ No. 14 prospect at the time of the trade. He was the youngest and the furthest from the Majors among the prospects included in the deal.

After the trade, Susana pitched twice in the Florida Complex League before making his Fredericksburg debut in August. Over five total starts, he posted a 2.30 ERA with 22 punchouts over 15 ⅔ innings.

Susana stayed in the Carolina League in 2023 before being placed on the development list in August to finish the year. He had a nice start to the year which culminated in a 1.08 ERA over four starts in June, but hit a wall when the calendar flipped. In his final six starts of the season, Susana pitched to a 9.13 ERA with 20 punchouts and 15 walks over 22 ⅔ innings.

He reportedly approached his work differently in the offseason, focusing more on his stamina.

He did not appear in any Grapefruit League games this spring but did show off his fastball in the Nats’ Spring Breakout game against the Mets.

Susana took the loss, allowing a pair of runs on three hits and a walk over one inning in what was technically his second professional relief appearance. But he did strike out a pair and hit triple digits on the radar gun 20 times, maxing out at 103 mph.

His struggles continued over his first eight starts with the F-Nats in 2024. Over that span, he went 0-6 with an 8.89 ERA. But he found his footing again in June and had an almost complete turnaround.

Over his last six starts before being promoted to Wilmington, Susana posted a 0.60 ERA with 49 strikeouts and 11 walks. He completed five innings and struck out at least seven batters in each start. He also did not allow an extra-base hit and held opposing batters to a .357 OPS in that span.

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Over the remainder of the season with the Blue Rocks, Susana posted a 4.18 ERA with 74 punchouts over 47 ⅓ innings in 10 starts. He recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in each of his final two starts.

Susana is the only current Top 100 prospect from the franchise-altering trade – the second such deal to signal the start of the Nationals’ rebuild.

That trade also included James Wood, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore, who ranked among the best prospects in the Minors before graduating to the Nats over the past two seasons. All three players factor heavily into Washington’s future. Robert Hassell III became the Nats’ No. 1 prospect at the time of the trade, but he’s battled through injuries and struggled to find his footing at the upper levels.

Susana pitched much of the year with Travis Sykora at Fredericksburg. Both right-handers are the same age and nearly the same size. Sykora, the Carolina League Pitcher of the Year and member of the MiLB Awards All-MiLB Prospect First Team, leaped Susana in the latest rankings. And the pair represents the next wave of potentially elite pitching in the Nats’ rebuild.