It has been a strange offseason in the National League East so far. The Philadelphia Phillies have made one shrewd signing while the Atlanta Braves have been fairly quiet. The New York Mets have been the busiest, remolding their roster around the addition of Juan Soto. The Miami Marlins have at least made a trade, and the Washington Nationals haven't done anything notable besides winning the No. 1 pick in the 2025 Draft.
One thing the Nationals have done, however, is sign a former Phillies top prospect to a minor league contract. According to the Washington Post's Andrew Golden, the Nationals signed Carlos De La Cruz to a minor league deal this week.
Carlos De La Cruz's feel-good story with the Phillies is over, but he's still in the division with the Nationals
De La Cruz elected to head to free agency after the season, ending his run as a feel-good story with the Phillies. De La Cruz was once ranked as high at No. 9 in the Phillies farm system by MLB Pipeline, as recently as 2023. Undrafted out of high school, the imposing 6-foot-8 slugger caught the Phillies' eye, and they brought him into the organization in 2017.
Despite high strikeout numbers, his power potential got him through the Phillies system, and he made it to Double-A for 38 games in 2022. He hit a healthy .278 with an .825 OPS and seven home runs in that small sample with the Reading Fightin Phils. In a full 129-game season in Reading in 2023, the outfielder hit .259 with a .797 OPS and 24 homers but still struck out at a 27.5 percent clip.
De La Cruz, who's now 25, saw his stock plummet in 2024. After another solid start in Double-A, he moved up to Triple-A Lehigh Valley but struggled mightily at the more advanced level. He hit just .190 with a .516 OPS and three long balls in 48 games with the IronPigs, while his strikeout rate ballooned to 36 percent.
Who knows how he would have adjusted with a full season at the highest minor league level, but the Phillies had obviously seen enough of his swing-and-miss to let him walk and get a fresh start elsewhere. Without an invite to Nationals spring training at this time, per Golden, it looks like De La Cruz will have to prove himself all over again in an effort to break through with a young Washington team.