Washington Nationals Breakout Pitching Prospect Named MiLB Player of the Year

Clemmey was drafted in the second round of the 2023 draft by the Cleveland Guardians. He was acquired by the Nationals as a part of a trade that sent Lane Thomas to Cleveland at the 2024 trade deadline. In six starts at Single-A last season, he allowed 11 earned runs and struck out 26 in 23 innings.

He was always well regarded with a great slider, but he really broke out with High-A Wilmington this season.

In 87.1 innings, the 20-year-old struck out 113 batters (11.6 K/9) and posted a 2.47 ERA. It was his first taste at a higher level, and he dominated.

The lefty has two plus pitches, a mid-90s fastball that "plays up" and a slider that he can "generate chase running away from lefties or in to rights," according to a scouting report from MLB Pipeline. His third pitch, a changeup, is still a work in progress.

At such a young age, though, Clemmey is still a work in progress, as evidenced by his performance in six starts at Double-A this year.

In 29.1 innings, he allowed 21 runs (6.44 ERA) and only struck out 23 (7.1). That is also on top of the fact that he reallly struggled with allowing baserunners, even in High-A. With Wilmington, Clemmey walked 6.2 batters per nine, but that shrunk to 4.0 in Double-A.

All of this to say, he's not a complete player at this stage.

"He had to change his plan of attack. He couldn't pitch to the middle of the plate like he had when he dominated in A ball," Double-A pitching coach Rigo Beltran told Baseball America.

Clemmey was able to step back and make those adjustments at the end of the season, allowing four runs and striking out 15 over his final 17.2 innings. Another positive was walking only five batters in those last three starts.

"You have to wait at least a couple of games before you can get aggressive with adjustments. I felt like he was in a good spot during spring training, but he had gotten away from that. Now, he's in a spot where he's able to make in-game adjustments," Beltran continued.

Clemmey is still a young, raw pitching prospect. But with a wipeout slider and good fastball from the left side, the sky is the limit as he still has room to grow into his 6'6" frame.

There are more highly touted prospects in the Nationals system in Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana, but Clemmey was able to perform all season long at a high level at a very young age, as he was 19 for most of the season. If he continues on this trajectory, Washington has a lot of potential in the future rotation.