In 2017, Victor Robles was a consensus top-ten prospect in baseball. FanGraphs had him the top prospect in the Nationals’ system, ahead of Juan Soto (also, shoutout to current Mariner Austin Voth, #15 on that list). MLB Pipeline had him as the eighth best prospect in all of baseball, just behind a Phillies shortstop named J.P. Crawford. Robles drew praise for being a “pure” hitter and for his incredible sense of the zone—it’s popular ret-conning now, given their career trajectories, to say Robles learned his sense of the zone from Soto, but Soto came up a year after Robles, so maybe it’s the other way around—and was considered one of Washington’s “untouchable” players in trades, even as the club began to sputter following a thrilling World Series championship in 2019.
For Victor Robles and the Mariners, a much-needed fresh start
