Follow the Prospects: Jackson Kent, LHP

[nobleisthyname]

Ranked the 9th best team prospect by FanGraphs

Fastball

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Slider

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Curveball

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Changeup

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Command

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Sits/Tops

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FV

45/45

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45/45

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50/55

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60/70

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45/55

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91-95/96

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45

“Jugglin'” Jackson Kent was a two-sport athlete in Illinois who matriculated to Tucson for college and broke out in his draft year as a redshirt sophomore. Washington challenged him with an aggressive debut assignment, but Kent thrived and K’d a batter per inning across 123 innings split between High- and Double-A. After starting 2026 on the IL with an ankle sprain, he was back for a few short outings just prior to list publication, and in those showed a pronounced arsenal-wide velo spike compared to 2025.

Kent is a four-pitch lefty straddling the starter/long reliever line because of the violence in his delivery. His head whack is uglier than most big league starters, but he has four viable pitches and has thrown strikes in both of his fledgling high-level seasons in the rotation. A plus-plus bat-missing changeup headlines Kent’s repertoire. While his delivery is noisy, Kent is able to locate his changeup consistently, and his delivery helps him convince hitters that they’re seeing a fastball out of hand before that pitch sinks below their barrels. His curveball has tighter break than his slider, but he barely uses it because his changeup has been his preferred option against lefties. If Kent can improve his breaking ball command, then he’ll pretty cleanly have a starter’s skill set, ugly delivery or not, and again he’s relatively inexperienced for his age because he redshirted and relieved as an underclassman at U of A.

Whether his 2026 velo spike will stick is another matter. Kent is throwing three ticks harder than he did last year — his fastball is sitting 95, while his slider’s average velo is currently 87 mph — but he’s only done so for a couple of innings as of publication, and his peak velos aren’t way above last year’s. At this point I think it’s more likely he’ll settle into his usual 91-9 mph range once he is stretched out. Kent bears some resemblance to Rays lefty Ian Seymour, another mechanically messy changeup artist who had minor league success as a starter but moved to the bullpen pretty quickly once reaching The Show. Kent is in that vein, but he should still make a meaningful impact on a big league staff even if he indeed ends up in a bullpen

[nobleisthyname]

Age: 23
Team rank: 14
Current level: AA

April recap

W-L

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IP

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GS

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ERA

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FIP

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SO

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BB

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K%

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BB%

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K%-BB%

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WHIP

1-0

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13/1

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4

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2.70

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4.23

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17

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4

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32.7%

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7.7%

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25.0%

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0.90

[imref]

Ace-like: 7.0, 3H, 1ER, 2BB, 8K tonight.

[imref]

5IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 9Ks.

[zoom]

Per TheNatsReport:  promoted to Rochester

[Slateman]

Per TheNatsReport:  promoted to Rochester

Nice. I like it.

[imref]

Starting tonight in place of Perales

[imref]

5IP, 0ER, 3H, BB, 4K in his debut.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-prospects/91251/jackson-kent-washington-nationals-most-underrated-pitching-prospect

Sam Sallick suggests that, next to Sime, Kent might be the best active minor league pitching prospect. Sallick picks up on the improved fastball, which he says is consistently  93-95. The changeup is his best pitch, with a 10 MPH difference from the fastball. It had a 51% whiff rate last year.

Kent’s wonky delivery and elite changeup actually remind me a bit of Guardians rookie Parker Messick, who is having a lot of success this season. Both guys are stockier left handed pitchers with solid but not elite velocity. These guys rely on command and a wipeout changeup to succeed.

Another thing Jackson Kent does very well is get down the mound. He gets about 7 feet of extension, which is elite. That helps his fastball get on hitters quickly. This trait makes Kent similar to former Nats prospect Jake Bennett, who was a big extender with a good changeup. Bennett’s command is a little bit better, but Kent has an even better changeup than him.
...
n my opinion, Kent has the ceiling to be a 3 or 4 starter. One of the reasons the Nats may have traded Jake Bennett is that they knew Kent was a very similar profile. They did not have a guy like Luis Perales in the system, but Kent could do what Jake Bennett did, and maybe even more.

there's some nice video from a recent start in the link.

[imref]

Nice start: 6.0 IP | 2 H | 1 R/ER | 1 BB | 7 K on 82-55

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Maintaining success at AAA.

Just 4 starts and 19.2 IP, but 29.1 K%, 6.3 BB% jumps out. 23.5 Hard Hit% (balls hit over 95 MPH). He's gotten a little unlucky on HRs (3  so far, 14.3 HR/FB%), and the ERa/FIP is  only  4.12/3.91 as a result.

Looks like the  4 seam averages 94, slider has settled at 85.3. Compare to the FG observations at the start of the year, it looks like the fastball velo is sticking higher than his prior years.

[imref]

Seems ready:  5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 88 P last night.

[welch]

Nussbaum thinks Kent will be up with the Nats by the end of the season.

Jackson Kent (LHP)
Current level (age): Triple-A Rochester (23)
The Athletic’s rank: Unranked in the Nats’ preseason Top 20.
What he’s doing: Getting more right-handers out.
What it means: The lefty could be up by the end of the season.


The No. 1 indicator that suggests whether a prospect is ready to join a big-league rotation is if they can get both right-handed and left-handed hitters out. Well …

Last year, Kent could beat lefties with a scouting report. Now, he has the weapons to get righties out, too. No pitcher in the organization has improved their stock more over the last six months. A self-starter at heart, the lefty worked out in Arizona this winter and found a delivery that sent him down the mound quicker.

The fastball now sits around 93 to 94 mph. The oft-used slider is in a good place, and his command of the pitch has taken a big step forward. The changeup has improved as the season has gone along. He is now getting a 34 percent whiff rate against right-handed batters. For a lefty, that’s excellent.

There’s no reason he couldn’t be up in the majors in the next couple months if he maintains his velocity (around 93 mph at the lowest, touching 95 and 96 at the highest). Still, that will be a hurdle: In his last time out, he was back around 91 to 92 mph in the later innings.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7410272/2026/07/01/nationals-prospects-report-jarlin-susan-jackson-kent/

[imref]

Got lit up tonight, but so did most other pitchers. Must have been a humid night.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Got lit up tonight, but so did most other pitchers. Must have been a humid night.

I watched the big blow up inning on NESN. He loaded the bases, no out, and got a grounder to House with the infield in. Executed right, it's a 5-2-3 double play leaving runners at 2B and 3B, 2 out. But ... House threw wide to home. Ford got a glove on it but dropped it, allowing the run to score. I think Ford was charged with an error. House had another wild throw in the next inning leading the WooSox announcers commenting on his fielding.

[imref]

Dominant tonight: 5IP,  2H, 1ER, 0BB, 8K