The 2018s and 2019s you see committing are mostly outliers. The big recruiting year is the year after your junior year of HS ball. It doesn't hurt to get exposure before then, but most of the attention at exposure events will be focused on the incoming HS seniors.
I have a 2017 and we are fortunate that we are in a very good program designed to get kids exposure. My biggest advice would be to take a hard look at your travel program. Make sure you are in one designed to get kids exposure.
Using my kids program as an example. We played normal travel ball up until two years ago. We had a very competitive team in our area. We were the team that other teams did not want to meet up with in a local tourney. We were also competitive at the regional tourneys as well. Thing is the program did not know how to get the kids exposure. They chased the tournaments that billed them self as "exposure" or "showcase" tourneys played on local college campuses. About the only thing these tourneys showcase is your sons tan. The tourney companies rent these fields out, the schools pay an assistant coach or two to prep the field between games. The AC then disappears into the athletic offices during the games.
The program we moved to 3 years ago, does not play in the general area tourneys everyone is playing in. They and a couple of other highly selective programs in the area have joined together and play each other just about every weekend. In addition the programs have cultivated relationships with colleges throughout the midwest as well as nationwide. They publish a schedule of when and where kids are playing. The programs and games are structured to showcase kids rather then winning games. Yes winning is important to everyone, but they will not ride a hot pitcher for a whole game if they know they can put another kid on the mound and let the college guys see him. They bat CO in most games and swap kids in and out of the games pretty much every other inning.
If you are playing in a program that is not structured to get kids in the right places you may want to consider moving programs. Find one that is structured to get kids exposure and has a good track record. Ours puts about 75-80% of their kids into college programs every year. Out the remaining kids many of them could play in college but choose not to for various reasons.
I see that you are in VA. I know there are regular posters on this board that are familiar with the programs in that area. Hopefully they can be of some help.