A Sign(ing)!: The Morning Briefing

Our thoughts and prayers are with the residents of Los Angeles County who are enduring a devastating series of wind-driven wildfires. These uncontrollable blazes have ravaged tens of thousands of acres, destroying entire communities and leaving a trail of destruction.

Tragically, at least five people have lost their lives, and many others have sustained serious injuries.

Are you ready to go back to school/the office, or are you savoring the extension of your winter break? Regardless, it is hard not to daydream about warm weather as pitchers and catchers will report in 34 days to West Palm Beach, FL!

There are only 77 days until Opening Day in Washington, D.C.!

Hi, this is Owen! I am giving Richard a break from the Morning Briefings for a bit. Happy New Year!

Good Thursday morning from a still snow-covered Washington, D.C. Here are the latest headlines, news, analysis, and more around the Washington Nationals for Thursday, January 9, 2025.

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The Washington Nationals turn 20! Monday, we embarked on a journey through the most thrilling moments in Washington Nationals history over the past 20 years. Kicking off our list at #20 is the momentous day in 2009 when Mike Rizzo was named the team's General Manager. (Do you have a favorite moment from the Washington Nationals from the past 20 years that you think we should spotlight? Tag us with your favorite memory on social media, or leave a comment below!)

ICYMI: Nats Sign Amed Rosario. On Wednesday morning, the Nationals announced that they had agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract with free agent infielder Amed Rosario, 29, who spent the 2024 season with the Rays, Dodgers, and Reds, and who has also played for the Mets (who signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2012) and Guardians. Primarily a shortstop - where he has appeared in 766 of his 895 career games, Rosario has also seen time at second and third base as well as all three outfield spots. A career .273/.308/.398 hitter, he in 2024 hit .280/.306/.380 as he played in both leagues last year (starting with the Rays, getting traded to the Dodgers - where he was squeezed off of the roster by the return of Mookie Betts - and finally finishing with the Reds).

As you can perhaps see, he offers pretty good contact ability but very little else with the lumber, with a career walk rate of 4.3% that would look familiar to Keibert Ruiz or Luis García Jr. and more than 11 home runs only in the 2019 rabbit ball season - when he hit 15. He also brings 91st-percentile sprint speed to an already fast team, although his career stolen base success rate (109/145) just barely clears the 75% threshold, at which point you are actively hurting your team's chances of scoring more runs. Defensively, Rosario was a little above average in 2020 with the Mets and during his two full seasons in Cleveland (2021-22), but significantly below average before and since that window. Still, he can credibly hold down shortstop as an insurance policy should CJ Abrams not get himself back on track in 2025.

If Rosario was signed to be the utility infielder - and specifically the emergency shortstop (perhaps bumping José Tena to Rochester) - in place of Ildemaro Vargas (a stronger defender but worse hitter and four years senior to Rosario), this is a perfectly acceptable move that will allow Nasim Nuñez to get the reps every day in AAA that he missed in 2024 as a Rule 5 draft pick. If Rosario was signed to be anything more than that (such as the short side of a platoon with either Tena at third or García Jr. at second, or as the everyday stopgap at third if the Nats' brain trust believes that Brady House will force his way into the majors at some point this summer), then it comes up short, and a far cry from Rizzo's Winter Meetings comment about now being the time to "step on the gas." Let's hope that he has another move coming to further stabilize the third base situation.

Check out our coverage of the Josh Bell, Trevor Williams, Nathaniel Lowe, and Michael Soroka free-agent signings this offseason.

Step into the FUTURE with the Nats Report. Don't forget to subscribe to our dedicated e-newsletter, theFUTURE, about the Washington Nationals minor leagues. We are the ONLY website with a dedicated newsletter on the Washington Nationals minor leagues. Get game recaps from all the Washington Nationals minor league teams, closer looks at upcoming Washington Nationals Prospects, and more. Subscribe right here and step into theFUTURE with us.."

🗓 ON THIS DAY: JANUARY 9, 2013. Despite arguably the most loaded Hall of Fame ballot in history, with twice as many viable candidates as places on any individual ballot*, the BBWAA announces that for only the second time since 1971 (1996) they have not elected anyone to the Hall. Granted, eight of those twenty viable candidates came with either substantiated or unsubstantiated rumors about their use of steroids and other PEDs, but the BBWAA shutout created a massive backlog that both forced the organization and the HOF to amend voting rules (it led directly to removing voters more than ten years removed from actively covering baseball shortly thereafter, as well as shortening the maximum stay on the ballot from fifteen years to ten) and briefly created something of a crisis for the Hall itself, which relies heavily on the annual induction of living people to bring business to Cooperstown.

The list (deep breath): Dale Murphy (15th year, 18.6%), Jack Morris (14th, 67.7), Don Mattingly (13th, 13.2), Alan Trammell (12th, 33.6), Lee Smith (11th, 47.8), Mark McGwire (7th, 16.9), Tim Raines (6th, 52.2), Edgar Martínez (4th, 35.9), Fred McGriff (4th, 20.7), Jeff Bagwell (3rd, 59.6), Larry Walker (3rd, 21.6), Rafael Palmeiro (3rd, 8.8), Bernie Williams (2nd, 3.3), Craig Biggio (1st, 68.2), Mike Piazza (1st, 57.8), Curt Schilling (1st, 38.8), Roger Clemens (1st, 37.6), Barry Bonds (1st, 36.2), Sammy Sosa (1st, 12.5), and Kenny Lofton (1st, 3.2). Biggio, Piazza, Bagwell, Raines, Martínez, and Walker were eventually elected by the BBWAA in that order, with those final three all needing the full ten years to cross the finish line. Morris, Trammell, Smith, and McGriff all made it through various Veterans' Committees. The one who really got short shrift was Lofton, according to Jay Jaffe's JAWS rating (combining career and peak value) the 10th-best center fielder in baseball history, who had the misfortune of having his first year on the ballot be the same as the Piazza-Schilling-Bonds-Clemens-Sosa quintet. Hopefully the Contemporary Baseball VC rights that wrong soon.

📌 Best Fits for Under-the-Radar Free Agents - Including Max Scherzer (ESPN)

📌 Rangers Could Be Done With Bullpen Additions (MLB Trade Rumors)

📌 Could a Small-Market Team Be the Best Fit for Rōki Sasaki? (The Athletic)