Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, January 22, 2024.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing.  This is Richard filling in for Haden this Monday morning.

Our first Annual Prospect Ranking List: Coming Soon.

The big story here at the Nats Report is the publishing of our first annual Washington Nationals Prospect Ranking list.

The team has been busy putting together our first-ever Prospect Rankings. This will be an annual list moving forward here at the Nats Report.  We hope this annual list will become the definitive list for the Washington Nationals community prospect rankings. Be sure to tell a fellow Washington Nationals friend or family member to subscribe to the Nats Report today so that they also get our first annual list.

We plan to release the full list on Wednesday, and for paid subscribers, you will receive breakdowns of the list.

We will also be planning some subscriber-only events around the launching of this list, such as a subscriber-only Question and Answer session and other great subsriber-only events. So make sure that you subscribe to the Nats Report TODAY!

To celebrate the launch of our prospect list, we are giving you 20% off an annual Nats Report subscription until February 1. You can redeem it here.

Pitchers and Catchers Reporting are only days away, and Hall of Fame Selection is this Week.

With the NFL playoffs entering their last weekend and the Super Bowl only weeks away, it’s getting closer for Pitchers and Catchers to start reporting to Spring Training facilities around Florida and Arizona. Many free agents are yet to be signed to a team as we hit the end of January and the beginning of February. Plenty of intrigue leading up to February 14th.

Before that happens, this Tuesday, the 2024 BBWAA Hall of Fame announcement will be on MLB Network, leading up to the reveal of the results by Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch at 6 p.m. There are 26 candidates on this year’s BBWAA ballot.

The first-time nominees are José Bautista, Adrián Beltré, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes, James Shields, Chase Utley, and David Wright.

Click here for the latest off-season headlines, rumors, trades, and more.

Around MLB

Former Washington National and current Los Angeles Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon made some interesting headlines over the weekend when asked during an interview with The Jack Vita Show what change he would make in baseball. The 11-year veteran responded by complaining that the MLB season is too long.

“We got to shorten the season, man,” Rendon said. “There’s too many dang games–162 games in 185 days or whatever it is. Man. No. We gotta shorten this bad boy up. Let’s go.”

The reaction to Rendon’s comments was, let’s say, not so great. Former Washington Nationals teammate Jonathan Papelbon joined in on the social media dogpile criticizing Rendon for not liking to play baseball.

“Played with Rendon and literally hates baseball,” Papelbon posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Yeah, it’s long. Isn’t that what you signed up for??? Just tell the team you want to play half the season and give back half your salary!!!!!”

What do you think? Hit us up on social media!

ICYMI: Latest articles on the Nats Report

Even though it is the offseason, we have been extremely busy producing great content on the Nats Report. Here are just a couple of the articles that we have published recently that you might have missed:

• Podcast: In the Clubhouse (2024 Minor League Outlook)
• How does Dylan Floro’s signing with the Nationals impact the team’s 2024 outlook?
• Perspective: Juan Soto to Nats isn’t as Crazy as You Think
• Perspective: When is Enough Enough?
• How can the Nats’ offense improve in 2024?

We are working on a lot of great Nationals-themed content all off-season so make sure that you are following us on all the major social media channels for the latest.

Featured Story of the Day

The Nats really are a small-market revenue team, plus the impact of the commercial real estate decline! via TalkNats

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