Good Morning Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for Wednesday, January 12, 2022. Thank you for starting your day with us.

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Leading today's Morning Briefing: League, MLBPA set for bargaining session Thursday. There have been multiple news reports saying that Major League Baseball will be presenting the MLBPA with a proposal that will address the core economic concerns that caused the lockout on Thursday via virtual meeting. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, [Tweet link], “MLB is expected to make a core-economics proposal at the session, which would be the first between the sides since the league locked out the players on Dec. 2.” Read the latest news here. The question now is, could this be the start of the end of the lockout that was started last month? Or will the MLB proposal be a waste of time? We all wait to see. Either way, time is running out as pitchers and catchers are set to report to Spring Training on February 2, and the first Spring Training games are scheduled to start on February 26.

ICYMI: Another Soto in a Curly W? Earlier this month/late last year there were rumblings of Elian Soto the younger brother of Juan, who was close to joining the New York Mets organization according to the New York Post.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, when Byron Kerr reported that " Elian Soto, the younger brother of Nats superstar Juan Soto, is close to joining his brother in the Nats organization. Elian, 16, is a 3B/OF." [Tweet Link].  No matter what, the younger Soto will not be able to sign with the Nationals until 2023, which is right before Juan Soto's current contract expires.

Our friends at TalkNats have a MUST READ article about the news. Read the full article here.

Why does this matter? Or does it? That is the million-dollar question, or billion if you want to say.  Does the possible signing of the younger Soto mean that Juan wants to stay in D.C? According to Britt Ghiroli of the TheAthletic, "Juan Soto was a factor" in this change. [Tweet Link] Hmm...

Meet the Washington Nationals’ 2021 Organizational All-Stars via MiLB.com; Cade Cavalli leading the way. We've been waiting for this list for a bit, so it was great to finally see Minor League Baseball.com put out the 2021 Organizational All-stars for the Washington Nationals. Obviously, right-handed pitcher Cade Cavalli was on the list, however, there were a few surprises. We have the full list here.

MLB International Bonus Pools for 2021-22 Signing Period. Yesterday, Baseball America released the bonus pools that each team will have available to spend on Internation prospects starting this Saturday.  The bonus pools have a hard cap that teams cannot exceed, although bonuses of $10,000 or less are exempt from the pools. Teams are not allowed to trade their pool space during this signing period, which opens on Jan. 15, 2022, and runs through Dec. 15, 2022.. According to Baseball America, the Washington Nationals are in the $5,179,700 pool, which is a lot of money to spend.  In early 2021 we took a look at Cristian Vaquero who might be one of the players that the Nationals might sign during the signing period. Cristian Vaquero is a top-five international prospect. Get to know him here.  Make sure that you follow us on Twitter for the latest up-to-date information throughout the day on Saturday.

New on the Nats Report. Jackson Rutledge the Washington Nationals Pitching Prospect to watch in 2022. The 2019 Washington Nationals pitching prospect Jackson Rutledge looks to rebound from an injury season and make significant strides in 2022 and the Washington Nationals need him to do so. Read the full article here.

So You Think You Know The Washington Nationals: 2019 Washington Nationals Bobblehead Giveaways. In our latest quiz, we test your Washington Nationals bobblehead knowledge. Can you correctly guess all the stadium Washington Nationals bobbleheads that were given out in 2019? Take the quiz today and then share your results with us on Twitter!

Trending on the Nats Report: We asked the question: Should the Nationals draft right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker? From the article: "After not being able to agree with the New York Mets, Right-Handed Pitcher Kumar Rocker could be an interesting draft choice for the Nationals in 2022. As of now, MLB.com is projecting that the Nationals will draft OF Elijah Green from IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), however, with pitching now being a need for the Nationals things could change and it might be a good idea to draft another stud pitcher that could help the team in the long term, is Kumar Rocker a good fit?" Click here to read the full article. We have also written about another interesting prospect that the Nationals should take a look at shortstop: Jacob Berry.

Apple TV & Major League Baseball? According to the New York Post, Apple has had substantial talks about carrying Major League Baseball games next season. This is extremely interesting as a potential MLB-Apple deal would not be anywhere close to the magnitude of the NFL and Amazon — which is for more than a billion dollars per year — but MLB and Apple would be the entree of the technology behemoth into the coverage of top live sports. Read the full article here.

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