Good Morning Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today December 6, 2023. Oh my have the Winter Meetings been boring. The Nationals won the lottery, but still won’t pick higher than 10th overall. A bunch of depth free agents signed. And Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez spoke to the media about their offseason goals. I am Haden and let’s dive into our topics for today

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Leading today’s Morning Briefing: Rizzo and Martinez speak with the media about offseason

Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez spoke on various MLB Network-related programming yesterday, laying out their thought process and wishlist for the 2024 offseason.

As had previously been reported, the Nationals want to add a designated hitter and/or a corner infielder. Quite a few fit the mold, with Rhys Hoskins and Jorge Soler being the obvious fits.

Martinez also mentioned wanting to add a left-handed power bat and adding more starting pitching to essentially push Trevor Williams out of the rotation. Hopefully, Rizzo adds that bat internally via top prospect James Wood and doesn’t contribute to the already crowded outfield by making additions through free agency.

As for Trevor Williams, I have a hard time seeing a path to him being a member of the rotation even with the current options. Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, and to an extent Jackson Rutledge all show more promise in the rotation in 2024 than Williams. Why not give the young guys like Irvin and Rutledge the chance to prove themselves at the major league level? Even if we exclude Rutledge from the conversation, Patrick Corbin is already in the rotation. Something I would be in favor of is using Williams and Joan Adon as two bulk-inning relievers who essentially function as a fifth starter. Williams has shown throughout his career that a multi-inning relief role is a better role for him statistically, and Adon’s first-through-the-order numbers are much more impressive, allowing just a .625 OPS, with the league average OPS being .734.

Martinez also announced that Joey Meneses was dealing with an undisclosed knee injury, which could explain the significant drop in power output.

Some other cliff notes from Rizzo (shoutout to TalkNats for pulling these), include the Nationals intending to take the next step forward in their rebuild this year and do not intend to block any prospects. This is significant in that the Nationals likely intend to ramp up spending a decent amount last year. This is me speculating here, but it also makes me think that barring Candelario willing to take another one or two-year deal, a reunion doesn’t make sense. Candelario on a long-term deal doesn’t seem like a good fit, especially with the rise of Brady House and Yohandy Morales.

You can read more about Day 1 of Winter Meetings and the Nationals here.

You can read more about Day 2 of the Winter Meetings here.

Despite Winning the Lottery for the First and Second Overall Picks, the Nationals will Select at Tenth Overall

In a report from Baseball America, the Nationals actually had their lottery balls pulled for the first and second overall picks. But thanks to their selection within the top-six picks in last year’s draft and being revenue-sharing payees rather than recipients, they were barred from picking any higher than 10th overall.

Their balls were only included in the pool since it would otherwise change the probability that other teams were actually favored to win the lottery.

The Rule 5 Draft takes place today

If I had to bet, the Nationals are likely looking to take a pitcher here. Of the bats available, Marlins first baseman Troy Johnston. He has strong power from the left side, but he’s 27 and has been above-average rather than great in pro ball. A guy who also fits the Nationals’ philosophy is third baseman Aaron Schunk, a free-swinging hitter with strong bat-to-ball skills and offers good versatility in the infield.

The Nationals could go one of two ways with a pitcher, adding inning-eater relievers like Coleman Crow, Tanner Burns, or Cole Wilcox, who you hope with time turn into a back-end starter, or you add a reliever with good stuff, but has some significant flaw like home run issues or command and hope to fix that, like Justin Slaten, CJ Van Eyk, or Braxton Roxby.

Around the MLB

Former Nationals Joe Ross and Erick Fedde both earned big-league contracts recently. Ross landed with the Milwaukee Brewers on a one-year $1.75M deal. Fedde, who is coming off an MVP season in Korea, earned a two-year $15M deal with the Chicago White Sox. Both figure to be depth options for their respective clubs, but it will be interesting to see how both perform after leaving the Nationals organization.

Drama unfolded after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts publicly revealed that the team met with Shohei Ohtani. For those who are unaware, Ohtani has stated that if any of his meetings were released to the media, he would hold that against the team. So instead of teams leaking that they meet with Ohtani, their mysterious disappearances from the Winter Meetings become the only sort of evidence of who is still involved in the Ohtani sweepstakes. After Roberts’s press conference, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said he was surprised that Roberts said that. Personally, all of this is way more interesting than “X team met with Shohei and his representatives” stories, so I am not sure why many have decided to turn on Ohtani in the last 24 hours.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox completed a trade. Outfielder Alex Verdugo will head to the Yankees in exchange for three lower-level pitching prospects. The Yankees are additionally nearing a deal with the San Diego Padres for Juan Soto, giving them a projected outfield of Alex Verdugo, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto, with superstar prospect Jasson Dominguez returning to the mix once he recovers from Tommy John Surgery.

ICYMI: Latest articles on the Nats Report

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

• Perspective: Crafting a Team Identity
• The Nats Report’s Free Agency Wishlist
• Perspective: Juan Soto to Nats isn’t as Crazy as you Think.
• Prospect Profile: Brady House
• Nationals Maintaining a Lowkey Presence at the Winter Meetings

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.

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Quick Notes: Washington Nationals announce promotions for 2024 including a 2019 World Series Replica Ring

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The Nationals have just announced the 2024 promotion schedule which includes some really interesting giveaways including the long awaited 2019 World Series Replica Ring. Here are the giveaways including the dates: April 1, 2024 - Opening Day Reversible Bucket Hat

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