Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, February 21, 2024.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here, as usual, let’s talk some baseball.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Who can we expect to make the team out of camp?

Spring Training is here and before long we will be watching regular season games. So who can we expect to make that Opening Day roster? Unfortunately, it is not as simple as giving the spots to the best players. If it was, you could make a strong argument that top prospects Dylan Crews and James Wood should be on the roster. Instead, the battle to be the Opening Day center fielder is between Victor Robles and Jacob Young, with Robles as the favorite.

Another factor the Nationals front office will have to consider are minor league options or the lack thereof. Right now, Carter Kieboom, Jordan Weems, Joan Adon, Victor Robles, Ildemaro Vargas, and Luis García Jr. have all had all their options used. That means that in order to send them to Triple-A, they would have to be exposed to the waiver wire, where another team could claim them. Robles’s case comes with an extra wrinkle as he would have to consent to being optioned to Triple-A but would lose his salary for the season if he declined.

The Nationals offense is pretty much set in stone. The only real question outside of who is the everyday center fielder is who is the designated hitter? The Nationals could opt to give the role to Stone Garrett, one of their non-roster invites like Juan Yepez or Jesse Winker, or simply go with a rotating DH to keep as many bats in the lineup as possible. Generally speaking, giving the DH role to a specific player tended to work out better for clubs in 2023. Still, with how many outfield bats the Nationals will be carrying throughout 2024 it makes sense why they may go in that direction.

Without any further moves, this is what I expect to be the Nationals Opening Day roster to look like:

SP: Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Patrick Corbin, and Trevor Williams.

RP: Tanner Rainey, Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, Robert Garcia, Dylan Floro, Jordan Weems, Jose A. Ferrer, Jordan Weems and Joan Adon.

INF: Joey Meneses, Luis García Jr., CJ Abrams, Nick Senzel, Keibert Ruiz, Drew Millas, Ildemaro Vargas, and Nasim Nuñez.

OF: Stone Garrett, Joey Gallo, Lane Thomas, Jacob Young, and Victor Robles.

As the offseason has gone on I have become more and more skeptical of the Nationals giving the metaphorical keys to center field to one of their young prospects. I do hope they prove me wrong because promoting even just one of them gives the team a higher ceiling now, and it is simply a smart baseball move.

40 in 40 begins

Our 40 in 40 season has begun! We’ll be breaking down every player on the 40-man roster until Opening Day. You can read the first three editions of CJ Abrams, Hunter Harvey, and Josiah Gray by clicking their names.

Catch up on Spring Training News

There is a constant flow of news coming out of Spring Training and Richard has you covered with his Reporter’s Notebook series, where he breaks down each day’s news during Spring Training (and the week’s biggest headlines during the season).

You can read Day 1’s notebook here.

And Day 2’s notebook here.

And Day 3.

And 4!

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

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 (Gallo and Top 30 Discussion)
• Spring Training Storylines to Watch
• Washington Nationals tease new uniform for 2024
• Perspective: When is Enough Enough?
• Sleepers! Get Your Sleeper Prospects Here!

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

Why the Pirates keep losing: ‘Comfortable being mediocre’ via The Athletic

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