Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, January 24, 2024.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing. Richard is checking in again today for this Morning’s briefing. I missed writing the Morning Briefings, so thank you to   for letting me write this week!

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Washington Nationals sign Joey Gallo

Yesterday afternoon, Andrew Golden broke the story that the Washington Nationals would sign left-hand batter Joey Gallo to a one-year deal valued at $5 million.

I dived a bit into the signing yesterday afternoon in my quick note:

Gallo has played in only two post-seasons over his nine-year career, which came as a New York Yankee in 2021 and with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022.

This signing shouldn't surprise Nationals fans, as the team has expressed interest in nurturing the development of their young prospects in the upcoming season.

My friends at TalkNats and others have been reporting that the Nationals were in the market for a left-handed bat, and it looks like Rizzo got his guy to fill both of these roles. While I wish the team would sign someone more “exciting,” this is where we are right now.

Our first Annual Prospect Ranking List

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

Today, we released our inaugural edition of The Nats Report Preseason Prospect Rankings. The Nats Report delivers the most up-to-date news and analysis on the Washington Nationals. Our goal with our Prospect Rankings is to unveil them each year just before the commencement of Spring Training.

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 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!

You can check out the prospect rankings here, and then we dive into detail for each prospect here. [For paid subscribers]

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.

Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, and Todd Helton were Elected To the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

Last night, Adrián Beltré, a five-time Gold Glove winner and four-time Silver Slugger recipient at third base, and former batting champions Todd Helton and Joe Mauer were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Beltré, who was on the ballot for the first time, earned the most votes of the 26 candidates with 366, which accounted for 95.1 percent of the electorate. In his sixth year on the ballot, Helton was named on 307 ballots (79.7 percent), and Mauer, like Beltré, a first-time honoree, got 293 votes (76.1).

Read more here.

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

Around MLB

As part of the annual fall meeting of the Little League International Board of Directors, the dates and locations for the seven World Series events through 2026 were announced, concluding with playing the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

This year’s Little League World Series, Presented by T-Mobile, will be held August 14 - 25, 2024, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

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

Brewers working on a two-year deal with Hoskins (source) via MLB.com

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