⚾️⚾️ The Morning Briefing: Nationals delay Strasburg's retirement ceremony

Good Morning Washington Nationals Fan,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, September 8, 2023. My name is Haden Raymer, let’s dive into the news.

Leading today’s Morning Briefing: Nationals postpone Strasburg’s retirement ceremony

Oh boy. A while ago we talked about how Stephen Strasburg was set to have a press conference on September 9 where he was scheduled to retire. Yesterday, Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic both reported that the conference was postponed.

Later in the day, Ghiroli reported that the Nationals had approached Strasburg about retirement, offering to pay him his full contract, but then walked back on that. In a since-deleted tweet that TalkNats has reposted, Jim Bowden said that it was the commissioner’s office that told Mark Lerner that paying Strasburg the full valuation of his contract would “set a bad precedent”.

Nationals set to take on the Dodgers

The Nationals are prepared to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight at home. Luis García is set to return to the majors for the series after a stint in Triple-A Rochester.

MacKenzie Gore will take the ball in game one and take on rookie Emmet Sheehan
(3-1, 5.31 ERA). First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. and make sure to check back in two hours before the game for your game notes.

Check out In the Clubhouse

Last night Jeremy Lapidus and I hopped on Twitch and talked about all the news from the past week related to the Nationals, and you can now find it on YouTube or Spotify.

Getting Game Notes to your inbox

We asked, you answered! So, we made it quickly possible to receive our Game Notes delivered right to your inbox two hours before the first pitch. You can easily make it happen in three simple steps:

1. Navigate to your Settings page via www.substack.com/settings. Or when logged into your Substack account, select "Settings" from the drop-down menu.

2. Scroll down until you see Subscriptions, and select the Nats Report.

3. On the next page, click the toggles next to Game Notes.  [Please feel free to select as many subscriptions as you would like]

Done… You will now receive the Game Notes every time they are published to the Nats Report right to your inbox.

Join the conversation with the Nats Report

It’s Discussion Friday, which means we have a new discussion post on the website. This week the topic is “What should the Nationals do at first base next season?”

Have a topic that you would like to talk about? Drop us an email themorning@thenatsreport.com

Down on the Farm: What happened last night with the Nationals Minor League teams

The Rochester Red Wings game was canceled last night and will be played tonight.

The Harrisburg Senators lost 9-3 to the Altoona Curve. James Wood, Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell III, and Brady House all got hits in the game.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks won 6-4 to the Brooklyn Cyclones. Andrew Pinckney and Will Frizzell each got two hits. Daylen Lile tripled.

The FredNats won 6-5 over the Delmarva Shorebirds. Elijah Green got two hits. Maxwell Romero Jr. went 2-3 with a home run. Johnathan Thomas stole four bases, raising his season total to 62.

Featured Story of the Day

The tight NL MVP race via MLB.com

If you haven’t already, please consider supporting this publication with a paid subscription so you don’t miss a thing:

The Nats Report is an independent reader-supported project with both free and paid subscriptions. Those who opt for the paid edition are providing vital assistance to bolster our independent coverage of the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball.