Good Saturday Morning, Washington Nationals Fans. Thank you for starting the weekend with us.

Today's weather in West Palm Beach, according to the National Weather Service:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Breezy, with a north wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. A perfect day for throwing the ball around with your closest friends.

You can now purchase tickets to Spring Training Games.... Here are the details and to purchase

Today's Spring Training Quote:

"I really like the fact that we have four guys that have done it at the highest level and have the hardware to show for it" -Mike Rizzo discussing the addition of Jon Lester to the pitching rotation.

Make sure to follow The Nats Report on Twitter for updates on the latest Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball during the day!

Countdown Clock

Exhibition Games Begin: 10 Days
Opening Day 2021: 41 Days
2021 MLB All-Star Game: 144 Days

Today's Morning Briefing was written by Richard.

Today's Top Story: The Case For Victor Robles Leading Off

Washington's Lineup is in a weird spot right now. They have a good amount of high-level talent, but it's not as deep as many would like, so Victor Robles might be a good option to lead off. Based on Mike Rizzo's recent comments, it appears that the Nationals are done adding players and they haven't been outwardly linked to anyone who hits leadoff.

Thankfully, they may have the perfect leadoff candidate on the roster in Victor Robles.

Click here to read the full article on The Nats Report

The Latest Notes from Spring Training

Don't forget to bookmark and get breaking news alerts directly from Spring Training as they happen! We have a full blog post dedicated to all the news coming out of this year's Spring Training. Don't miss a headline.

Here is the latest:

Yesterday afternoon, various pitchers were made available to reporters via Zoom from West Palm Beach. Here are a couple of tidbits from the calls.

Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin spoke highly of pitching to new Washington Nationals catcher Alexander Avila. The 33-year-old Avila has played in Major League Baseball for five different organizations, including the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Minnesota Twins. Avila previously caught Scherzer with the Tigers from 2010-15 and caught Corbin with the Diamondbacks during the 2018 season.

Click here to read the full recap from yesterday's Zoom Call via The Nats Report

MLB, MLBPA Announce COVID-19 Test Results

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced COVID-19 test results. According to the press release, this was the first set of COVID-19 testing results conducted as part of the mandatory Intake Screening process under MLB's COVID-19 Health Monitoring & Testing Plan, prior to the upcoming start of full-squad workouts."

Click here to read the full article via The Nats Report

NL East 2021 Season Preview: The Atlanta Braves

Since moving to the National League East in 1994, the Atlanta Braves and Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals has been one of the best rivalries in baseball, and 2021 looks to be more of the same. Some teams were thrown off by the chaos of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but the Atlanta Braves didn't miss a beat, winning their third straight division title and their 15th NL East Crown in the last 25 seasons.

Despite their regular-season dominance, Atlanta failed to reach the World Series again, losing to the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers in game 7 of the NLCS.

Read our previews of the other NL East Teams:

Click here to read the full article via The Nats Report.

Podcast Alert: In the Clubhouse with the Nats Report

Want to know the latest from Spring Training? Well, tune in this week for some jam-packed episodes of In the Clubhouse with the Nats Report as Richard sits down with Washington Nationals beat reporters in West Palm Beach to get the latest information.

This week, Richard will be sitting down with:

  • Jesse Dougherty, Washington Nationals Beat Reporter for the Washington Post;
  • Matt Weyrich, Reporter for NBC Sports Washington; and
  • Maria Torres, Washington Nationals Beat Reporter for The Athletic.

Click here to find In the Clubhouse with the Nats Report on your favorite podcasting platform. After listening, don't forget to subscribe and share the podcast with fellow Washington Nationals fans!

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