The Nationals envision three of their recent first-round picks playing a significant role on their major league roster next season, with Dylan Crews leading the way, Cade Cavalli poised to make his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery and Brady House on track to get called up from Triple-A Rochester at some point.

They need major contributions from top draft picks like that after a string of disappointments, something that was underscored this week when two prior first-rounders left the organization for good.

Carter Kieboom and Mason Denaburg were among a host of minor league players who became free agents, joining a list that also included former prospects Israel Pineda and Tim Cate, plus a pair of prospects acquired at the frantic 2021 trade deadline: Aldo Ramirez and Richard Guasch.

Kieboom, the 28th overall pick in the 2016 draft, was supposed to help provide a bridge from the Nationals’ 2019 championship roster to the future, tabbed as Anthony Rendon’s heir apparent at third base. But he never did produce at the big league level, finishing with a .199 batting average, .297 on-base percentage and .301 slugging percentage from 2019-23. He never mastered the third base position, either, after shifting from shortstop, with minus-5 career Defensive Runs Saved and 11 errors in 117 games at the hot corner.

Tommy John surgery also threw a wrench into Kieboom’s career, knocking him out the entire 2022 season. He made it back to the majors late in 2023 and got one final chance to play regularly but did little with that opportunity. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster in March and spent his entire season at Triple-A, batting .265 with seven homers, 42 RBIs and a .751 OPS while ultimately giving way to House at third base.

There really hasn’t been much reason to pay attention to the Rule 5 draft around here for a long time. The Nationals haven’t selected a player in the annual event since 2010, and they’ve had only one player poached from them since 2014.

That’s probably going to change this winter. Because for the first time in a long time, the Nats own one of the first picks in the Rule 5 draft. Specifically, the first pick.

That means Mike Rizzo and his front office have their choice of any unprotected prospect in baseball. All they have to do is pony up $100,000 and be willing to keep any drafted player on their active, 26-man roster (or the injured list) for the entire 2023 season. If they decide at some point they aren’t willing to do that, they can offer the player back to his original club for $50,000.

The Rule 5 draft wraps up the Winter Meetings, so the Nationals have three weeks to evaluate potential acquisitions. When they were annually attempting to contend for a postseason berth, they didn’t feel they could afford to use a roster spot on an inexperienced player like that. Now that they’re in full-scale rebuilding mode, there’s plenty of reason to take a flyer on somebody of their choosing.

And they’ll have a much better idea of the pool of candidates available at the end of the day, because all Major League Baseball clubs are required to add Rule 5-eligible prospects to their 40-man rosters by 6 p.m., thereby protecting them from being snatched up.

The All-Star break, for better or worse, is all about the future of the Nationals. Juan Soto’s potentially dwindling future with the organization. Elijah Green and all the other 2022 draft picks’ potential future with the organization.

These are franchise-altering days, developments that could determine whether this team has a chance to be a winner again in the near-term or not for many more years to come.

But those guys alone aren’t going to decide the outcome. They’re going to need others to surround them, especially younger players who come up through a revamped farm system.

So it’s also a good time to take stock of that farm system, one that still ranks near the bottom in baseball according to most publications that produce such rankings but undoubtedly is home to a handful of potential high-end building blocks who could make a difference, some sooner than others.

De Jon Watson, in his first year as the Nationals’ director of player development, recently met with beat writers to provide insight into many of the organization’s top prospects. Here’s what he had to say about them, along with a midseason update on each …

Instead of writing more of the same stuff after back-to-back blowout losses to the Dodgers, let’s take a look at what actually turned out to be an eventful night on the Nationals farm.

Major leaguers started rehab assignments, top prospects were in action and, unfortunately, a top player suffered an injury.

Manager Davey Martinez didn’t have updates immediately after last night’s game, so expect more information to come out later today …

* Let’s start with Stephen Strasburg, who made his first rehab start with low Single-A Fredericksburg while making his way back from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery.

Strasburg was scheduled to go four innings and/or 60 pitches with the FredNats, but he reached the pitch count before he could finish the third inning.