WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Spring training results, especially early in camp, don’t really carry much weight for a variety of reasons. Starters don’t play the whole nine innings. Pitchers often work on different pitches. And minor leaguers can fill out a lineup against major leaguers.

Another factor affecting play, especially in South Florida, is the weather.

The sun can blind fielders on popups. Clouds can roll in and out in a matter of seconds. Rain can downpour and then vanish just as quickly. And the wind can blow all over the field at high speeds.

It seemed like the wind was the 10th fielder for both teams during the Nationals’ 6-4 loss to the Cardinals at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. With gusts between 20-30 mph coming in from the right field corner, most fly balls died in the outfield.

The benefactors: Starting pitchers Jake Irvin and Michael McGreevy.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals return to action today after their first true off-day of the spring. No one reported to the complex at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches on Monday. A well-deserved break.

But now they’re back at it and are seeing one of their frontline starters make his third Grapefruit League appearance. Jake Irvin will look to build upon his last start in which he pitched into the third inning and was capped off at 37 pitches. Facing a split-squad Cardinals lineup may also be a good opportunity for the right-hander to experiment with some things.

Manager Davey Martinez has a lot of regulars in the lineup, although James Wood (right quad tendinitis) and Luis García Jr. (illness) are both absent.

It is very cloudy and windy down here in West Palm Beach, with 20-30 mph gusts coming in from the right field corner. Don’t expect to see too many balls fly out of the yard. Routine popups could be interesting, as well.

For those who want to watch the game back home, you’re in luck! You can join Dan Kolko and Mark Zuckerman on the MASN broadcast starting at 1 p.m., while I’ll have complete game coverage from here in West Palm! Those of you on the go can also listen to Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler on the radio broadcast streamed on Nationals.com and MLB.com.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Jake Irvin planned to throw two innings tonight. That would be the standard ramp-up after throwing only one inning in his spring debut five days ago.

Just one problem: Irvin was too good during those two innings. He faced six batters, he retired all six and he needed only 23 pitches to do it.

So the Nationals sent the right-hander back to the mound for an unplanned third inning. At which point the sharpness and efficiency that defined the start of his night eluded him and brought a quick end to his night.

Back-to-back walks with one out in the third raised Irvin’s pitch count to 37 and brought manager Davey Martinez out of the dugout. It wasn’t a big deal; it’s still Feb. 27, after all. But for Irvin, it left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth at night’s end as the Nats took a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Braves.

“I’m excited to ride the wave of the first two innings going into the next one,” Irvin said when asked about the third inning.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals play their first night game of the spring, with the Braves making a rare visit from all the way across the state. Atlanta isn’t sending a whole lot of big names, aside from Marcell Ozuna, but they do have Bryce Elder on the mound, which should make for a nice challenge for the Nats lineup.

Davey Martinez does have plenty of regulars in his batting order, pretty much everyone but James Wood (who is set to DH on Friday in his delayed spring debut) and Keibert Ruiz (who caught Wednesday). So we’ll get multiple at-bats tonight from CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell and Luis García Jr.

Jake Irvin, meanwhile, becomes the first member of the rotation to make his second start of the spring. The right-hander should be good to go two innings in this one as he continues the slow build-up to regular-season form.

Tonight’s game is available live on MLB Network, if you’re interested in watching.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EST
TV: MLB Network (Braves’ feed)
Radio: MLB.com (Braves’ feed)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 76 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The first few weeks of spring training are like the first few weeks of school. Coaches and players are excited to reunite with longtime teammates and meet some new ones. The early assignments aren’t too hard, but everyone knows bigger tests are coming soon.

There’s excitement and nervousness in the air.

For the Nationals’ starting rotation, there’s a good mix of familiar and fresh faces. And while there’s a lot of excitement surrounding this young, impressive group, there are sure to be some nerves during camp as well while they compete in what might be the biggest position group battle of the spring.

MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin have solidified their positions at the top of the rotation. The 26-year-old left-hander with electric stuff may be the Nats’ Opening Day starter. The 28-year-old right-hander, who started the Grapefruit League opener on Saturday when Gore’s spring debut was pushed back to later this week so he could go multiple innings, is already lined up as the No. 2 starter.

Michael Soroka is the Nats’ highest-paid pitcher this year after signing a one-year, $9 million contract this winter, likely locking him into a spot in the rotation. And Trevor Williams was brought back on a two-year, $14 million deal to start games.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Robert Hassell III has been here before. One year ago, in his spring training debut, the Nationals prospect went 2-for-3 with a triple. Three days later, he homered. By the end of March, he sported a .357 batting average and 1.198 OPS.

So there was a comfort level for Hassell when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a tie game this afternoon. Sure, he was annoyed at striking out in his first at-bat back in the fifth and lining out his next time up in the eighth. Here, though, was another opportunity to make a statement.

And that’s just what Hassell did, driving a two-out, two-strike pitch from Astros reliever Joey Mancini off the left field wall for a three-run double, the decisive blow in the Nats’ 6-3 victory to open the Grapefruit League season.

“I think I’m more prepared, for sure,” he said when asked to compare this spring to the previous one. “I think last year, they were coming right at me, the pitchers were. It wasn’t too fast for me, but just like today, I was getting down in counts a little bit. But I’m definitely more comfortable just from being here, for sure.”

A year ago, Hassell wasn’t able to parlay a strong spring into a strong regular season. Hampered yet again by a persistent hand injury, he was limited to 85 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester. He batted just .241, slugged just .328, totaled just 16 extra-base hits in 362 plate appearances.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Who’s ready for some baseball? I can assure everyone here is, having made it through 10 days of pitchers and catchers and eventually full-squad workouts. Those days get tedious toward the end, and everyone is itching to get the Grapefruit League started this afternoon.

The Nationals are on the road for their opener, but that doesn’t mean they have to pack their bags and board a bus to go anywhere. Because they’re facing their co-residents of CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, all they have to do is make sure they’re wearing gray pants and prepare to bat in the top of the first. It’s not a bad situation at all.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for the opener, and the right-hander is thinking big things for his 2025 season. Irvin knows consistency is the name of the game, and while there’s only so much he can during his one scheduled inning this afternoon, he can get things off on a right foot with a quick, easy frame against Houston.

The Astros have split-squad games today, so half of the team is headed up to Port St. Lucie to face the Mets while the other half stays here for this game. Their starter this afternoon is Ryan Gusto, a 25-year-old right-hander who had a 3.70 ERA and 141 strikeouts last season at Triple-A Sugar Land.

Facing Gusto is a Nats lineup featuring some, but not all, of the regulars. With CJ Abrams sitting until Sunday, it'll be Dylan Crews in the leadoff spot and Amed Rosario at shortstop. We'll also see Keibert Ruiz behind the plate and Josh Bell serving as designated hitter.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As Saturday’s exhibition opener creeps closer, the Nationals are trying to make sure they cover all their bases during these final days of full-squad workouts. Literally.

This morning’s session included the entire defense on the field as one, specifically working on proper relay technique. Outfielders tracked down balls hit to the gaps or corners. Infielders positioned themselves to either receive the relay throw, back up the relay throw or cover an open base. Pitchers ran to their correct backup position in foul territory.

It can all sound mundane, especially for players at the major league level. But manager Davey Martinez pointed out the importance of everyone involved getting it right.

“It is repetitive, but what we’re trying to teach them is: These things do matter,” Martinez said. “The dropping of the ball, the making of a good throw to the bases, to understand that you don’t leave your feet if the guy throws the ball, we’ve got a trail guy behind, all that stuff. Believe it or not, when you see them do it, sometimes they forget. As I always say … we treat these guys like they’re from Mars, they don’t know anything from the game.”

Martinez believes the Nationals cost themselves runs during the course of the 2024 season with seemingly little mistakes that allowed runners to take extra bases (especially trailing runners). That’s why he wants all cut-offs to be caught cleanly, and why he wants the other infielders and pitchers in correct position to cover bases or back up the play in case someone does try to steal an extra 90 feet.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If you can’t be optimistic on the first day of spring training, what’s even the point?

So obviously the Nationals were optimistic Wednesday as pitchers and catchers officially reported, with a plethora of position players also already on hand at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches several days before they are required to be here.

But they also have legitimate reason to be optimistic about the upcoming season. Three years into the franchise’s rebuild, they look around the clubhouse and see a room full of promising players who could come together to produce the team’s next contender.

“Absolutely. We’ve got incredible, young, talented players here now,” right-hander Jake Irvin said. “There’s no reason we can’t win right away.”

The Nationals haven’t had a winning record since they won the World Series in 2019. They bottomed out in 2022 at an abysmal 55-107, then rebounded to go 71-91 the following season. An identical record in 2024 wasn’t what anyone had in mind, but it can be reasonably argued it still represented progress because of the arrival of several top prospects, headlined by James Wood and Dylan Crews.

There are 57 players set to report to Nationals spring training in the next week-plus, 28 of them position players, 29 of them pitchers. That number is a little smaller than in some previous years, but it probably underscores the likelihood of several more free agent signings during these final days of the offseason, or even during the first few weeks of camp.

For now, though, this is your team. Only 26 of them will head north at the end of March and make the Opening Day roster. Obviously, some of them are in far better position to make the club than others, but everyone will get a chance to play in front of the big league coaching staff and front office in West Palm Beach, Fla., and make a case for himself.

You know most of these guys, but you probably don’t know all of them. So with that in mind, let’s run through the entire camp roster, with some quick thoughts on each entering the spring. We did position players yesterday, so today’s let’s run through the pitchers …

DAISON ACOSTA, RHP
The 26-year-old reliever joined the Nats organization last season and put up some impressive numbers at Double-A Harrisburg (2.89 ERA, 1.189 WHIP, 73 strikeouts in 53 innings). He got a non-roster invitation to camp this spring, where he’ll have a chance to prove if his stuff works against big league hitters.

JOAN ADON, RHP
Despite being designated for assignment this winter, the righty is still here, having cleared waivers and been outrighted off the 40-man roster. It would take a lot for him to earn his way back to the majors at this point, though.

Yesterday, we looked at the Nationals’ projected position players and tried to decide if they figure to get better, worse or the same production from each spot this year as they got last year. While the overall outlook for a top-tier lineup doesn’t exactly look great, it does appear to be better in most spots, including a few key positions.

Now, what about the pitching staff? It’s probably not fair to run this exercise yet, because there are still several significant holes to fill in the bullpen. But we don’t know when (or if) that will happen for certain, so all we can do is evaluate the state of things in their current form.

What’s the outlook? Is the 2025 Nats pitching staff likely to be better, worse or the same as it was in 2024? …

NO. 1 STARTER: Slightly better, maybe much better
We don’t know at this point who the Opening Day starter will be, but let’s say it’s MacKenzie Gore. He had the lowest ERA (3.91) and the most strikeouts (181) on the staff last season while also tying for the team lead in wins (10). Is that as good as the left-hander is going to get? The feeling here is no. Gore has long been touted as a frontline big league starter, and while we’ve seen stretches of that from him, we’re still waiting for him to put it all together over a full year. Here’s why he may be ready to make that leap: While he was excellent in his 10 wins last season (1.98 ERA), he was considerably better in his 12 losses (5.37 ERA) than he was the previous year (7.71 ERA). We know Gore is outstanding when he’s at his best. The key for him now is to just be OK when he’s not at his best, not letting starts blow up on him. He showed improvement in that area last season, and there’s reason to believe he can continue to get better this season.

NO. 2 STARTER: Same, maybe better
Jake Irvin was one of the most positive developments of the 2024 season, with 10 wins, 187 2/3 innings pitched and a strong 1.199 WHIP. Like Gore, he was really good when he was at his best (1.61 ERA in wins, 2.59 ERA in no-decisions) but really bad when he wasn’t at his best (8.28 ERA in 14 losses). Can he reduce the number of those bad starts, or at least pitch a bit better in those games? If he can, Irvin has a chance to be better overall this season. Even if he doesn’t, he can be a solid workhorse for this team.

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2024. We continue the series today with the emergence of the young starters in the rotation …

Under Mike Rizzo, the Nationals have always built their roster around starting pitching.

“You can never have enough starting pitching,” the long-time general manager routinely says when discussing his roster.

Just look at the additions he’s made over the years: Drafting Stephen Strasburg with the No. 1 overall pick in 2009, trading for Gio González, and signing Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, Patrick Corbin and Aníbal Sánchez.

But since starting this rebuild in 2021 by trading Scherzer, the Nats have turned their focus into acquiring and developing young starting pitchers to build a new dominant rotation.

Jacob Young, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams and Jake Irvin all performed well enough this season to earn some extra money before the holidays.

Young, Gore, Abrams and Irvin recently were revealed as part of a group of 101 players with less than three years of big league service time who qualified for Major League Baseball’s “pre-arbitration bonus pool.”

The pool was created as part of this collective bargaining agreement to reward players who have yet to reach salary arbitration but played beyond their experience levels. Anyone who finishes in the top five in voting for the MVP or Cy Young awards, first or second for Rookie of the Year or is named to the all-MLB first or second team receives a bonus ranging from $500,000 to $2.5 million. Any money remaining from the $50 million total pool is divided up among other players based on a WAR formula.

None of the Nationals received votes for the aforementioned awards, but four young players did compile enough WAR to qualify for these bonuses.

Young, who ranked 56th out of the 101 pre-arbitration players, received a bonus of $333,239. That’s added to his base rookie salary of $740,000, making his total income for the season $1,073,239.

We spend most of our time around here asking what the Nationals are going to do about their most glaring roster needs. Are they going to sign a big-name slugger to play first base? Are they going to spend money on a proven starting pitcher? Are they going to bolster a now-depleted bullpen with experienced late-inning arms?

So far, we don’t have the answers to any of those questions. The Nats have not yet acquired a major league player this offseason, aside from reliever Evan Reifert in last week’s Rule 5 Draft. Their most glaring holes remain holes to this point.

Let’s start this week off, though, looking at the roster in an entirely different way. We know what the Nationals need. Which means we also should know what they already have. It’s worth remembering where around the field they already appear to be set, because it’s actually a majority of the positions on the team.

The Nats have a middle infield, no questions there. CJ Abrams, despite his end-of-season demotion, is the everyday shortstop, coming off an All-Star year that showcased his elite combination of skills. Yes, he needs to prove he can put those skills together on a more consistent basis over a six-month season. But the team remains fully committed to him, of that there appears to be no doubt.

They’re also fully committed to Luis Garcia Jr., who after a spring full of tough love finally blossomed into the second baseman they always believed him to be. Garcia was the most pleasant development of the 2024 season, and the expectation will be for more of the same, if not even more improvement from him in 2025.

PLAYER REVIEW: JAKE IRVIN

Age on Opening Day 2025: 28

How acquired: Fourth round pick, 2018 MLB Draft

MLB service time: 1 years, 152 days

2024 salary: $745,600

Go back and peruse some random Nationals lineups from 2022, and you’re likely to find a lot of names who aren’t here anymore, many of them veterans in the waning days of their careers.

Move ahead to 2023, and you’ll find a few more promising young players, the so-called first wave of prospects who either were acquired via trade or drafted and developed from within. You’ll also still find a number of veteran stopgaps who have since departed.

The same was actually true early in 2024. Lest anyone forget, the Nats’ Opening Day lineup included the likes of Jesse Winker, Joey Meneses, Joey Gallo and Eddie Rosario, with Nick Senzel a planned part of that group until he fractured his thumb in pregame warmups.

By season’s end, though, the transformation was finally complete. The Nationals’ regular lineup was built almost entirely with young players, most of them at least potential long-term solutions.

James Wood, Dylan Crews and Jacob Young didn’t make the team out of spring training, but they were everyday players by Game 162. Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz weren’t in the Opening Day rotation, but they were trusted stalwarts before long.

If the Nationals want to point to only one clearly positive development from their just-completed season, the answer is simple: Improved pitching, especially in the rotation, especially from a group of young starters.

MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz may not have been dominant – though all exhibited moments of dominance along the way – but collectively they made 113 starts, pitched effectively (4.20 ERA, 1.297 WHIP) and established their place in the club’s 2025 plans.

“The biggest thing is obviously our young pitching,” manager Davey Martinez said last weekend. “Seeing some of these guys come up who we thought wouldn’t be here yet doing what they’ve done, they’ve done really well.”

Indeed, only Gore and Irvin were part of the Opening Day rotation. The three other slots went to designated No. 1 starter Josiah Gray and veterans Patrick Corbin and Trevor Williams. Gray made only two starts before going on the injured list with an elbow issue that ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Corbin made his usual 32 starts with his usual inflated ERA. Williams enjoyed a major turnaround from the previous year but still missed 3 1/2 months with a flexor strain.

So the unexpected positive developments involved Parker and Herz, a couple of rookie left-handers who figured to get a shot at some point later in the season but wound up in D.C. much earlier than expected and then held onto their jobs once they arrived.

History will forever show the Nationals went 71-91 in 2024. Just as they did in 2023. It’s not a won-loss record anyone should remember fondly, and the fact it didn’t change from 12 months prior would suggest the team as a whole didn’t really improve at all from one year to the next. For a franchise three years into a roster rebuild, that could feel quite disheartening.

Do you think it’s fair, though, to evaluate this team primarily on its won-loss record? Presented with that question over the weekend, Davey Martinez had to think long and hard before finally settling on an answer.

“Um … no, I really don’t,” the longtime manager said. “We’ve had a lot of different things happen in the course of the year.”

Martinez went on to detail how much the Nationals’ roster changed from April to September, how the team that ended the season was one of the youngest in baseball, which offered plenty of promise but also lent itself to more losses down the stretch than anyone would have liked.

“I thought a lot this morning about where we’re at,” he said. “We had to make so many transitions.”

The 2024 Nationals wound up being a team of contradictions. They unquestionably showed real signs of progress from a year ago, especially in the pitching department. And yet when you look at the final standings, you’ll find a 71-91 record that looks identical to their 71-91 mark from 2023.

They wound up in this familiar situation after taking a 6-3 loss to the Phillies this afternoon in their season finale. Having already won the previous two days against the division champs, the Nats dug themselves into an early hole created by Jake Irvin and couldn’t quite claw all the way back, despite one last-ditch attempt in the bottom of the ninth.

"We made it interesting," manager Davey Martinez sighed. "Testament to the guys. They fought hard all year long. I'm proud of them. Obviously, nobody wants to go home this time of year. You want to keep playing. But the effort was definitely there this year."

There wasn’t as much intensity on display today as there was Friday and Saturday at Nationals Park, where the young home team seemed extra motivated to beat the Phillies and deny them a shot at home-field advantage throughout the postseason. With nothing at stake anymore, this was a more low-key affair, with the Phillies sitting Bryce Harper and pulling Trea Turner early, though the Nats decided to battle one last time.

Loading the bases with no outs in the ninth, they had three shots to win the game with one swing. But Luis García Jr. struck out, James Wood struck out looking and Juan Yepez drove a ball to the wall in left that left everybody holding their breath until Kody Clemens made a leaping catch to end the game.

We have reached the finish line. It’s Game 162, and while this one doesn’t officially matter for either team, there are still some personal achievements on the line. And for the Nationals, a chance to close out the year with a surprising sweep of the playoff-bound Phillies and to top last year’s win total with No. 72.

It’ll be Jake Irvin on the mound one last time. And as was the case Saturday with MacKenzie Gore, he’ll be looking for win No. 11, a number no Nats starter has reached since 2019. Unlike Gore, Irvin can’t get his ERA down below the 4.00 mark – unless he can go 10 2/3 scoreless innings – but he can finish on a high note. And if he can complete 6 2/3 innings, he’ll reach the 190 mark for the season, no small accomplishment.

At the plate, James Wood needs another homer to reach 10 in his rookie season. Dylan Crews needs a good day to get his batting average over .200. Oh, and in the bullpen, Derek Law needs to record one more out to get to 90 innings for the season.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 3:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 74 degrees, wind 7 mph in from center field

NATIONALS
2B Luis García Jr.
LF James Wood
DH Juan Yepez
3B José Tena
RF Dylan Crews
1B Joey Gallo
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez