It’s time for the third installment of our 20 Greatest Players in Nationals History series, which means we’ve reached the Top 10. If you missed the first two installments, be sure to click these links for No. 16-20 and No. 11-15.

It was no easy task finalizing the 20 greatest players in 20 years of Nats baseball, and it was no easier deciding who made the Top 10, and in what order. Reminder: This is a subjective exercise, so there’s no hard and fast rule or stat to determine the order. This is about both the player’s tangible performance and also his broader impact and significance within the history of the organization.

We’ll wrap things up next Sunday with the highly anticipated Top 5. But before we get to that, here’s No. 6-10, featuring some pretty big names who each played parts of at least seven seasons in D.C. …

NO. 10 – IAN DESMOND
Shortstop, 2009-15
Stats: 927 G, 3793 PA, 3480 AB, 424 R, 917 H, 185 2B, 21 3B, 110 HR, 432 RBI, 122 SB, 37 CS, 232 BB, 890 SO, .264 AVG, .312 OBP, .424 SLG, .736 OPS, 99 OPS+, 16.5 bWAR, 16.2 fWAR

In March 2005, the Nationals called up a 19-year-old shortstop drafted the previous summer by the then-Expos to play in a few big league spring training games. He immediately turned heads with some dazzling plays in the field, prompting Jim Bowden and Frank Robinson to declare him the organization’s “Shortstop of the Future” and give him a chance to play in the team’s first exhibition game at RFK Stadium.

When it was revealed Tuesday evening the Nationals had won the Draft Lottery, it was immediately appropriate to mention the two previous times this club held the No. 1 pick and the two iconic players who were selected with those picks.

Obviously, the Nats would be thrilled if the first player taken in the 2025 Draft has the same impact Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper did a decade and a half ago. But there’s a distinct difference to note about this future draft pick from those prior ones. The difference in the state of the franchise at the time of the pick.

When they drafted Strasburg on June 9, 2009, the Nationals were undoubtedly the worst team in baseball. They lost a league-worst 102 games in 2008, which is how they were awarded the No. 1 pick in the pre-lottery days. And on that night, they owned an abysmal 16-41 record, en route to a 103-loss season that would lock up the No. 1 pick again the following year.

It would be three more seasons before the Nats secured their first winning record, which also happened to come with their first division title and postseason berth. By then, the roster had been completely overhauled by still-newish general manager Mike Rizzo, who combined homegrown prospects with experienced veterans acquired via free agency and a few calculated additions via trade.

Strasburg and Harper were a huge part of that. Maybe the Nationals still would have made the 2012 playoffs without either young star, but there’s no way they would’ve won 98 games. And both continued to be critical to the organization’s success over the next several years, leading to three more division titles through the 2017 season.

Neither Keibert Ruiz nor Bryce Harper is in their respective teams’ lineups for today’s season finale, so it doesn’t look like there will be any residual effects of Saturday’s incident between the two, one that prompted both the Nationals and Phillies’ benches and bullpens to empty.

Ruiz figured to be off all along, with Drew Millas getting the start behind the plate after Ruiz caught the previous three games. And with the Phillies no longer having a shot at home-field advantage in the playoffs, manager Rob Thomson decided to give Harper a breather and let him prepare for the National League Division Series later this week.

Saturday’s eighth-inning situation, though, still resonated the following day, an unexpected display of emotion from a couple of prominent players, one of them of course a former Nationals star.

Jose A. Ferrer had just surrendered a game-tying homer to Trea Turner when Harper stepped to the plate in what was now a 2-2 game. Ferrer’s second pitch of that at-bat was a 98 mph sinker right on the outer edge of the zone, and Ruiz held his mitt there for an extra second hoping to get the strike call from plate umpire Nic Lentz. (He didn’t get the call.)

Harper immediately said something to Ruiz, who later told reporters the Philly slugger appeared to be bothered by his attempt to frame the pitch.

ATLANTA – James Wood hasn’t been a big leaguer long enough to offer much advice to anyone, but he has been a big leaguer long enough to share some words of wisdom with Dylan Crews as the latter prepares to debut tonight for the Nationals.

“I remember it was a lot, in a good way,” Wood said of his first major league game just eight short weeks ago. “You’ve just kind of got to take it all in. You only get one of them. I’d just tell him to enjoy it.”

There are no shortage of similarities between the two events. Each highly rated outfield prospect will have debuted on a Monday night. Each in the first game of a weeklong homestand. Each against a team that hails from New York.

Here’s the biggest difference for Crews: His debut is coming against the Yankees, with Juan Soto (and, oh yeah, Aaron Judge) in the other dugout.

As far as star-studded debuts, this is about as big as it gets. Bryce Harper played his first big league game at Dodger Stadium, with Stephen Strasburg on the mound, but the most notable Dodger on the field that night in 2012 was Matt Kemp. Strasburg’s 2010 debut was perhaps the most hyped in history, but it came against an inferior Pirates club that had a young Andrew McCutchen leading off and – believe it or not – Lastings Milledge batting third.

After a long delay while working out the financial details of his contract, Stephen Strasburg’s retirement became official Saturday night per the Nationals’ official transactions page, with the right-hander and the team releasing statements Sunday morning.

Although this announcement has been a long time coming, the finality of the official release made for an emotional morning yesterday at Nationals Park as former teammates, coaches and front office members reflected on the right-hander’s career.

The roster looks a lot different from the last time Strasburg stepped into the clubhouse back in 2022 when he was trying to revitalize his career while coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. But there are still a handful of familiar faces around.

“You look back at his career and how special of a player he was. He's a huge part of why I decided to come here,” said Patrick Corbin, who was Strasburg’s teammate for four years after signing with the Nats as a free agent ahead of the 2019 season. “Hopefully, he and his family are happy now, and he can move on with life and be with his family, which I know he wants to be. So you just feel for somebody like that who was such a good player for a long time. Just unfortunate with the injuries and some setbacks, but he tried everything to come back and be part of this team. Things just didn't work out.”

Strasburg hasn’t been able to pitch since June 9, 2022, when he made his only major league start that season while giving up seven runs in 4 ⅔ innings against the Marlins. After he was unable to fully overcome thoracic outlet syndrome, he finally admitted last year that a return to the mound wouldn’t be possible.

After back-to-back series against National League Central foes to begin the season, the Nationals face their first NL East rival this weekend, with the Phillies coming to town for a three-game series. That means the return to town of Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and probably more than a few phans from up I-95. This has been the reality for a while now, so it really shouldn’t catch anyone by surprise.

The best thing the Nats can do to minimize the impact: Win more games. They did OK against Philly last season, going 6-7 in head-to-head matchups. So we’ll see how they handle it this season.

More than anything, the Nationals would love to get a quality start for the first time in 2024. Can Patrick Corbin be the one to do it? The matchup wouldn’t seem to favor him. Then again, in his one start against the Phillies last season, he tossed five innings of one-hit ball. So maybe there’s hope for the veteran lefty.

The Nats will also try to jump out to an early lead for only the second time this season. They’ll do so against Aaron Nola, who was lit up by the Braves in his first start of the year, not to mention his first start since signing a $172 million extension.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 50 degrees, wind 17 mph left field to right field

The Orioles road trip continues tonight in Philadelphia, where they play the first of three games at Citizens Bank Park. The Orioles won three of four against the Tampa Bay Rays, winning the three games by four total runs to grab a two-game lead atop the American League East.

The Orioles (61-38), who play their 100^th game tonight, were 6.5 games back of Tampa Bay on July 1 and six games back on July 4. So far this month, the Orioles are 13-6 while the Rays are 4-14, and they have gained 8.5 games on the Rays in that span.

With Sunday’s 5-3 win at the Trop, the Orioles improved to 6-3 this season against Tampa Bay and to 6-0 in games decided by two or fewer runs. The Orioles are 15-10 their past 25 games versus the Rays after going 2-27 in the previous 29.

They also gained their first series win at Tropicana Field since June 23-25, 2017.

The Orioles have now won four of five, 12 of 15 and 13 of their past 18 games. They are 7-3 since the All-Star break, and a season-high 23 games over the .500 mark.

There will be some rules changes coming to Major League Baseball in 2023 and among them is essentially the elimination of infield shifts. Starting next year, two infielders must be on each side of second base and they have to be no deeper than the back-edge of the infield which touches the outfield. Also, teams cannot switch defenders and for instance move a shortstop to the second base spot on the right side against a pull lefty batter.

This change should add some offense and some defense to the game.

The shift takes hits away from batters that are pull happy with groundballs and mostly unable to hit against the shift. Had they been able to do that, they would see fewer shifts. But we know how that turns out.

I went back and looked at the MLB number for Batting Average of Balls in Play (BABIP) every year since 2010. For most of the seasons between 2010 and 2019, the final BABIP was between .297 and .300. But teams kept shifting more and more and that number dropped to .292 in the shortened 2020 season and in 2021. The BABIP was .290 last season.

Now that lefty batters won’t face a seeming picket fence on defense on the right side moving forward, some hits will be added to their up-to-now sinking batting averages. That could create more scoring in the game in general and more scoring chances. More runners can mean more pressure on pitchers, who then make more mistakes in some of those spots and more runs are scored.

Nationals fans are seeing something very familiar this October. It just might sting because it’s happening with a National League East rival.

Bryce Harper is once again putting on a show during the postseason. Only this time, he’s doing it with the Phillies in his first trip to the postseason with his new team since signing a then-record 13-year, $330 million deal before the 2019 season.

Finally healthy and with a strong supporting cast around him, Harper helped the Phillies reach their first postseason since 2011. He hit a go-ahead solo home run in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series against the Cardinals to seal a sweep over St. Louis and the first playoff series win of his career. He went 8-for-16 in the National League Division Series against the defending world champion Braves, including a home run apiece in Games 3 and 4 at Citizens Bank Park, to help the Phillies advance in four games to their first National League Championship Series since 2010.

Entering Tuesday at the start of NLCS and before the conclusion of the Guardians-Yankees American League Division Series, Harper led this postseason (among players who have played in at least four games) with a 1.437 OPS, .957 slugging percentage, .435 average, 10 hits, six extra-base hits and 22 total bases. He was also tied for first with three doubles and three home runs, second with six RBIs, tied for third with six runs scored, and fourth with a .480 on-base percentage.

Over the first two games in the NLCS against the Padres, he has gone 3-for-8 with a go-ahead home run in Game 1 and a multi-hit game with a double in Game 2. He has also scored a run in each game.

PHILADELPHIA – The forecast here is not good. It’s supposed to rain all day. The forecast tomorrow is somewhat better, though not guaranteed to be dry. That’s the only remaining common off-day for the Nationals and Phillies. In other words, this has the potential to be a mess, and we could be here for a while, then possibly coming back tomorrow.

Whenever they play, the Nationals will be trying to avoid a series sweep that would put a real damper on what had been shaping up to be their best road trip of the season. A win would at least allow them to head home with a 5-5 record.

To do that, Aníbal Sánchez is going to have to keep up his surprising resurgence (0.84 ERA, 0.797 WHIP over his last four starts) by keeping the ball in the yard. The Phillies have out-homered the Nats a staggering 32-9 in 14 head-to-head games this year.

The Nationals will be going up against Aaron Nola for the fourth time this season. The right-hander has a sparkling 1.66 ERA in the previous three starts, though his record is only 1-1.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Steady rain, 73 degrees, wind 5 mph right field to left field

It’s going to be a long, hot day of baseball at Nationals Park, where the Nats and Phillies are scheduled to play a doubleheader. First game at 1:05 p.m., then the nightcap at 7:05 p.m.

Obviously, the Nationals need some length from their starter after a brutal week for the rotation. Joan Adon gets the ball, only 10 days after he was sent down to Triple-A Rochester with a 1-10 record and 6.95 ERA. This will likely be a one-and-done start for the rookie, who is the designated 27th man for the doubleheader, but he can help his cause with a solid outing this afternoon against a tough Phillies lineup.

After struggling against ace Zack Wheeler on Friday night, the Nats get a chance against left-hander Ranger Suárez today. That means Lane Thomas is back at the top of the lineup, in front of César Hernández and Juan Soto. Riley Adams gets the nod behind the plate, with Keibert Ruiz scheduled to catch the nightcap.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 94 degrees, wind 14 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
LF Lane Thomas
2B César Hernández
RF Juan Soto
DH Nelson Cruz
1B Josh Bell
3B Maikel Franco
SS Luis García
C Riley Adams
CF Victor Robles