The Nationals almost left the Winter Meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville without a major league signing.

On Wednesday, the last official day of the meetings, they added infielder Nasim Nuñez through the Rule 5 Draft and signed first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez to a minor league deal.

But in the wee hours of Thursday morning, before the Nationals braintrust left for the Nashville airport, they finally made one major addition by signing former Reds utilityman Nick Senzel to a $2 million contract that includes an extra $1 million in incentives.

Parallels have already been drawn from this signing to the addition of Dominic Smith last offseason.

They both were former first-round picks: Smith out of high school by the Mets in 2013 and Senzel out of the University of Tennessee by the Reds in 2016. Both were non-tendered by their respective clubs after not realizing their full potential and then signed with the Nats for $2 million with another year of club control.

We knew there would be news Tuesday, what with the Nationals facing a late-afternoon deadline to add players to the 40-man roster and protect them from being lost in the Rule 5 draft. We didn’t know there would be quite this much news, though.

While the promotions of pitchers DJ Herz, Mitchell Parker, Cole Henry and Zach Brzykcy to the 40-man roster were newsworthy, the bigger story wound up being one of the corresponding moves made to clear spots for those prospects: Dominic Smith was designated for assignment.

This isn’t to suggest Smith was always a lock to return in 2024 after a very disappointing 2023 at the plate. But here’s what Mike Rizzo had to say when asked during the season’s final week about the roles both Smith and Jeimer Candelario played after they were signed the previous winter:

“Dom’s shown that his leadership in the infield, I think he’s made our young infielders much, much better and much more confident defensively,” Rizzo said. “And he’s starting to show some power late in the season. Those are always the type of people that you want to acquire, and guys that when you’re at this point in the rebuild, I thought was important for us to acquire.”

Smith was never supposed to be part of the long-term plan around here. But with no obvious replacement at first base waiting in the wings and based on the way both Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez talked about him at season’s end, it felt like he would be back for another year.

The Nationals chose to protect four prospects, all pitchers, from being lost in the upcoming Rule 5 draft. To do so, they cut ties with three players who ended the season on their major league roster, most notably first baseman Dominic Smith.

Smith and right-hander Cory Abbott were both designated for assignment today, with reliever Andrés Machado granted his unconditional release as well to pursue opportunities in Japan. The team then used those three open slots, plus one that already was open, to add left-handers DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker, plus right-handers Cole Henry and Zach Brzykcy, to their 40-man roster. That ensures none of those four prospects can be lost in next month’s Rule 5 draft.

The decision to drop Smith came as the biggest surprise of the day, considering the manner in which club officials spoke up the first baseman’s defensive value and clubhouse leadership this season in spite of his offensive struggles. Signed for $2 million last winter after the Mets chose not to tender him a contract, Smith hit .254/.326/.366 with 12 homers, 46 RBIs and a .692 OPS in 153 games for the Nats. Six of his 12 homers came in September alone, leaving the 28-year-old with some hope he had solved the power woes he endured for the majority of the season.

Even with those woes at the plate, Smith was lauded for his glove work at first base, where he produced five Defensive Runs Saved and was a calming influence for young infielders CJ Abrams, Luis García and Carter Kieboom.

Smith was eligible for arbitration and was projected to make roughly $4 million through that process. Now, the Nationals will be in the market for a new first baseman for the second straight offseason, likely prioritizing power from that corner position to help bolster a lineup that hit a National League-worst 151 homers this year. They could also move Joey Meneses full-time to first base and seek a new designated hitter.

PLAYER REVIEW: DOMINIC SMITH

Age on Opening Day 2024: 28

How acquired: Signed as free agent, January 2023

MLB service time: 5 years, 81 days

2023 salary: $2 million

ATLANTA – With his typically station-to-station lineup suddenly in home run mode, Davey Martinez decided midway through tonight’s series opener at Truist Park he was going to go all-in in search of win No. 70.

That number, arbitrary as it may be, was a stated goal for the Nationals and their manager in recent weeks, a nice round number that would represent a 15-game improvement from last season, no small achievement (even if it’s still a long way from the number required to play in October).

So when presented with the opportunity to beat the Braves tonight in Game 160, Martinez went for it. He fired every bullet he had in his bullpen, trying to coax every last out from his best arms against an Atlanta club that had already secured 103 wins, a division title and home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

That meant five – yes, five – mid-inning pitching changes. It meant asking Hunter Harvey to record five outs on 31 pitches. And it ultimately meant asking Kyle Finnegan to pitch the ninth to finish off a 10-6 victory that secured that coveted 70th win.

"It's nice getting to 70 wins, especially after last year," Harvey said. "Everybody thinking we're not a great team, and then coming out and winning 70 is awesome. I'm just glad to be a part of it."

There have been precious few of these – genuine laughers – during the course of the season, certainly over the last month-plus as the Nationals have needed to scratch and claw their way to any win they could secure.

The Nats hadn’t won a game by more than four runs since Aug. 11 against the Athletics. They hadn’t won a game by more than six runs since July 22 against the Giants. They hadn't won a game by 10 or more runs since April 29, 2022.

So consider this afternoon’s 13-3 thumping of the White Sox a much-needed, well-deserved walk in the park. A team that has looked like it’s running on fumes down the stretch of the season finally had an opportunity to enjoy a victory that was firmly in their grasp the entire way.

"It's great anytime we can score some runs early, score a lot of runs and pitch well," first baseman Dominic Smith said. "Those games are fun. Those are my favorite games."

In the process today, the Nationals secured their 18th series victory of the season, six more than they managed during their nightmare of a 55-107 campaign in 2022. With nine games left on schedule, but all coming against the teams with the two best records in baseball in the Braves and Orioles, it was imperative to lock up wins No. 67 and 68 against the White Sox now to make the path to 70 by season’s end a bit more palatable.

The Nationals were looking to build off their dramatic win Sunday in Milwaukee and start their final homestand of the season on a strong note. In fact, manager Davey Martinez has mentioned multiple times over the last week the importance of his team finishing the regular season strong heading into the offseason.

Obviously, wins would be nice, but that also includes clean baseball all around.

While welcoming the White Sox, who are the last sub-.500 team they will face this season, to town for three matchups, the Nats did not get off to a good start to these last seven games to be played on South Capitol Street in the 2023 campaign.

The Nats dropped tonight’s opener to the White Sox 6-1 as Mike Clevinger pitched a complete game against the home squad in front of an announced crowd of 20,977 at Nationals Park, with some ugly scenes along the way.

The ugliest from both sides came when benches and bullpens cleared in the bottom of the ninth inning.

PITTSBURGH – CJ Abrams added another milestone to his budding stardom last night.

With the Nationals needing to shake off a rough 2-7 homestand, Abrams hit two home runs to help lead his team to a 6-2 victory over the Pirates, their first series-opening win in their last five attempts.

Abrams’ two-run shot gave the Nats a 2-0 lead in the third, the first time they’ve scored first in a game since Aug. 29 in Toronto. Then his solo homer in the seventh, his 18th of the season, gave the 22-year-old the first multi-homer game of his young career.

“Just more comfortable up there I'd say,” Abrams said. “Getting my pitch, less antsy, anxious swinging at everything. If I can stay with that approach, I'll be good.”

The Nationals have always believed Abrams would be good. Now, with his power numbers improving, they believe he can be a star.

PITTSBURGH – The Nationals needed length from Patrick Corbin tonight. Entering this series opener against the Pirates, Nats starters had completed six innings only once in their last 12 games. And they had allowed at least one run in the first inning in 10 straight contests.

The veteran southpaw changed both of those narratives with a terrific showing to lead the Nats to a 6-2 victory in front of 10,045 fans at PNC Park.

“He was good," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "Kept the ball down. Mixed his pitches in, but we talked about that all the time. And I know (pitching coach Jim Hickey) had a conversation after his last outing, just got to keep the ball down. And he was very effective. So we needed a big star from him today and he gave it to us.”

Corbin was on point from the start. He recorded a 1-2-3 first inning on seven pitches to become the first Nats starter to pitch a scoreless first frame since MacKenzie Gore on Aug. 29 in Toronto.

His slider was his most useful pitch, with the Pirates unable to to lay off it out of the zone or make decent contact in it. He induced 19 swings at his slider, 13 of which were whiffs, and got seven of his eight strikeouts with it.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – As he sat in the dugout at tiny, historic Bowman Field this afternoon, watching his team take the field for batting practice, Davey Martinez considered what participation in the MLB Little League Classic meant for the Nationals.

Most of these players had never been in a nationally televised game before. Certainly none of them had played in a game in a setting like this, with an invitation-only crowd of 2,473 made up of Little League World Series competitors, their families and other locals packing themselves into this rustic minor league ballpark.

This whole day, which began with a fun-filled tour of the nearby Little League World Series complex, was a big deal for the Nationals. But there was also an actual major league game to play, and in it a chance for this fast-growing team to show just how far it has come in a short amount of time.

That made the Nats’ 4-3 victory over the Phillies all the more special. Yeah, the specific details were important to the individuals who performed well, none more so than Trevor Williams, who tossed six scoreless innings of two-hit ball to save a weary bullpen. But this was important for the franchise as a whole, a chance to show a larger audience what fans back in D.C. have already picked up on: These guys are playing really good baseball right now.

"It's been really good," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "We have a really good family in the clubhouse, and we believe we can play good against a really good team like the Philadelphia Phillies. All the teams."

The Nationals will board a flight this morning and head to Williamsport, Pa., for a full day of festivities ahead of tonight’s Little League Classic against the Phillies.

The sixth edition of this special major league game will be the first time the Nationals will get to experience the pomp and circumstance surrounding the event. And the team is looking forward to the opportunity to spend the day with the young ballplayers competing for the Little League World Series.

“It's gonna be a lot of fun,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We still got to go out there and compete. But the fun part of it is going to hang out with the kids. I want to go try to watch a couple of games, some international games. Who knows, I might get on cardboard and slide down the hill. That looks fun to me every time I see it. I'd rather do it than players do it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And for me, it's about the kids. It's about where our roots came from, why we're here. We all started in Little League, right? So it's gonna be a lot of fun.”

“The dream always starts somewhere,” said CJ Abrams. “To be able to go out there and have fun with the kids, it's gonna be a lot of fun.”

The Nats got a jumpstart of the weekend’s festivities by hosting the Little League team from Northwest D.C., on Friday. The team representing the District was so close to earning a trip to Williamsport, but fell to a Pennsylvania team in extra innings in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Final.

PHILADELPHIA – It has never happened. Not in the team’s 18-year existence since relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2005.

The Nationals have never been no-hit.

In fact, entering today, the franchise had the longest active streak of avoiding a no-hitter dating back 24 years, 0 months and 22 days to David Cone’s perfect game against the Expos at Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1999.

That streak came to an end tonight as Michael Lorenzen, making his first home start for the Phillies since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Tigers, no-hit the Nationals in a 7-0 win in front of 30,406 raucous fans at Citizens Bank Park.

“That was the coolest moment of my baseball career, going out there for the ninth,” Lorenzen told reporters after the game. “Just walking out of the dugout and hearing the fans go wild, it gave me the chills. It gave me that boost of energy that I needed for sure."

It was not a taboo word around the Nationals clubhouse. In fact, in talking to members of the team before today’s finale against the Giants, no one was really too concerned about it.

But it had to be noted how long it has been since the Nationals last swept a three-game series. You have to go back more than two years to June 14-16, 2021 against the Pirates for the last time they accomplished that feat. And per STATS, the Nats have not swept a series in their last 96 attempts, which is the longest streak of series without a sweep in major league history after passing the Philadelphia Athletics’ 89 straight series without a sweep between 1914-1917.

Alas, they finally did it, sweeping the Giants in three games this weekend with a 6-1 win this afternoon in front of 23,404 fans at Nats Park.

"This weekend we played like I thought we'd play throughout," said manager Davey Martinez after the game. "With a lot of energy, it was a lot of fun. It was a great weekend for us. So I was proud of the boys. You saw us go first to the third, you saw us turn double plays when we needed to, make some good plays, steal some bases, get big outs. Everybody was on point. So it was a fun weekend.”

As they did in each of the past two nights, the Nats jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back, the new top of the lineup once again leading the charge.

Today was one of those days where, in the grand scheme of things, the result of the Nationals’ game against the Giants didn’t really matter. The franchise introduced Dylan Crews, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, as one of the “keystone” pieces for the future.

Many were thinking about the next competitive Nationals team a few years down the line. But the players in the home clubhouse were not.

On the day the Nats celebrated Crews, they also celebrated a victory as they cruised to a 10-1 win over the Giants in front of 32,504 fans who came out to welcome the newest prospect and watch a ballgame.

And what a ballgame to watch if you were supporting the team wearing the cherry blossom uniforms, who won their second straight to take this series against the Giants.

"Yesterday was good, today was really good, so I like the trend," manager Davey Martinez said.

ST. LOUIS – At the end of a long weekend that included three rain delays, one suspended game, one extra-inning game and way too much time spent looking at red, yellow and green blobs on the Doppler radar, the Nationals experienced the rarest outcome of all: a road series loss.

With an 8-4 loss to the Cardinals today, the Nats dropped two of three on the road for the first time since June 13-15 in Houston.

They came into the day hoping to keep their winning ways away from D.C. alive, seeking their fourth straight road series win. But they couldn’t overcome a ragged and laborious start by Josiah Gray, nor a rough bottom of the sixth from the relievers who replaced him.

It appeared for a few moments the game might be called in the middle of the seventh, the Nats already trailing by five runs and an intense line of storms approaching from the west. Crew chief Bill Miller called for the Busch Stadium grounds crew to roll out the tarp for the third straight day this weekend and the game went into delay.

The storm indeed arrived about 10 minutes later and dumped heavy rain on the ballpark along with high winds. And given the disparity on the scoreboard, there was perhaps some consideration to calling the game right then. But the system cleared out quickly, and because the infield was pre-emptively covered, very little prep work was needed to restart the game after a mere 38-minute delay.

The Nationals entered the 2022 season with modest expectations. Such is life when you lost 107 games the previous year and spent a grand total of $17 million on free agents over the winter.

When they reached the All-Star break this week, the Nats found themselves with a 36-54 record, which equates to a 65-97 record over a full season. So while that doesn’t seem like anything to get excited about, it would still represent a 10-game improvement from 2022, and that’s not nothing.

Which isn’t to say a whole lot of things went well in the first half. There were a few positive developments, including some very significant ones. But there were some legitimate negatives as well, some which could threaten the viability of this franchise returning to contention within the next two years.

Let’s take stock of both the good and the bad to date. Here’s what went right for the Nationals in the first half, and what went wrong …

RIGHT: YOUNG STARTING PITCHERS
If you could’ve picked only one positive development for this team back on Opening Day, wouldn’t you have picked MacKenzie Gore and Josiah Gray? So much of this season was about their progression (plus Cade Cavalli, who unfortunately won’t be able to progress until 2024 due to Tommy John surgery in March). And while it hasn’t been a straight, upward line for both young starters, the arrow has ultimately pointed up more than down. Gray has been one of the most improved pitchers in the league, lowering his ERA from 5.02 to 3.41 even though his WHIP has gone up and his strikeout rate has gone down a bit. He’s been successful because he’s kept the ball in the park and because he’s been able to pitch out of jams. An All-Star berth (and a 1-2-3 inning of relief in Tuesday night’s game) is merely the cherry on top. Gore, meanwhile, is still a work-in-progress with a 4.42 ERA and 1.461 WHIP. But when he’s good, he’s as good as anybody, with four starts so far that featured one or two runs allowed and at least nine strikeouts recorded. And don’t overlook Jake Irvin, a pleasant surprise who wasn’t on anybody’s radar but now looks like a potential back-of-the-rotation starter for the future.

As the baseball world turns to tonight’s Major League Baseball Draft and the upcoming All-Star Game festivities, there were still games to be played today before the close of the season’s unofficial first half.

For the Nationals, that meant going for a series win against the first-place Rangers before they make the second overall pick later tonight.

It’s been a tough week – and to a greater extent month – for the Nats on South Capitol Street. Entering today’s finale, they had lost 15 of their last 17 home games, last night’s 8-4 win being one of the two exceptions.

But after losing six straight at home after Friday, the Nationals now enter the All-Star break as the winners of two straight with this afternoon’s 7-2 victory over the Rangers in front of 17,547 fans in attendance.

“Well, it's a good way to finish off. Boys played well," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "It was good. You're playing a team that's got some horses over there. To come out the way we did the last two games was awesome. These guys, I'm proud of the way they're playing and the way they played."

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals were riding high into Saturday’s late afternoon game against the Phillies.

One of their young starting pitchers tossed perhaps his best game as a major leaguer when Josiah Gray shoved for six innings of one-run ball in last night’s 2-1 win.

That set the Nats up today to win their third straight series and to do something they haven’t done since June 27-30, 2021: Have a winning streak longer than three games.

But that all came crashing down with today’s 19-4 thrashing by the Phillies, much to the delight of the 42,784 fans at Citizens Bank Park.

Score aside, the story of this one for the Nationals was MacKenize Gore’s early departure.

SEATTLE – Had they played clean baseball tonight, the Nationals might still have lost to the Mariners. Their lineup might still have gone silent after scoring three early runs off Luis Castillo. Trevor Williams might still have been pulled after four labored innings. Cory Abbott might still have surrendered the go-ahead runs in relief. Jeimer Candelario might still have struck out looking – at a pitch well outside the strike zone, for what that's worth – with the bases loaded and a last-ditch chance to tie the game with one swing in the top of the ninth.

But they certainly weren’t going to win this game playing the unclean brand of baseball they put on display in the opener of a three-game series at T-Mobile Park.

There was a comical error by Dominic Smith, who flipped the ball to first base without realizing nobody was there to catch it. There was a perfect throw by Keibert Ruiz to nab Jarred Kelenic trying to steal second, if not for CJ Abrams not holding the tag long enough. There was an automatic balk called on Williams for disengaging from the pitching rubber three times during the same at-bat.

All of that, along with some ineffective pitching and a lack of offense once the third inning ended, conspired to deal the Nationals an 8-4 loss to Seattle and halt whatever positive momentum they generated during back-to-back wins in San Diego over the weekend.

"Those little things become big things, as we saw," manager Davey Martinez said. "We'll talk about these things again tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow we play a cleaner game. Because this game was close for a while there. It was a good game. The boys battled back, but I'd like to see us get through that one inning that kind of beat us."

Two weeks ago, the Nationals were looking at this date on the calendar and expecting to spend their off-day in sunny San Diego. But because of the postponement of the June 8 finale against the Diamondbacks due to the poor air quality from the Canada wildfires, they’re instead still in cloudy D.C. ready to play an early afternoon makeup game.

That made for an odd schedule this week to end this seven-game homestand before the team embarks on a nine-game road trip, which starts with six consecutive games on the West Coast. They had a late afternoon start on Monday for the Juneteenth federal holiday. They had another 4 p.m. start yesterday as it was still a getaway day for the Cardinals, who had a transatlantic flight to London to play two games against the Cubs. And now they have this early afternoon game against the D-backs, who arrived from Milwaukee last night and will also travel back to the West Coast tonight.

The lost off-day means the Nationals are in the middle of a stretch with games scheduled for 16 straight days. So Davey Martinez has to get creative in finding ways to give guys some rest.

“This would have been a nice day off for us, obviously,” the skipper said during his pregame press conference. “And it would have been in San Diego, which is kind of nice. But you know what, we got to play today. So I know these guys will be ready to play. But finding days off, we played so many days in a row.”

Today’s lineup against the Diamondbacks and left-handed starter Tommy Henry features some regulars getting the day off and some others playing in different positions.