The Nationals and Stephen Strasburg have finally reached agreement on financial terms of the right-hander’s contract that allowed him to officially retire from baseball today.

A formal announcement is still forthcoming, but two sources familiar with the agreement confirmed it has been finalized with terms amenable to both the pitcher and the organization, ending a long and protracted negotiation that threatened to ruin the Nats’ relationship with one of the most important players in club history. Major League Baseball's official transactions log shows Strasburg retired today.

Strasburg has not been able to pitch since June 9, 2022, when he made his one and only major league start of that season, giving up seven runs in 4 2/3 innings in Miami. Unable to fully overcome the symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome, even after his 2021 surgery, he finally conceded last year another comeback would not be possible.

Strasburg and the Nationals had plans to formally announce his retirement in early September 2023, but those plans were scrapped only days before the expected ceremony when the two sides couldn’t agree on the financial details of the arrangement.

Strasburg, who signed a seven-year, $245 million extension in December 2019, less than two months after winning World Series MVP honors, is still owed a little more than $100 million over the next three years. His contract, like all long-term major league contracts, was guaranteed, but the Nationals wanted to alter those terms, or at least spread out his remaining payments over a longer period of time, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

CINCINNATI – Despite their limited action in free agency over the winter, the Nationals’ payroll has gone up a bit this year, a product almost entirely of returning players whose salaries increased via arbitration.

The Nats’ Opening Day payroll (counting 26 active players, plus five more who began the season on the injured list) is $107,566,629, according to Spotrac, which ranks 21st among all major league clubs. One year ago, that figure was about $94.5 million, which ranked 22nd.

Those totals count all money owed to players during the upcoming year, not any money that will be paid at a later date via deferrals.

The Nationals did very little in free agency during the offseason, signing only three players to major league contracts: Joey Gallo ($5 million guaranteed), Dylan Floro ($2.25 million) and Nick Senzel ($2 million). They did sign four more veteran free agents to minor league deals during spring training who wound up making the roster: Eddie Rosario ($2 million guaranteed), Jesse Winker ($1.5 million), Matt Barnes ($1.5 million) and Derek Law ($1.5 million).

All told, the Nats spent only $15.75 million on free agents, down from $18.25 million the previous offseason.

From the moment they traded Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and six others in July 2021, the Nationals stopped paying attention to their won-loss record.

Managers, general managers and players can say all they want about competing every single day and believing they’re going to win far more than they lose, but deep down everyone associated with the Nats knew at that moment the organizational priority no longer involved winning percentage at the major league level.

That continued through the 2022 season, which also saw the club deal Juan Soto in the biggest trade of them all, and then through the 2023 season, even though the Nationals’ win total ultimately did improve by a healthy amount from 55 to 71.

Now, as the rebuild enters its third full season, with several core players already on the roster and several more coming soon, it’s fair to ask for the first time in a long time: Should the Nats be judged primarily by their record?

“I think we’re at a point right now where it’s wins and losses,” right-hander Josiah Gray said. “We want to improve on last year.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – They waited a bit longer than most teams to do it, but the Nationals did finally start making some cuts over the last week.

None of the names to date came as much of a surprise. These were mostly younger prospects who need to start getting more playing time in minor league camp or non-roster invitees who stood little chance of making the Opening Day roster in the first place.

The next round of cuts, which will likely come in a few more days, may include some more prominent names. We’re getting down to crunch time for Mike Rizzo, Davey Martinez and Co, who admittedly have some tough decisions to make as they pare the list down to 26 for the season opener.

Who’s still here? Officially, there are 45 remaining players in big league camp, but that’s a bit misleading. Six players are all but guaranteed to open the season on the injured list with ailments both major (Mason Thompson, Cade Cavalli, Stone Garrett, Stephen Strasburg) and minor (Jose A. Ferrer, Robert Hassell III).

So that leaves 39 healthy players competing for those final 26 jobs. Here’s a look at who’s left by position and what decisions still must be made. (Players with an asterisk after their names are on minor league contracts and would need to be added to the 40-man roster) …

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Mike Rizzo spent the first half of his professional life roaming every corner of the United States and beyond in search of young baseball talent. He’s spent the second half of that professional life staying in one place, making Washington his home during his 18 years working for the Nationals, the last 15 as general manager.

Along the way, as he realized how much D.C. had become home to him and his family, Rizzo decided he wanted to give something back to the city he now lovingly calls home.

“I’m so humbled and grateful every day,” he said. “I was an area scout and grinded it out for a long time to appreciate where I’m at right now. I’ve been blessed in my career and in my life – I’ve made enough money where I can help out the less fortunate – and I married a woman who wanted to do the same thing. We kind of teamed this thing up to leave a mark. I think the city deserves for me to give something back to them, since they’ve given so much to me.”

Thus was The Rizzo Family Foundation – aka “Riz Kids” – born. A new nonprofit organization created by Mike and Jodi Rizzo, it intends to champion educational equity and invest in D.C. children and their families through community grants, college scholarships and opportunities to experience special baseball events.

The idea came to the Rizzos sometime in 2020, after Mike’s sister Kim died of ALS. The birth of the couple’s son, Sonny, last year helped further push them to create the foundation, which officially launched this week.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – With less than two weeks remaining in spring training, the two members of the Nationals’ projected lineup most in danger of losing their jobs got a muted vote of confidence from general manager Mike Rizzo, who nonetheless made it clear he needs to see more improvement from Luis García Jr. and Victor Robles.

García and Robles came to camp with an edict from club officials to show long-sought improvement, told they would be pushed by others in search of their starting jobs over the course of the spring. Each has enjoyed some success at the plate – García is 8-for-29 with two doubles and a homer, Robles is 6-for-18 with a homer and three walks – but each has come under some criticism following fundamental mistakes.

Asked about both García, 23, and Robles, 26, this afternoon, Rizzo expressed disappointment in those mistakes while also acknowledging their relative inexperience.

“I think they’re playing hard, they’re playing well,” Rizzo said. “We have to eliminate the mental lapses and the mental mistakes. But when you think about it, they’re both still young men chronologically. Although they seem like they’ve been here forever, they’re still young people. Luis is still 23 years old. If they didn’t have ability, obviously you wouldn’t be putting up with the mental mistakes that they make. But they have a lot of ability. They’ve shown it in the past at this level. We just have to get them over that, because that’s not helping the team.”

García in particular came under fire last week after committing errors on back-to-back plays, then getting picked off first base the following day.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It’s impossible to miss inside the Nationals clubhouse. It’s prominently located, at the end of a row of lockers belonging to the rest of the members of the team’s starting rotation.

It’s the same locker Stephen Strasburg has used since the organization began training here in 2017. And it continues to be adorned with his name, his jersey, his shoes and a stack of correspondence, virtually unchanged from the state it was in one year ago.

And as was the case one year ago, Strasburg isn’t here using his locker. He remains at home in Northern Virginia, having conceded last summer he could no longer attempt to revive his pitching career.

But because Strasburg and the Nationals have not been able to agree to the financial details of his retirement, he remains on the club’s 40-man roster. Which means he still gets a locker. Which, it appears, the organization now believes he is obligated to use.

Do the Nats actually expect Strasburg to come to West Palm Beach this spring?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Though a number of Nationals who ended the 2023 season injured reported for spring training on target to return as planned, a new ailment cropped up over the winter for one potential member of the bullpen.

Mason Thompson experienced elbow discomfort while throwing an offseason bullpen session and was told not to throw after arriving in West Palm Beach. The right-hander will be shut down for two weeks before he’s re-evaluated, according to manager Davey Martinez.

“Mason, right now, he’s got a little arm issue,” Martinez said this afternoon in his camp-opening session with reporters. “We’re going to see what’s going on with him. We’ll take it slow with him.”

Thompson, who turns 26 next week, has a history of arm injuries, most notably a biceps strain that forced him to miss nearly three months of the 2022 season. He hasn’t missed any time due to arm injuries since, but he spent 15 days on the injured list last summer with a bruised knee.

“We’re a little bit concerned,” Martinez said. “Like I said, we’ll take it slow with him. We’re still really early in spring training, so we’ll see. We’ll rehab him and see where we’re at in two weeks.”

One of the least eventful winters in Nationals history concludes today, spring officially commencing Wednesday when pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach, Fla., for their first workout of 2024.

This offseason saw precious little action from the Nats. They added only four players on major-league contracts, signing Joey Gallo, Nick Senzel and Dylan Floro for a combined $9.25 million and adding Nasim Nuñez (who has never played above Double-A) via the Rule 5 Draft. They didn’t make a single trade.

Even by recent Nationals standards, this was a dead winter.

But does that mean they’re done adding players? There were reasons all along to believe they might not be done. And then they did do something Monday evening, albeit on a minor-league deal.

Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez were pretty clear about their wish list back when the offseason began. Both specifically mentioned an experienced starting pitcher. Both specifically mentioned more power for their lineup.

We are now inside of two weeks until pitchers and catchers report, so the offseason is nearly finished.

And what an offseason it’s been for the Nationals, who have … acquired a total of four major league players, not even totaling $10 million spent on those players.

OK, so it’s been an awfully quiet winter on South Capitol Street. There’s still time for Mike Rizzo and Co. to make more moves, though. And given the swath of still-unsigned free agents out there, we may see teams continue to add significant players after spring training has already commenced.

But since we’re getting close to the finish line now, it’s probably a good time to take an updated look at the state of the Nationals’ organization depth chart. We did this way back on Nov. 8, at the outset of the offseason. How does it look today compared to then?

(Note: Players listed below are on the 40-man roster, except for those with an asterisk next to their names.)

Sean Doolittle surely had no shortage of options when deciding what to do first in his post-playing career. The 37-year-old reliever, who retired from the Nationals in September after a knee injury prevented him from returning from the elbow procedure he underwent the previous season, could do just about anything he wanted.

Broadcaster? Sure, he has the knowledge and the personality. Coach? Absolutely, he has always enjoyed imparting his wisdom on teammates. Community relations representative? Most definitely, given his longstanding passion for making a difference off the field in a number of important areas. Mayor of Washington? Well, even though it was the running joke on his retirement day, Doolittle was quick to shoot down that notion. Grateful Dead roadie? Don’t tempt him.

He may wind up doing any or all of those things during the remainder of his time on Earth, or something completely different nobody has thought of yet. For his first post-retirement act, though, Doolittle has decided to stick around Nationals Park and offer the organization something it hasn’t had before: a hybrid coach/analytics guru.

The Nats announced Tuesday they’ve hired Doolittle to be their pitching strategist, a newly created position that will allow the lefty to work directly with pitchers, the coaching staff and the front office in an attempt to bring out the best in all of them.

According to the club’s press release, Doolittle will serve “as a liaison between the analytics department and pitching staff, while assisting the manager and pitching coach with strategy, mental preparation and mechanics.”

As I laid out earlier this week, it’s a trying time in the Washington, D.C. sports landscape. Almost all of the local professional sports franchises are facing crucial turning points in their respective histories. There are a lot of turnover and changes happening across the District.

Except on South Capitol Street.

Looking around town, the Nationals’ Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez are the longest tenured general manager and manager/head coach, respectively, among Washington’s teams, providing stability in the usually unstable industry of professional sports.

The Commanders, under new managing owner Josh Harris, reportedly hired new general manager Adam Peters on Friday. Peters will surely clean house in the front office and help ownership hire the team’s next head coach. A lot of change is happening quickly with the local football team, which is hoping to return to the glory years of the historic franchise.

Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan is one of the longest-tenured general managers in town behind Rizzo, heading up the local hockey operation since 2014. The Caps did win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup under MacLellan in 2018, but have gone through four head coaches since he took the job. They are currently under first-year head coach Spencer Carbery as the team tracks Alex Ovechkin’s record-setting goal chase and plans for a younger core of players in the future.

It’s been 29 days since the Nationals last made a major-league transaction. Way back on Dec. 12, they announced the signings of Nick Senzel and Dylan Floro, plus the designating of Jeter Downs for assignment. Since then? Crickets.

This should be cause for alarm. A full month with zero transactions? And it’s not like the roster is already set. This team still lacks a left-handed bat to play either left field, first base or designated hitter, and could probably use players to fill two of those positions. Another starting pitcher remains on the wish list, as well.

So there’s no argument out there that can make the case the Nats are better off having done nothing for 29 days.

The only saving grace? They’re not alone.

It’s been an incredibly slow offseason across the baseball world, aside perhaps from the Dodgers and Braves, who seem to make major news every week. Most everyone else has made only a few moves, electing instead to wait this out and theoretically swoop in at some point to start signing free agents.

It’s a tough time to be a Washington, D.C. sports fan, as my colleague Mark Zuckerman pointed out yesterday. If you look around at the standings across the various sports leagues, Washington teams don’t sit very high.

The Nationals, of course, just finished fifth in the National League East for the fourth consecutive season following their 2019 World Series championship, despite a 16-win improvement from 2022. At the end of the NFL regular season, the Commanders finished last in their division and now own the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft. In the NBA, the Wizards currently own the league’s third-worst record and are on track for a lottery pick, possibly the No. 1 selection. The Capitals are treading water in the middle of the NHL standings, trying to avoid the first back-to-back seasons of missing the playoffs since the start of the Alex Ovechkin era.

The Mystics, who also won a championship in 2019, made the WNBA playoffs despite a sub-.500 record and were swept out of the first round. The local soccer clubs – MLS’ D.C. United and NWSL’s Washington Spirit – finished in the middle of the pack without postseason appearances in their respective campaigns.

By most accounts, all of Washington’s professional sports teams are either in a rebuild or barely toeing the line of competitiveness.

The Commanders’ new ownership group has already begun to clean house and rebuild the entire organization. They are taking steps to hire a new general manager and head coach, who will use the No. 2 pick in the draft to start building the roster in their image. Although turnarounds in the NFL have been proven to take less time, the local football team is just beginning the long journey back to being one of the best franchises in the league.

When the calendar shifted from 2022 to 2023 one year ago, the Nationals had already addressed two of their stated needs, signing a third baseman (Jeimer Candelario) and a No. 5 starter (Trevor Williams). They still needed a left fielder and a first baseman (or designated hitter), and they proceeded to address both of those needs within the first 10 days of January, first signing Dominic Smith to play first base and then signing Corey Dickerson to play left field.

As the calendar now shifts from 2023 to 2024, the Nationals have already addressed two of their stated needs, signing a third baseman (Nick Senzel) and a veteran late-inning reliever (Dylan Floro). They still need a left fielder and a first baseman (or designated hitter). And maybe a No. 5 starter.

Anybody ever experienced déjà vu?

Yeah, there’s a very familiar pattern playing out here this winter. Only Mike Rizzo knows whether that’s legitimately by design or pure coincidence. But the similarities are impossible to ignore.

The Nats do have more promising pieces already in place than they did a year ago, feeling more secure about their catcher, their shortstop, their right fielder, two (or maybe three) of their starting pitchers and multiple relievers. And they know the most promising pieces are close to joining the party sometime before the year is up.

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2023. We continue the series today with the organization’s decision to re-sign Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez but make changes to each man’s staff …

The question loomed over both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez’s heads all season. Such is life in the final year of a contract. And such has been the norm for both the Nationals general manager and manager since arriving in town.

“It’s not the first time, won’t be the last time, I’m on a lame-duck contract,” Rizzo said in February.

No, Rizzo and Martinez had been in this several times before, and each time emerged with a new deal. Though not without first having to sweat it out until it became a more-pressing matter for Nats ownership.

In this instance, though, the resolution came earlier than expected. Martinez signed his new two-year extension (plus a third-year club option) on Aug. 21, six weeks before season’s end. Rizzo’s took a bit longer to finalize but still got done Sept. 13, with time to spare.

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2023. We begin the series today with the team’s approach to this season’s trade deadline …

Some of the most significant days of the 2021 and 2022 calendar years for the Nationals came at the trade deadline, when Mike Rizzo made franchise-altering decisions by dealing away stars Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Juan Soto (plus a bunch of other veterans) and kick-started a roster overhaul with the acquisition of a host of prospects.

When it came time for the 2023 trade deadline, the Nats knew things would be different. The question was how different.

There was no superstar to be dealt this time. There was one obvious veteran on an expiring contract who had value to contending clubs: Jeimer Candelario. They hoped there would be others in the form of Corey Dickerson, Dominic Smith and Carl Edwards Jr., but the first two were ineffective and the latter was injured.

So the real dilemma at this deadline involved players who weren’t veterans and weren’t on expiring contracts but might still be coveted by contenders. The two names who stood out in that regard: Lane Thomas and Kyle Finnegan.

It’s Christmas Eve in Washington and we are fewer than 100 days from Opening Day 2024. This offseason is progressing rapidly.

Before we check to see what Santa Claus left under our trees tomorrow morning and ring in the new year next week, let’s look at what remains on the Nationals’ offseason wish list, in hopes that some could be crossed off soon.

As expected, the Nationals have been relatively quiet this offseason, limiting spending and not dealing away prospects in hopes the budding stars can make an impact at the major league level next year and put the team in position to be spenders next offseason.

But they have made a couple of moves to fill some roster holes.

Before officially departing the Winter Meetings in Nashville, the Nats agreed to a one-year, $2 million deal, plus incentives, with former Reds utility man Nick Senzel to be their everyday third baseman.

The 2023 Nationals clearly were a better team than the 2022 Nationals were, and you don’t have to dig real deep for the confirmation of that. Any team that improved by 16 wins, from 55 to 71, did something right.

Ask those in charge of the organization about the improvement, though, and they’re quick to point out the lack of total satisfaction with the end result, no matter how much better it was than the previous year.

“We’re not proud of 71 wins, believe me,” general manager Mike Rizzo said earlier this month. “It was a step forward, and more importantly, our young players made progress. … (But) our goal is never to win 71 games. Our goal is to win a division, to win a world championship. And I feel that we took a step in the right direction last year toward doing that.”

How then does a team take the next step? How does a 71-win team become a winning team?

“We’re going to try and facilitate another roster that allows us to take another step forward and get into the action with a terrific division that we have to deal with,” Rizzo said. “We understand the challenges in front of us, and I think we’re a capable group. You’ve seen in the past what we’ve done, and I think that we’re going to be able to do it in the future.”

When the Nationals selected outfielder Elijah Green with the fifth-overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, it was thought to be a steal for the rebuilding club.

How did MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 draft prospect fall to the Nats at No. 5? This would be the second year in a row one of the top high school bats seemingly slipped to the Nats after Brady House fell to them at No. 11 overall in the previous summer’s draft.

After posting a .939 OPS with four doubles, two homers and nine RBIs in 12 Rookie-level Florida Complex League games last year, we got the first glimpse of what Green brings to the table during his 75 games at Single-A Fredericksburg this year. And we potentially saw why four teams passed on him in the 2022 draft that made him available to the Nats at No. 5.

Green, who just turned 20 this last week, flashed his athletic skill set that made him a top draft prospect. He is an elite, yet raw athlete with speed, power and a strong arm. Per MLB Pipeline, his power (60), run (70), arm (60) and field (60) are all above average on a 20-80 grading scale.

He stole 30 bases in 35 attempts with the FredNats while also posting a .982 fielding percentage in 607 innings in center field.