Danny Haas believes it happened in Battle Creek, Mich., in the late 1990s, when he was an 18th-round draft pick of the Red Sox playing outfield in low Single-A and Mike Rizzo (a Midwest scout for the Red Sox at the time) was in town looking at some of the organization’s higher-rated prospects.

“He was there with his son,” Haas recalls, “and I gave him some bats and balls.”

And what did Rizzo think of him as a ballplayer?

“I hope he thinks I’m a better scout than I was a player,” Haas said with a laugh.

Yes, he does. Rizzo doesn’t really remember much about Haas’ playing abilities. He does have an incredibly strong opinion of his evaluation skills, which is why he recently hired him to be the Nationals’ new vice president of amateur scouting.

NASHVILLE – This afternoon’s Rule 5 draft marks the end of the Winter Meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Typically held on Thursday morning the week of the Meetings, the league bumped it up to Wednesday afternoon last year, much to the delight of beat reporters who get to travel home a day early.

The Nationals historically haven’t utilized this avenue of roster building. Designed to keep teams from stashing prospects in the minor leagues, general manager Mike Rizzo has usually turned to acquiring established major leaguers instead of taking a flier on an unproven prospect that has to take up a roster spot for the entirety of next season.

But the Nats did stray away from that last year by selecting Thaddeus Ward from the Red Sox with the first-overall pick in the Rule 5 draft, their first selection in 12 years.

Although they hold the No. 5 overall pick this afternoon and have two open spots on the 40-man roster, the Nats aren’t assured of making a selection. But that doesn’t mean the Rule 5 draft will definitely be uneventful for them.

The Nats, of course, can lose players in this event and they have already taken steps to assure they keep the ones they definitely want.

NASHVILLE – In rattling off the positions they need to fill this winter, the Nationals will say first base, third base and left field. They’ll acknowledge Luis García isn’t guaranteed to retain his starting job at second base. But what about center field?

When the 2023 season ended, the Nats were playing Jacob Young every day. And though the rookie (who opened the year in Single-A) acquitted himself well, he hardly has the track record or pedigree to suggest he deserves to be handed the job.

Which brings us to Victor Robles. The guy who has started in center field on Opening Day each of the last five seasons.

Robles started Opening Day this year, but he went on the injured list in May with a back ailment, and after a brief return in June he went right back on the IL and remained there the rest of the year. He was very much out-of-sight, out-of-mind as the season concluded, leaving his future in doubt.

The Nationals, though, have retained the 26-year-old. They initially declined a $3.3 million club option for him but soon after agreed to terms on a lesser deal to avoid arbitration. He is, by all accounts, expected to remain a prominent player on the team in 2024.

NASHVILLE – The Nationals found themselves in a tricky situation as they arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Resort for this year’s Winter Meetings.

After a 16-win improvement from last year, the team is looking to take another significant step toward competing in 2024. In order to do that, they need to fill some holes on their roster, especially in the power department.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us this year, and I think we’re going to take our aggressive approach when it suits us and wait for the market when it suits us,” said general manager Mike Rizzo on Monday. “I think we’re going to be busy here. We’ve already been semi-busy since we got here, and I think it’s going to be a busy time.”

But with one of the best farm systems in baseball, they know they also have some top prospects coming to the major leagues soon.

How, then, do Rizzo and Co. improve the current roster at first base/designated hitter, third base and the outfield at a low cost that won’t be an issue once one or more of the aforementioned top prospects are deemed ready for the big leagues?

NASHVILLE – The Nationals don’t have to add a starting pitcher this winter. They could easily enter the 2024 season with Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Patrick Corbin and Trevor Williams in their rotation, with Cade Cavalli set to return from Tommy John surgery in June and several other prospects at Triple-A Rochester ready to be called upon if needed.

Mike Rizzo isn’t hiding the fact, though, that he’d like to acquire another starter. It may not be priority No. 1 on his offseason shopping list, but it’s definitely on the list.

“Everyone needs starting pitching in the whole sport,” the general manager said Monday. “We’re no different. You can never have enough of it, and we’re in search of it.”

Free agent starters, of course, don’t come cheap. The best ones cost more than $100 million. The average ones can cost in excess of $50 million. Even the worst of them can still come with a price tag of $10 million per year, based on what struggling veterans Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson recently received from the Cardinals.

So if the Nationals do delve into the market this winter, they likely won’t be acquiring anything more than a back-of-the-rotation arm, someone who will be asked to eat innings and take some pressure and workload off the organization’s younger pitchers.

NASHVILLE – The Nationals’ winter wish list – first base, third base, left field, starting pitcher – reads a whole lot like it did one year ago, when Mike Rizzo filled those needs with one-year deals for Dominic Smith, Jeimer Candelario and Corey Dickerson, plus a two-year deal for Trevor Williams.

So, is it fair to assume the same type of approach this winter, or might the Nats take a different tack this time around?

“We’ve got several holes to fill,” the general manager said tonight in his first media session of the Winter Meetings. “We’ve got our work cut out for us this year, and I think we’re going to take our aggressive approach when it suits us and wait for the market when it suits us. I think we’re going to be busy here.”

“Busy,” of course, doesn’t necessarily mean the Nationals will leave town with any new players signed. It may refer only to meetings they take with agents, which could eventually lead to the signing of new players.

Rizzo doesn’t deny, though, what he’s looking for.

NASHVILLE – Members of the Nationals organization arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Resort throughout the course of Sunday afternoon and evening, every one of them eager to see what transpires during this version of the Winter Meetings while simultaneously acknowledging the most frustrating part of the situation: It’s not quite time yet for the Nats to go all-in.

More than four years removed now from their World Series title, the Nationals are itching to return to their prior status as an annual contender. But while they’ve made significant progress since embarking on their franchise rebuild midway through the 2021 season, they’re not done yet. And that probably means another frustrating winter of patching a few roster holes without making any real long-term commitments to free agents.

The Nats, to be sure, have talked to a number of free agent targets. And they will sign a few of them sometime this winter. But they are not expecting to be major players at these meetings, which will see other clubs go for broke in pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and others.

After improving from 55 wins in 2022 to 71 wins this season, the Nationals know they must take one more critical step before jumping back into the deep end of the free agent pool. Sure, they could make a big move now, like they did back in December 2010 when they signed Jayson Werth for $126 million despite losing 93 games that season. But they appear to be more inclined to wait one more year before going that route this time around.

Why? Because while their won-loss progression the last two seasons may mirror 2009-10, the organization is in a distinctly different position these days.

Nashville has been part of the Winter Meetings’ regular rotation for some time now, having hosted the event seven times since 1983, not to mention three times in a nine-year span from 2007-15. So the cavernous Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center will be familiar territory for just about everyone who gathers there later today for the start of this year’s Winter Meetings.

That includes Mike Rizzo, who attends his fourth Nashville Winter Meetings as a member of the Nationals front office, his third as general manager. The situation this time, though, is different from those previous ones.

In December 2012 and 2015, the Nats were full-blown contenders, desperate to find a way to get over their postseason humps. So Rizzo was front-and-center each time, signing Dan Haren in 2012 and a trio of relievers (Shawn Kelley, Oliver Pérez and Yusmeiro Petit) in 2015.

Nationals managers also were the center of attention at each of those meetings, with Davey Johnson in 2012 declaring the goal was “World Series or bust” and recently hired Dusty Baker drawing a huge crowd for his media session in 2015.

What will this week have in store? Well, probably nothing like any of that. Unless Rizzo or Davey Martinez has a surprise up his sleeve.

A week’s vacation for your trusty beat writer usually guarantees something for the Nationals: News.

Countless times over the years have I gone off the grid only to find out the Nats made some kind of major transaction in my absence. So, count me genuinely shocked when I got back to town after an extended Thanksgiving break with nary a peep coming out of South Capitol Street. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad Bobby Blanco’s holiday weekend wasn’t ruined by breaking news. But I fully expected to come back with reason to share my thoughts on multiple items of interest.

Instead … well, there really isn’t anything new on the Nationals to discuss. The Winter Meetings begin Sunday in Nashville, so there will be actual news soon enough. But not yet.

Perhaps the most interesting development of the last week from the Nats’ perspective was the flurry of moves made by other clubs. Especially when it came to free agent starting pitchers.

There have already been a number of moves in that oh-so-important department, and you better believe the Nationals were paying attention and calculating how it might impact their own pursuit of pitching help this winter.

At this point 12 months ago, the Nationals had three holes to fill in their 2023 starting lineup. They needed a left fielder. They needed a third baseman. And, after choosing not to tender a contract to Luke Voit, they needed a first baseman (or designated hitter).

Mike Rizzo promptly filled all three of those holes in the form of Corey Dickerson, Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith, who combined made less than $10 million. One of them worked out wonderfully and was flipped at the trade deadline for a pitching prospect who could make his major league debut next season. The other two didn’t work out at all, with Dickerson injured and unproductive and out of a job by early August, and Smith offering smooth defensive work but not nearly enough offense at a traditionally offense-first position.

So as they progress into the heart of this offseason, the Nationals find themselves yet again with three lineup holes to fill. They need a left fielder. They need a third baseman. And, after choosing to designate Smith for assignment this week, they need a first baseman (or DH).

There are, to be fair, some potential in-house options at each position. Stone Garrett could be the starting left fielder, but how confident is the team in his ability to be 100 percent recovered from a gruesome broken leg by Opening Day? Carter Kieboom or Ildemaro Vargas or Jake Alu could be the third baseman, but none provides the kind of assured offense you’d think the Nats prefer at that position. And they could make Joey Meneses their regular first baseman and hope his defense is good enough, but even then, would still need to find another DH.

So, it feels like Rizzo is probably going to be looking once again to fill all three of those holes from outside the organization.

The Nationals, like pretty much every other team in the major leagues, could use some pitching help entering next season. They would love to add an experienced starter to a rotation that, while improved from a year ago, still was lacking in many ways.

Saying you’re interested in adding a veteran starter, however, is very different from actually adding a veteran starter. And the term “veteran starter” can mean a whole lot of different things.

Are we talking about a top-of-the-rotation guy, someone who could lead this staff for years to come? Are we talking about a middle-of-the-rotation guy, a solid-but-unspectacular pitcher who takes the ball every fifth day and usually gives you a chance to win? Are we talking about a back-of-the-rotation guy, a stopgap solution who may not even make it through the entire season?

We don’t know specifically yet what the Nationals have in mind. But if we look back at Mike Rizzo’s track record, we can probably get an idea about the type of pitcher he usually pursues. And the type of pitcher he usually ignores.

Since becoming general manager in 2009, Rizzo has signed nine starting pitchers as major league free agents: Jason Marquis and Chien-Ming Wang in 2010, Edwin Jackson in 2012, Dan Haren in 2013, Max Scherzer in 2015, Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez in 2019, Jon Lester in 2021 and Trevor Williams in 2023.

After a sustained run as one of baseball’s highest-spending clubs, the Nationals have morphed into one of the sport’s lower-spending clubs over the last 12 months. Given the state of the franchise’s rebuild, that’s not unexpected. Teams focused on identifying young pieces for the future don’t boast high payrolls.

But the question remains on the minds of so many right now: When will the Nats decide it’s time to spend big again, and what will that look like?

Reading tea leaves from club officials, it doesn’t sound like a splurge is coming this winter. They’re still focused on identifying those long-term parts to the puzzle. Once they have a better sense what they already have, they may be more inclined to spend money to acquire what they don’t have.

But even if they don’t go big yet, there’s reason to believe payroll will increase in 2024. Not by a lot, but some.

First, some background: From 2013-21, the Nationals ranked in the top 10 in the majors in end-of-season payroll every year, with a club record $205 million payroll (fourth-highest in baseball) during the 2019 World Series run.

The World Series ended five days ago. That means, for all intents and purposes, the offseason begins today.

While there have been a few newsworthy developments up to this point, today marks the more official start of the Hot Stove League. Free agents may begin to sign contracts. Teams must set their 40-man rosters. Decisions of real consequence will start being made.

What might this offseason have in store for the Nationals? Here’s a primer to get you in the right frame of mind for what comes next …

* SETTING THE 40-MAN ROSTER
The first order of business is setting the organization’s 40-man roster, which for the last seven months has included more than 40 players. That’s because anyone on the 60-day injured list didn’t count against the total.

But there is no IL during the offseason. Healthy or not, everyone must be included on the 40-man roster or else be placed on waivers, made available to other teams or just flat-out released altogether.

The Nationals decided to promote from within when selecting a new farm director. The club today named Eddie Longosz as vice president and assistant general manager of player development and administration, giving a longtime front office member the opportunity to now oversee the entire minor league operation.

Longosz, 37, has worked for the Nationals since 2010 and spent the last eight seasons as director of scouting operations. In that role, he assisted general manager Mike Rizzo on all aspects of the club’s amateur, professional and international scouting operations.

This promotion moves Longosz into a new area, one the organization has been trying to improve for some time. When longtime farm director Doug Harris was forced to leave baseball in 2020 while fighting an ongoing battle with cancer, his longtime assistant Mark Scialabba formally took over a role he essentially had already held for several years. Two years later, the team made veteran scout De Jon Watson director of player development, tasked with overhauling a farm system that was undergoing massive change following the trades of Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and others for prospects.

The Nats parted ways with Watson shortly after this season ended, though, making him one of a number of experienced baseball operations staffers who either were let go, resigned or retired. Now they turn to Longosz to take over a critical job for a franchise counting on several top prospects to make their major league debuts in the next few years.

“Eddie Longosz has been integral to our organization’s success over the past 14 years,” Rizzo said in the team’s statement announcing the promotion. “He is a tireless worker with extensive knowledge of our minor league players, coaches and system as a whole. He developed strong relationships with many of our current players during the draft process and has earned not only their trust, but the trust of those around them.

The Nationals are adding another experienced name to a revamped scouting department, hiring Brad Ciolek away from the Orioles to serve as senior director of amateur scouting, a source familiar with the move confirmed.

Ciolek spent 12 of the last 13 seasons with the Orioles in a variety of roles, most recently as director of draft operations. Owner of a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in computer information systems, and having spent a year working as an analyst for Bloomberg Sports, he brings an analytical background to a Nats scouting department that appears to be making an effort to bolster that area.

In D.C., Ciolek will hold a title not previously held by anyone in the front office. He’ll work for recently hired vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas, who replaces longtime head of scouting Kris Kline, who is moving into a new role as a special assistant to general manager Mike Rizzo.

Haas, who came from the Diamondbacks, previously worked for the Orioles with Ciolek, so the two are being reunited in Washington, tasked with overhauling an amateur scouting department that has produced few notable big league players in recent years.

Ciolek first joined the Orioles in 2011 as a player development intern at their spring training complex in Sarasota, Fla. He left after one year to work for Bloomberg Sports but returned to Baltimore in 2013 as scouting administrator, advancing to assistant director of scouting, supervisor of domestic scouting operations and ultimately director of draft operations the last two seasons.

The Nationals are hiring Danny Haas, a key member of the Diamondbacks’ scouting department (and prior to that the Orioles and Red Sox), as their new scouting director, a source familiar with the decision confirmed.

Haas, 47, replaces longtime Nats scouting director Kris Kline, who last month was shifted into another role in the front office working for general manager Mike Rizzo.

After a season that produced encouraging progress at the big league level and the ascension of several key prospects in the minors, the Nationals are reshaping multiple areas of their baseball operations department. Among the most notable changes: DeJon Watson was let go after two years as director of player development, and Johnny DiPuglia resigned after more than a decade running the team’s international scouting operation.

The reassignment of Kline, who had been the Nationals’ amateur scouting director since 2009, signaled another major change, the organization seeking improved performance in the MLB Draft after a sustained stretch that produced few notable big league players.

Haas has never run an entire scouting department, but he has extensive scouting experience with three organizations that enjoyed considerable success developing homegrown players.

Beginning on Trade Deadline Day 2021, and repeated countless times since, Mike Rizzo has summed up the Nationals’ rebuilding efforts with some variation of the same line:

“We’ve done this before. We know what we’re doing.”

Indeed, the first stretch of Rizzo’s 15-year tenure as general manager saw the organization tear down its existing roster, emphasize the drafting and developing of a new crop of young players, watch that group reach the big leagues and then supplement it with free agents. Thus did the Nationals go from 59 wins in 2009 to 69 wins in 2010 to 80 wins in 2011 to 98 wins and the first of four division titles in 2012.

The road map has always been there, and it’s only been natural to try to figure out how this current rebuild will mirror that one.

There are obvious comparisons. The Nats bottomed out in 2022, just as they did in 2009. And then they took a step forward in 2023, just as they did in 2010.

As he watched his rebuilding club play seven of its final nine games against the team that tied the major league record for home runs in a season, Mike Rizzo couldn’t help but acknowledge what was all too obvious about the Nationals’ 2023 lineup.

“We had some strengths,” the longtime general manager said. “We put the bat on the ball. We didn’t strike out much. But we didn’t have enough power. … When you see teams like the Braves, that’s a formula for winning baseball.”

The Braves, for those who weren’t paying attention, tied the all-time record with 307 home runs and set the all-time record with a .501 slugging percentage as a team. They also won 104 games and are as well-positioned to win the World Series as anyone else in the field of 12 that opened postseason play Tuesday.

The Nationals, for those who didn’t realize it, ranked 29th out of 30 MLB clubs with 151 home runs. Not one individual player slugged .500. They won 71 games and for the fourth consecutive October will be watching the postseason from home.

There are other ways the Nats can improve, to be sure. But from an offensive standpoint, it’s clear from where the improvement needs to come.

The Nationals’ improvement at the big league level this year was important, no doubt. It wouldn’t have meant much, though, if they didn’t also see improvement at the minor league level.

This organization’s attempt to rebuild itself back into a perennial contender won’t be realized unless enough homegrown players emerge from its farm system in the next two years to supplement what’s already on the 26-man roster. In some regards, what happened nightly in Rochester, Harrisburg, Wilmington, Fredericksburg and West Palm Beach this season mattered even more than what happened in D.C.

By all accounts, the Nationals are pleased with the results. A farm system that rated in the lower-third of the sport only 18 months ago now rates in the upper-third, with several of baseball’s top prospects headlining the list.

“The best part of the minor league season was that all the players that we really were looking forward to take a step forward, we believe have,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “We think that was a success in that regard.”

Not every prospect improved, though, and there is now evidence the organization isn’t 100 percent satisfied with the 2023 season. DeJon Watson, the Nationals director of player development the last two years, won’t be back in 2024, a source familiar with the decision confirmed. (The Washington Post was first to report the news Monday evening.)

A collective sigh of relief emanated from the visitors’ dugout in Atlanta late Friday night when Kyle Finnegan recorded the final out of a 10-6 victory over the Braves, the out that ensured the Nationals would finish the 2023 season with at least 70 wins.

That number had been on everyone’s minds for a while. One month earlier, with the team playing its best baseball in years, it looked like a stone-cold lock. By the time the final week of September arrived, it was suddenly in doubt.

A late-season regression turned what could’ve been a remarkable turnaround – a club record, 20-game improvement from the previous year – into something less rousing. Even so, win No. 70 (and then win No. 71 in Sunday’s finale) was significant for an organization that was an abysmal 55-107 last season.

“Every win is important,” manager Davey Martinez said. “But to get to 70 – when, honestly, when we started the season, we didn’t know what to expect – it feels good.”

It also raised the bar for next season. Another 16-game improvement would turn this 71-win last place club into an 87-win wild card contender.