The Nationals won 55 games last season, fewest in club history. They were outscored by an astounding 252 runs. They had the majors’ worst rotation, hit the fewest homers in the National League and gave up the most. They ranked at or near the bottom in most defensive metrics. They also traded a once-in-a-generation, 22-year-old star for prospects.

It was, by any measure, an awful season.

Which means there’s nowhere to go but up, right?

The 2023 Nationals have to be better. The pitching has to be better. The defense has to be better. The lineup has to be … uh, we’ll get back to that topic in a moment.

We don’t know how the next six months are going to play out. There are any number of unpredictable factors that could help or hurt the team’s fortunes. Here’s what we do know: The 2023 Nats are younger. They’re more athletic. They feature more potential pieces to the long-term puzzle than the previous team did.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The loss of Cade Cavalli to Tommy John surgery is a crushing blow to the 24-year-old right-hander and to the Nationals, who were hoping their top pitching prospect would enjoy a healthy run of success in his first big league season.

Cavalli may still enjoy a long run of success in 2024 and beyond. But in the meantime, the Nats have to figure out who’s going to cover the starts and innings that suddenly opened up with this injury diagnosis.

Manager Davey Martinez said Wednesday he didn’t expect to look outside the organization for help, believing enough fallback options are already in place to fill the void. General manager Mike Rizzo echoed that sentiment Thursday but left the door ajar enough to consider the possibility of outside help.

“We like the depth we have here, but we’re not against looking outside the organization,” Rizzo said. “If something makes sense to us, of course, we’ll certainly look outside and inside.”

The Nationals actually did go outside this winter and added some veteran pitching depth, signing right-handers Chad Kuhl and Wily Peralta to minor league contracts. Both have extensive big league starting experience and seem to have been brought in exactly for this kind of scenario.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Cade Cavalli sat down in Davey Martinez’s office Wednesday evening, with Mike Rizzo also in attendance, and braced for the news from his manager and general manager. What they told him about the MRI taken of his elbow earlier that morning – a full tear of the ulnar collateral ligament, requiring Tommy John surgery – stung like few pieces of news the right-hander has ever received, and it took the Nationals’ 24-year-old pitching prospect a little while to come to grips with it before he was ready to pivot to the challenge now facing him.

“I gave myself a little bit of time to cry and to hurt,” Cavalli said. “But during that meeting with them, it was just like: It is what it is, and it’s time. It was a little flip switch, and I’m ready. I am. I’m ready to rock. I’m going to be back, and I’m going to be better, I promise.”

Speaking with reporters this afternoon, roughly 48 hours since he injured himself throwing a pitch against the Mets and 24 hours since he got the official diagnosis, Cavalli detailed the emotions he’s experienced since and the determination he now has to return healthy in 2024.

Cavalli will fly to Dallas on Monday and undergo ligament replacement surgery Wednesday, performed by renowned orthopedist Keith Meister. He faces a rehab process of at least 12 months, with the possibility he’ll be ready to open the 2024 season on time but the understanding it may take longer than that.

“It’s frustrating for him,” Rizzo said. “He’s a competitor. And he was on the verge of his first major league Opening Day and being a big part of what we’re doing here, and now he’s got to take a step back and rehab, and the isolation and the loneliness that that entails. The strong survive it and come out the other end better for it. I believe he’s one of that group, and I’m looking forward to watching him progress through his rehab and watching him come out the other side of it and really get after it again.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Keibert Ruiz reported for his second spring training with the Nationals early last month, focused on making significant improvements to his game both at and behind the plate. The thought of leaving town at the end of camp with an eight-year, $50 million extension never crossed his mind.

And what was his first reaction upon getting the offer from the team?

“My first? I said yes right away!” Ruiz said this afternoon as everyone who assembled for a press conference at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches laughed. “But we waited a little bit.”

Whether he said it right away or days later, the fact Ruiz said yes at all made this one of the most significant moments in Nationals history. After years spent trying to convince young star players to agree to extensions, this 24-year-old catcher became the first to actually commit to the organization long-term at such an early stage of his career.

Ruiz, who wouldn’t have been eligible for arbitration until 2025 or free agency until 2028, now knows he’s going to be a National through at least the 2030 season. And he could be here even longer than that, because the new contract includes club options for both 2031 and 2032.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Matt Adams never thought he’d have to look for a job, not at this stage of his career.

Sure, the 34-year-old slugger hadn’t been a full-time big leaguer since 2019 with the Nationals, but he still managed to play in major league games for the Braves in 2020 and the Rockies in 2021, seasons that weren’t normal for reasons both personal (injuries) and on a broader scale (the pandemic).

But when the calls weren’t coming prior to the 2022 season, the small-town kid affectionately known as “Big City” decided to take the pride-swallowing step of sending out letters. He wrote to every general manager in the league, seeking a job. He got no takers.

And that’s when Adams finally came to grips with a harsh reality: His career was on the brink.

“It’s so easy to take things for granted in this game,” he said. “And I’ll be the first one to call myself out: The last couple years, I took things for granted. I thought I was always going to have a job. It was a real kick in the mouth when the phone didn’t ring, and I had to go that route.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It would be easy for Brady House to look back at his 2022 season, which lasted only 45 games and included zero games played after June 11, and consider it a lost year.

This was supposed to be the Nationals’ 2021 first-round pick’s first full pro season, an opportunity to really show what he could do at low Single-A and establish himself as one of the best prospects in baseball. Instead, the unfortunate combination of a COVID-19 bout and a lower back injury derailed those plans and left House watching from the dugout for months.

Now, as he starts over again this spring, House could feel the weight of that missed opportunity and put more pressure on himself to make up for lost time in 2023. The 19-year-old, though, has chosen a completely different approach to the situation.

“It is frustrating, but everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I believe this is only going to make me better. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens this year.”

One year ago, the Nationals and the baseball world were as high on House as they could get. The 11th overall pick out of Winder-Barrow High School in Georgia, he tore up the rookie Florida Complex League to the tune of a .322/.394/.576 slash line and earned a top-50 prospect rating in the sport.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As the 67 players in big league camp retreat to the clubhouse following their daily workout here, they pass by another group of players in Nationals uniforms. They are younger, less experienced, though not necessarily less noticeable.

The organization’s top prospects who reported early for spring training ahead of the rank-and-file minor leaguers who will arrive in a few weeks are a physically impressive group. This is particularly obvious in the outfield, where James Wood, Robert Hassell III, Elijah Green and Cristhian Vaquero strike an imposing presence.

Add Jeremy De La Rosa (already in major league camp after he was added to the 40-man roster over the winter) to the mix, and the Nationals have every reason to believe they’ve got at least three future outfield studs in their farm system right now.

For these young players, the opportunity to work out alongside each other this spring is superseded only by the possibility of playing alongside each other in D.C. someday down the road.

“It’s exciting, for sure,” the 6-foot-7 Wood said Sunday. “I just want to get up there and keep doing my thing. And hopefully that becomes reality pretty soon.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The sentiment wasn’t unusual for a ballplayer during the first week of spring training. The ballplayer who uttered it, however, wasn’t one you’d expect.

“I’m as excited as I’ve ever been,” Patrick Corbin said Saturday afternoon inside the Nationals clubhouse.

Excited? On the heels of the worst of three consecutive subpar seasons that statistically have turned him into the worst starting pitcher in baseball? More excited than he was for his first big-league camp in Arizona? Or his first spring after signing a $140 million contract with the Nats? Or his first time back in West Palm Beach since he won Game 7 of the World Series?

Yes, Corbin insists. He’s more excited now than he ever was then.

Where does that feeling come from?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Mike Rizzo has found himself in this spot before. He’s been tasked with building a franchise from the bottom up, from a 100-loss season into a consistent contender. And he’s been asked to work without a contract beyond the current year.

So the Nationals’ longtime general manager isn’t about to publicly bemoan the situation he now finds himself in entering the 2023 season.

“I’ve got a job to do,” Rizzo said Friday in his first session of the spring with reporters. “It’s not the first time, won’t be the last time, I’m on a lame-duck contract. It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t bother me. I have been there before. I was an area scout. I worked on 20 one-year contracts in a row. So I’m no stranger to limited security. My work will be my resume, and we’ll see how it goes on from there.”

Rizzo’s sentiment is accurate. He has been through plenty of contract years during his decade-and-a-half in D.C. And he indeed helped build the Nationals from back-to-back 100-loss seasons in 2008-09 into a division champion in 2012 and eventually a World Series champion in 2019.

But there is one significant difference this time around. All of his previous challenges at least came with stability in the owner’s box at Nationals Park. Now, for the first time, there’s tremendous uncertainty.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – While preaching a measured, “day-by-day” approach with Stephen Strasburg, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo turned emotional Friday when talking about the veteran right-hander, whose career appears to be in peril following the latest setback in his attempt to return from thoracic outlet surgery.

“You’re talking about one of the best big-game pitchers that’s ever pitched,” Rizzo said in his first session with reporters this spring, his eyes appearing to well up as he spoke. “The best big-game pitcher the Nationals have ever had, and anywhere in baseball. You talk about an ultra-competitor, wasn’t afraid to take the ball in the toughest and most unique situations and perform admirably. We built this franchise on the back of him. I just feel bad that he can’t relish into the end of his career gracefully. He just feels terrible about it.”

Strasburg’s latest attempt to come back from the July 2021 surgery that derailed his career was sidetracked a couple of weeks ago when he reported the same nerve discomfort in his shoulder and arm he has experienced after trying to pitch. The Nationals shut him down after only two bullpen sessions, and he remains in Washington contemplating his next steps.

Those next steps, according to Rizzo, begin with doctor visits, including second opinions beyond what Strasburg already has been told. No final decisions have been made yet.

“We’re going to take it day by day, literally day by day,” Rizzo said. “We’ll get all the opinions. We’ll sit down with Stras. And we’ll make out a game plan.”

We’ve reached the final countdown to spring training, so we’re counting down the biggest storylines facing the Nationals this spring in West Palm Beach. We conclude today with the No. 1 issue that continues to hover over the entire franchise: the state of ownership …

When the Lerner family first let it be known publicly last April it was exploring a possible sale of the Nationals, the surprised reaction across the organization and throughout the baseball world was genuine. There had never been any prior indication the family had ever considered selling the team it purchased in 2006. It would continue to be handed down from one generation to the next, solidifying itself as a true Washington institution.

Ten months later, the greater surprise is the fact the Lerners still own the Nationals, with little reason to believe that’s going to change in the near future.

What figured to be a robust and timely process instead has dragged on nearly a full year. And as pitchers and catchers officially report to West Palm Beach, Fla., today for the start of spring training, the uncertain long-term state of ownership still looms large over everything.

The situation became even more uncertain Monday following the news of family patriarch Ted Lerner’s death at 97. Though the elder Lerner had ceded day-to-day control of the franchise to his son Mark nearly five years ago, he still was part of every major decision made by the ownership group. The sale process would not have happened without his full endorsement.

After most teams closed down shop over the holidays, the Hot Stove League should re-commence this week, as teams try to address the remaining holes on their rosters in advance of spring training. (Which begins in only six weeks!)

Most of the top free agents already signed last month, but there is a swath of unsigned major leaguers still out there. And that could play to the Nationals’ advantage.

We knew the Nats weren’t going to be in on any prominent (i.e. expensive) free agents, but they have needed to make at least a few affordable additions this winter. And after addressing third base (Jeimer Candelario) and No. 5 starter (Trevor Williams), the clear top remaining need is in left field.

As we’ve mentioned before, the depth chart in left field currently begins with Alex Call and Stone Garrett. And with all due respect to those guys, it’s just not realistic to think the Nationals would open the season with those two and nobody else at the position.

So the time should be coming soon when Mike Rizzo strikes a deal with somebody more experienced. And there are a decent number of potential candidates out there.

It’s New Year’s Day, and you won’t find anybody associated with the Nationals not named Meneses who was disappointed to see 2022 come to an end.

It was a miserable year, arguably the most miserable year in club history.

But like Mark McGwire once tried to do in front of a congressional panel, let’s not talk about the past anymore. Let’s look ahead to the future.

What does 2023 have in store for the Nats? Optimism, obviously, isn’t going to be sky-high, but there are plenty of reasons to believe it will at least be better than the just-completed year was.

Here are some reasonable outcomes various members of the team should be hoping to achieve in 2023 …

SAN DIEGO – Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez might have been the most visible general manager-manager duo at this year’s Winter Meetings, regularly seen in the lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt during both daytime and nighttime hours to an extent few of their counterparts were.

A cynic would suggest that was evidence of how little the Nationals were doing at these meetings. An optimist would counter that was merely a reflection of their willingness to be seen in public when others lock themselves in their suites for no reason beyond paranoia.

A realist would say the true answer falls somewhere in the middle of all that. Rizzo and Martinez have always been comfortable schmoozing with attendees at these meetings, whether fellow executives, managers, agents or even lowly reporters. But let’s not kid ourselves: The Nationals were among the least active franchises here over the last 3 1/2 days, because under their current circumstances there wasn’t all that much they could do.

The team’s lone major league acquisition this week was right-hander Thad Ward, the top pick in the Rule 5 draft. The most significant news of the week might well have been the securing of the No. 2 pick next summer after experiencing Major League Baseball’s inaugural draft lottery.

Not in the market for top-tier (or perhaps even second-tier) free agents, not all that aggressive in trade talks, the Nats are just treading water right now. They have some obvious holes they need to fill this winter – rotation, left-handed bat – but they believe they’ll be able to accomplish that sometime before pitchers and catchers report in mid-February. It wasn’t mandatory to make any transactions here this week.

SAN DIEGO – The worst record in baseball in 2022 wasn’t enough to get the Nationals the best pick in the draft in 2023. But it did at least get them the next-best pick.

The Nats learned tonight they will hold the No. 2 selection next summer after losing out to the Pirates in Major League Baseball’s inaugural draft lottery.

“I’m good. I’ll live with it,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “No. 2 is a high pick, and I’m very comfortable with it. We’re going to get a very good, impactful player.”

For decades, MLB guaranteed the No. 1 pick to the franchise that finished the previous season with the league’s worst record. That’s how the Nationals were able to draft Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper back-to-back in 2009 and 2010 after back-to-back 100-loss seasons. But amid complaints from players that teams were purposely tanking in search of the best draft position, MLB instituted a lottery for the first time this year.

The Nats, despite an major league-worst 55-107 record this season, wound up paying the price for that dramatic change. Though nobody had a better chance of winning the No. 1 pick, they were on equal footing with the Athletics (60-102) and Pirates (62-100), and even then they only had 16.5 percent odds. In fact, they actually had a better chance of emerging with the No. 7 pick (19 percent) than any other slot under the new system.

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals, as they made abundantly clear Monday, are in the market for a starting pitcher. They would love to acquire a proven arm who can make 30-plus starts next season and take pressure off the organization’s three projected young starters.

Those young starters – MacKenzie Gore, Cade Cavalli, Josiah Gray – all will open the season in the rotation, provided they’re all healthy. And manager Davey Martinez said Monday all three are healthy and will be full-go for spring training.

Martinez also said Patrick Corbin is part of the 2023 rotation, looking for a major bounce back after a dreadful 2022 season on the heels of a dreadful 2021 season.

So, in theory, that’s a five-man rotation right there, with the expected new addition joining the four holdovers.

What, though, about Stephen Strasburg? Is it even conceivable he’s part of the mix? For now, the Nationals are making no such proclamations. Neither are they ruling out the possibility, though.

SAN DIEGO – As he watches the rest of the baseball world spend hundreds of millions of dollars on top free agents, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo says he has at least been told by ownership how much he can spend to address his club’s roster needs on the heels of a 107-loss season.

That, in itself, is a significant development, given the uncertainty surrounding the organization as the Lerner family continues to try to sell the franchise.

“Yeah, we’ve got payroll clarity, and we’re marching ahead with our blueprint and our plan for this offseason,” Rizzo said today in his first session of the Winter Meetings with reporters. “I think we’ve scheduled a lot of things we’re trying to get done here. Hopefully we can do something here, or shortly thereafter, to improve our club.”

Though Rizzo didn’t specify how large (or small) that budget is, the types of additions he mentioned suggest they are likely to be short-term moves for moderately priced veterans. He certainly wasn’t in the market for Trea Turner, the free agent shortstop who today agreed to a reported 11-year, $300 million deal with the Phillies, becoming the latest former Nationals star to sign a monster contract with a division rival.

“I’m happy for Trea,” Rizzo said. “I’m glad he got paid a lot of money. He’s a winner.”

SAN DIEGO – Though most everyone from the baseball world arrived here Sunday, the Winter Meetings actually get underway today.

Aside from the announcement of the Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era Players Committee vote – more on that shortly – nothing official happened Sunday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. That will change today with a flurry of activity, announcements and media availabilities.

We will hear from both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez this afternoon (Pacific Time), and there are no shortage of questions to ask them.

Rizzo surely will be pressed on his overall plan for the offseason, which of course depends on what kind of budget he’s been allotted by an ownership group that has been trying to sell the Nationals the last eight months. Even if he doesn’t provide concrete answers to every question, there should be plenty to interpret from the longtime general manager’s words.

Are the Nats in a position to add another big bat to a lineup that is still lacking in the wake of last week’s signing of Jeimer Candelario? Are they willing to spend the kind of money a proven starting pitcher is commanding this winter in an attempt to boost a rotation that sorely needs it?

When last the baseball world gathered in San Diego for the Winter Meetings, the Nationals were the talk of the town. The defending World Series champions not only were basking in the glow of their recent title, they also found themselves right in the thick of two of the biggest free agent races of that offseason, ultimately re-signing Stephen Strasburg while watching Anthony Rendon leave for the Angels.

Three years later, the baseball world gathers again this week in San Diego for the first full-fledged Winter Meetings since the 2019 version. The pandemic wiped out the planned 2020 event. The lockout wiped out the 2021 version.

Aside from the location, this one will bear zero resemblance to the last one for the Nationals.

As they prepare to gather at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, the Nats are coming off a 107-loss season, not a World Series title. They’re probably not in the market for any major free agents, let alone two of them. The biggest news they might make this week could come in Tuesday’s inaugural draft lottery or Wednesday’s annual Rule 5 draft.

Oh, how times have changed.

The last two seasons of Nationals baseball have been defined by one particular type of transaction: the trade.

From July 29, 2021 through Aug. 2, 2022, general manager Mike Rizzo made eight deals with other clubs, sending 11 veterans to contenders in exchange for 19 players (all but one of them prospects).

It’s not hyperbole to say those trades completely changed the complexion of the Nationals franchise. Gone were the likes of Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Josh Bell, Daniel Hudson, Yan Gomes and others. In were a host of potential young building blocks who remade a barren farm system and have begun to take over the major league roster, including Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III, James Wood, Lane Thomas, Mason Thompson and more.

Now, Rizzo is attempting to supplement that new core group of youngsters with a few free agents who could help fill holes in the rotation and lineup. But is the free agent market his only path to address those needs?

Is it even possible for the Nats to make more trades this winter?