The MLB Draft and All-Star Game festivities are over. Today is the last day without baseball until the end of October.

The Nationals start the second half tomorrow with a six-game midwest road trip against the Cardinals and the Cubs.

As things stand, the Nationals are in last place in the National League East but are on pace to win 65 games this year, a 10-win improvement from 2022.

With the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the new lottery system in the draft preventing tanking across the league, the Nationals cannot pick higher than No. 10 overall in next year’s first round after selecting Dylan Crews with the No. 2 overall pick this year. Not that the ultra-competitive Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez would ever intentionally lose, but that’s part of the reason those rules are in place.

So we’re in for an exciting second half of baseball as the Nationals continue to develop both at the major and minor league levels. Who will stand out over the next 2 ½ months? Will any trades be made before the deadline? Which prospects will be promoted and perhaps make their major league debuts?

The Nationals added another experienced pitcher to their growing spring training roster Tuesday, signing right-hander Wily Peralta to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.

Peralta, 33, joins an expanding list of veterans who will get a chance to compete for a spot on the Opening Day pitching staff, his addition coming on the heels of a comparable minor league contract given to reliever Alex Colome late last week.

It remains to be seen what kind of role the Nationals have in mind for Peralta, who has been a starter most of his career but pitched out of the bullpen last season for the Tigers.

A 17-game winner for the Brewers in 2014, Peralta has spent his entire career pitching in the Midwest. After six seasons in Milwaukee, he went to Kansas City in 2018 and served as a reliever for the Royals for two seasons. He then moved on to Detroit, initially signing minor league deals prior to both the 2021 and 2022 seasons but pitching his way onto the big league roster in each case.

Peralta compiled some disparate stats in 28 appearances last year. He posted an impressive 2.58 ERA but did so while seeing his WHIP climb to 1.513. The biggest problem: He walked 24 batters in only 38 1/3 innings.

If the offseason is all about trying to come up with reasons why 2023 could be better for the Nationals than 2022 was, here’s another one to add to the list: The schedule should be easier, perhaps by a significant amount.

It was kind of glossed over among all the changes announced via the new collective bargaining agreement last year, but let’s remind you now Major League Baseball made a dramatic change to the scheduling process. Instead of facing the teams from only one division in the opposing league each season (plus one designated interleague rival), everyone will now face everyone from the opposing league each season.

Yes, the Nationals will face all 29 other MLB clubs this year, and every year for the foreseeable future. It’s the first that’s ever happened in this sport, and while it was done to allow fans to see more teams and more players on a regular basis, it has the added effect of diminishing the volume of games being played within a team’s own division.

The Nationals faced fellow NL East rivals a total of 76 times last season (19 games a piece against the Braves, Mets, Phillies and Marlins). They will now play only 52 games within the division (13 games a piece).

If you’ve forgotten, the Nats were abysmal vs. the NL East last year. They finished 17-59 against those four opponents, a .224 winning percentage that registered as the lowest ever since division play began in 1969. Yeah, it was a disaster.

The Nationals have altered this weekend’s schedule against the Phillies, moving Saturday’s doubleheader up to Friday in an attempt to avoid the worst of the rain that is expected from the remnants of Hurricane Ian.

Saturday’s originally scheduled 7:05 p.m. nightcap will now be played Friday at 1:05 p.m. as the opener of a newly created day-night doubleheader at Nationals Park. Fans who hold tickets to the Saturday night game may now use them for Friday’s 1:05 p.m. game.

The originally scheduled Friday 7:05 p.m. will proceed as planned, as will the originally scheduled Saturday 1:05 p.m. game and Sunday 1:35 p.m. game, though more changes are possible pending changes in the forecast.

The first round of rain is currently forecast to arrive sometime Friday evening, with on and off rain expected throughout the weekend.

Major League Baseball’s original 2022 schedule had this as a three-game series to end the regular season. But when the league’s lockout of players forced the postponement of the season’s first week, it added another game to the Nationals-Phillies series to make up for one of two lost April games. The original opening series between the Nats and Mets in New York was then added to the end of the season, and those teams will now play Monday through Wednesday at Citi Field.

It’s been some time since the Nationals (or any Major League Baseball club) has experienced a normal, full spring training, not since 2019 to be precise, after the pandemic threw a wrench into plans for both the 2020 and 2021 camps and the league’s lockout of players delayed and shortened the annual event in 2022.

With Wednesday’s announcement of the 2023 Grapefruit League and Cactus League schedules, MLB affirmed its intent to get back to normal next spring, something the Nats certainly will appreciate.

The Nationals’ exhibition opener is scheduled for Feb. 25 against the Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla., with the finale slated for March 26 against the Marlins, also in Jupiter, just a short drive from their camp in West Palm Beach.

In between are 29 total games in Florida, including 15 designated home games at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, where the Nats will train for the sixth consecutive year. They’ll play three road games in their home park against the Astros, their cohabitants since the facility opened in 2017.

For each of the last two springs, Florida-based teams faced only those who trained on their same side of the state, reducing travel and potential coronavirus spread. They’ll go back to facing a broader group of opponents next spring, which in the Nationals’ case means home-and-home series with the Yankees (who train in Tampa) and Tigers (who train in Lakeland).

As the Nationals look forward to watching Cade Cavalli, CJ Abrams and possibly MacKenzie Gore finish out the last month of the 2022 season, they announced the complete 2023 schedule earlier today.

The 2023 Major League Baseball season will be the first to feature a balanced schedule for all 30 teams since interleague play was introduced in 1997. Each of the 30 clubs will play against one another, while also hosting every other club in their home market at least once every other season.

Opening day will start the 19th season of Nationals baseball in our nation’s capital with the Braves visiting on Thursday, March 30. It will be the fifth time the Nats have faced the Braves on opening day. It will also start a six-game homestand against the Braves and Rays to start the regular season.

The Nats’ first road trip of 2023 takes them to Colorado and Anaheim for seven games to face the Rockies and Angels. It will be the second year in a row the Nats will travel to face old friend Anthony Rendon and the Halos, who do not make a trip to D.C. next year.

The annual Battle of the Beltways series against the Orioles are earlier and later than usual next year. The two rivals will play two games April 18-19 at Nationals Park and two games Sept. 26-27 at Camden Yards during the Nats’ final road trip of the season.

While the Orioles chase their playoff dreams in 2022, they know where they’ll begin the 2023 season and which opponent will be their first at Camden Yards.

Opening day for the Orioles is set for Thursday, March 30 against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. A trip to Texas follows before their first home game on April 6 against the Yankees.

The homestand includes three games versus the Athletics before trips to Chicago and D.C.

The last regular season series consists of four games against the Red Sox at Camden Yards, the last on Oct. 1, after the Orioles host the Nationals for two.

The All-Star break runs from July 10-13, after a four-game series in the Bronx and three games in Minnesota. The second half begins with visits from the Marlins and Dodgers.

A new format reduces the number of division opponents, with every team appearing on the schedule.

Other National League visitors include the Pirates on May 12-14, the Reds on June 26-28, the Mets on Aug. 4-6, the Rockies on Aug. 25-27 and the Cardinals on Sept. 11-13.

The Mets series features manager Buck Showalter’s return to Baltimore, his first since the conclusion of the 2018 season.

The Orioles travel to Atlanta on May 5-7, San Francisco on June 2-4, Milwaukee on June 6-8, Chicago’s Wrigley Field on June 16-18, Philadelphia on July 24-26, San Diego on Aug. 14-16, and Arizona on Sept. 1-3.

The longest road trips involve Detroit, Kansas City and Atlanta, an August swing through Seattle, San Diego and Oakland, and a September excursion to Arizona, Anaheim and Boston. Each series consisting of nine games in 10 days.

The Orioles go to Houston and Cleveland back-to-back in September, which repeats their upcoming trip.

All six games against the Tigers will be played in April.

The schedule shows games played on Easter Sunday (April 9 vs. the Yankees), Mother’s Day (May 14 vs. the Pirates), and Memorial Day (May 29 vs. the Guardians).

Times will be finalized at a later date.

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals have been selected to play in next year’s Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., against the Phillies, Major League Baseball announced tonight.

The Nats and Phillies will face off Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023 at historic Bowman Field, home of the collegiate summer baseball league Williamsport Crosscutters, a short drive from the annual site of the Little League World Series, which will be taking place throughout that week.

It’s the first time the Nationals have been selected for any of Major League Baseball’s various neutral-site games, which over the years have included trips to London, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan and Australia, plus the Field of Dreams in Iowa, the College World Series in Nebraska and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Created in 2017, the Little League Classic is a "Sunday Night Baseball" game televised by ESPN. It will count as the finale of a weekend series hosted by the Nats, with the two teams playing in D.C. the previous two nights before heading to Williamsport only for the day, visiting the actual Little League World Series in the afternoon. Players from the participating Little League World Series will then attend the Nats-Phillies game in person that evening.

The annual event has previously included the Pirates (twice), Cardinals, Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Angels, Guardians and tonight’s competitors: the Orioles and Red Sox.

On June 19, 2005, the first-place Nationals defeated the Rangers 8-2 thanks to a five-run rally in the top of the eighth highlighted by a bases-loaded double by Brad Wilkerson that scored Junior Spivey, Brian Schneider and Cristian Guzman. Sun-Woo Kim was the starting pitcher that afternoon, with Travis Hughes, Luis Ayala and Gary Majewski following him out of the bullpen. Alfonso Soriano went 3-for-4 in a losing effort as Texas’ starting second baseman.

Tonight, the Nationals return to Arlington (Texas, not Virginia) for the first time since then.

That’s right, would you believe it’s been 17 years since the Nats last played at the Rangers, the only time in club history they have done so?

How long ago was that? Ryan Zimmerman had only been drafted two weeks earlier and wouldn’t make his major league debut until that September, wearing No. 25 because Spivey still had claim to No. 11. It’s the only big league city Zimmerman never played in during his career.

It’s one of the strangest scheduling quirks in club history. The Nationals have made multiple visits to every other city over the last 17 years, and they’ve played at least once in every other city since 2014.