WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It’s easy to overlook just how much Keibert Ruiz had on his plate last season.

It’s tough enough for a young catcher – ostensibly a rookie, even though he no longer qualified by official standards – to learn how to lead a pitching staff through a full season. Now add the work required to become a productive big league hitter. From both sides of the plate. All while starting four or five times a week.

“Yeah, I wasn’t used to doing that in the minor leagues,” Ruiz said of the offensive-plus-defensive pressures he faced in 2022. “Like you said, a lot of responsibility. But I just learned from last year, and we keep going, keep doing my best. I feel that last year gave me a lot of confidence for this year.”

Despite the challenges he faced, Ruiz’s first full big league season was a resounding success in the Nationals’ eyes. He hit .251 with 22 doubles, seven homers, 36 RBIs and a .673 OPS. He threw out 22 baserunners, second-most among all major league catchers. And he learned how to be a leader behind the plate, taking charge of a pitching staff that endured through all kinds of troubles during a 107-loss season.

There is, however, more room to grow, everyone acknowledges. Ruiz was an above-average hitter in the Dodgers’ farm system before he was part of the Max Scherzer-Trea Turner trade. He hit 21 homers in 2021. He has the potential to be a true all-around catcher, maybe an All-Star.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – For the first time in four years, Carter Kieboom didn’t report to spring training as the Nationals’ leading candidate to start at third base on Opening Day. This time, Kieboom is just trying to show he’s healthy again after missing the entire 2022 season following Tommy John surgery.

That process continues, with Kieboom not yet fully recovered from the elbow ligament replacement procedure most commonly associated with pitchers, not infielders.

He has been making throws from his position at third base to first and second bases, but they’ve all been routine, overhand throws. He has yet to advance to sidearm throws while charging in on a ball, or the tougher overhand throw required after fielding a ball backhanded down the line.

Because of all that, it doesn’t appear Kieboom will be ready to play in games at the start of the Grapefruit League season, which begins Feb. 25. When he does debut, he’ll likely serve as designated hitter at the outset, delaying his debut in the field until later in camp.

“We’re going to see how his progression goes,” manager Davey Martinez said. “There may be some days when we get him into a game when we can, probably as DH just to get his at-bats. But in time we’ll get him back out there to third base. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but he’s definitely well on his way to getting back on the field really soon.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If everything goes according to plan this spring, the Nationals likely won’t have a spot on the major league roster for Wily Peralta. They’ve got five in-house starters they would like to comprise the Opening Day rotation.

But if something does go awry – and more often than not, it does – the most likely option to take over an available rotation slot might well be Peralta, a 33-year-old right-hander with a 56-61 record and 4.29 ERA across 10 big league seasons with the Brewers, Royals and Tigers.

That’s why he chose to sign with the Nats this winter, even if it meant accepting a non-guaranteed, minor-league deal.

“I think I have an opportunity to help them out,” Peralta said. “I think I’ve got an opportunity to make the team here and help the young guys. That’s what I’m here for.”

Peralta has been a starter most of his career, peaking in 2014 when he went 17-11 with a 3.53 ERA for Milwaukee. But he actually found himself having success pitching out of the bullpen last season in Detroit, producing a 2.58 ERA in 28 appearances, all but one of them coming in relief.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – While Wednesday’s news about Stephen Strasburg – he’s been shut down again after experiencing another setback in his latest attempt to return from thoracic outlet surgery – proved to be the biggest headline on Day 1 of Nationals spring training, truthfully, the bigger story was the presence of three other pitchers stationed along one wall of the home clubhouse.

Much as they hope Strasburg can still have a positive impact for this club, the Nats already have transitioned to building the next generation of their rotation on the broad shoulders of three young starters: MacKenzie Gore, Cade Cavalli and Josiah Gray.

Strasburg may not be healthy at the moment, but those other three guys are. And that probably has more significance to the franchise’s long-term well-being than anything.

“Starting pitching is very important if you want to compete in the big leagues and have a good team,” Gore said. “The starters need to … good teams have good starting pitching. There’s a responsibility that we have a job to do. I think that’s probably the best way to put it.”

There’s a responsibility, and there’s also a certain amount of pressure on Gore, Cavalli and Gray to live up to their billing. The Nationals’ chances of kicking their rebuild into serious gear rest in large part on the development of those three into frontline, big-league starters.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Stephen Strasburg’s attempt to pitch again for the Nationals is back on hold.

Strasburg had another setback in recent weeks while trying to build himself up for the start of spring training and remains home in Washington, according to manager Davey Martinez.

The 34-year-old right-hander, who has pitched in only one major league game since undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in July 2021, reported a recurrence of the nerve pain that has plagued him throughout this process following his second attempt to throw off a bullpen mound at Nationals Park. He has been shut down, with no set timetable for a return as he and the team map out their next steps.

“He threw one bullpen, it went really well,” Martinez said in his first news conference of the spring. “He went to throw a second bullpen, and after the second bullpen, the next day he just didn’t rebound as he thought he would.”

This isn’t necessarily a surprising development. Though Strasburg had been telling teammates and staff members his arm felt great throughout the winter, there was always a concern he wouldn’t be able to pitch off a mound without experiencing problems.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Sixty-seven players (27 of those non-roster invitees) will participate in big league camp for the Nationals this spring, a list that includes a combination of familiar names of the past and newcomers looking to make a name for themselves for the first time.

With the first official workout of spring training underway this afternoon, the Nats announced their full list of non-roster invitees to major league camp. Among those here are 11 players who have been in the majors with the team before: pitchers Sean Doolittle, Andres Machado, Evan Lee, Jackson Tetreault, Francisco Perez, Alberto Baldonado and Tommy Romero; first baseman Matt Adams; infielder Lucius Fox; and outfielders Yadiel Hernández and Donovan Casey.

Doolittle, who returns on a minor league deal after missing the majority of 2022 with an elbow injury, and Adams, who is back with the club three years after winning a World Series ring, are familiar veterans hoping to force their way onto the Opening Day roster.

The others all were in the big leagues at some point in the last two seasons but were designated for assignment and dropped off the 40-man roster. They’ll now attempt to make it back, albeit as non-roster invitees.

The Nationals added several veterans this winter with major league experience on minor league contracts, headlined by pitchers Wily Peralta, Alex Colomé and Chad Kuhl; plus infielder Michael Chavis.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It’s been a long winter. And it may be a very long summer back home in D.C. as the Nationals navigate their way through another rebuilding season.

But if ever there’s a time for optimism, this is it. It’s the first day of spring training, and while there’s little reason to believe the 2023 Nationals are going to be dramatically better than the 2022 Nationals were, they begin today with a clean slate and at least the hope of better things to come.

There are six weeks to prepare for a March 30 Opening Day date with the Braves. Much can and will happen between now and then, some of it expected, some of it unexpected.

Here’s what to expect on day one …

With some pitchers and catchers still getting their physicals completed, the day actually will get off to a later start than usual. Most days, the team will take the back fields behind The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches a little after 9 a.m. for Davey Martinez’s “Circle of Trust” meeting, then stretch and workouts. But for day one, that meeting won’t begin until 12:45 p.m., so the first workout of the spring will be an afternoon affair.

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.

Theodore N. Lerner, the onetime usher at Griffith Stadium who went on to build a local real estate empire, then purchase the Nationals from Major League Baseball and watch the franchise win its first World Series title, has died. He was 97.

Mr. Lerner’s death, which came two days before pitchers and catchers are due to report for spring training, was announced by the club this morning.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Founding Managing Principal Owner, Theodore N. Lerner,” the Nationals said in a statement. “The crowning achievement of his family business was bringing baseball back to the city he loved - and with it, bringing a championship home for the first time since 1924. He cherished the franchise and what it brought to his beloved hometown.”

A lifelong Washingtonian who grew up rooting for local sports teams, Mr. Lerner was born Oct. 15, 1925, the same day the Senators lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Pirates, one year after the franchise won its one and only championship. He attended occasional games as a child and became a ballpark usher as a teenager, then like so many other area baseball fans was heartbroken when the second incarnation of the Senators relocated to Texas following the 1971 season.

By then, Mr. Lerner was already two decades into his professional career, having founded Lerner Enterprises in 1952 off a $250 loan from his wife, Annette, and built it into the largest private real estate company in the region.

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 continue today with a look at a rotation that is counting on the healthy return of multiple starters …

If the Nationals are going to show significant improvement in 2023, if this franchise is going to take a big step forward in its rebuilding process this year, it is almost certainly going to coincide with a major turnaround from what was the majors’ worst rotation in 2022.

What used to be the organization’s unquestioned strength was its unquestioned No. 1 weakness last season. The rotation finished with an abysmal 5.97 ERA, an abysmal 30-86 record and a 1.563 WHIP that was the worst mark by any major league rotation since the 2012 Rockies.

How could the situation improve this season? The best hope comes in the form of two young potential building blocks with all the ability in the world but little track record, at least while wearing a Nationals uniform.

Cade Cavalli made one start for the Nats last year. MacKenzie Gore made none. That won’t be the case this year. If it is, the franchise is in serious trouble.

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 continue today with a look at players not on the team’s 40-man roster who might still have a shot to make the Opening Day roster …

For a team coming off a miserable, 107-loss season, the Nationals don’t appear to have that many jobs up for grabs this spring. Assuming perfect health – it’s never a good idea to assume perfect health, by the way – we could probably pencil in nine everyday position players, five starting pitchers, at least four relievers and a couple bench guys before anyone has officially reported to West Palm Beach.

Which isn’t to suggest there can’t still be some surprises in store over the next six weeks. Or that everyone who heads north with the club has to come from the pre-existing 40-man roster.

The Nats haven’t formally announced how many players in total will be in big league camp, but we already know there will be a healthy number of players invited to compete who signed non-guaranteed, minor league deals over the winter. Some of them, actually, are very well-known players, including a couple with significant recent history with this organization.

None of these players is assured of a job come March 30, but all of them should have a legitimate chance to make their case to the coaching staff and front office this spring. And if anybody does enough to stand out from the crowd, there’s ample reason to believe a roster spot or two could be created for them.

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 begin today with a storyline that will impact every major league club this year: The implementation of several dramatic rule changes …

As long as baseball has existed, what has distinguished it from every other prominent team sport? No clock.

As long as anyone can remember, what has remained constant in this sport? The size of the bases.

As long as teams have been trying to record outs in the field, where have the seven players behind the pitcher positioned themselves? Anywhere they want, so long as they set up in fair territory.

Until now.

Well, we're almost there now. Pitchers and catchers (and yours truly) report to West Palm Beach in five days, with the first workout of the spring to come the following afternoon. A long, mostly uneventful winter has nearly come to an end, and the prospect of actual baseball is tantalizingly close at last.

We'll have plenty of spring training preview material in the coming days, but first let's take one last opportunity to answer your questions on the offseason, the upcoming season or anything else that catches your fancy. Preferably, it would be baseball-related.

As always, submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back throughout the morning for my replies ...

Fifty-five players appeared in a game for the Nationals last season, and six of them made their major league debuts in the process.

At least one of those debuts, by Cade Cavalli, was both expected and promoted. The others, though, came as something of a surprise, whether it was Lucius Fox making the Opening Day roster, Jackson Tetreault and Evan Lee getting summoned to start big league games after others got hurt, Israel Pineda getting a September call-up or Joey Meneses finally making it at age 30.

A 162-game season is full of twists and turns, and the 2022 season had no shortage of those from the Nationals’ perspective. And there’s every reason to believe the 2023 season will feature a number of debuts, of both the expected and the unexpected variety.

Who might we see don a curly W cap for the first time?

The likeliest candidate among the organization’s top prospects is Robert Hassell III, though the 21-year-old outfielder is hardly a lock to make it to D.C. this season.

There’s still time for things to change – for the team to sign another player or two, for others to make the club off minor-league deals, for someone to get hurt – but with eight days to go until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, we have a pretty good idea what the Nationals’ payroll is going to look like this season.

What it’s going to look like: A lot less than we’ve been accustomed to seeing from this franchise over the last decade.

Monday’s announcement that Victor Robles had avoided arbitration and agreed to a $2.325 million salary was the final significant piece to the puzzle. At this point, everybody who figures to make the Nats’ Opening Day roster either has a set salary or will be making close to the league minimum of $720,000.

And when you add up the salaries of the projected 26-man roster, plus a couple guys who will probably begin the season on the injured list, you get a grand total of $99,291,667. That’s a dramatic drop-off in salary commitments in the span of only two years.

The 2021 Nationals boasted an Opening Day payroll of $183,122,247, which ranked sixth out of 30 Major League Baseball clubs, according to Cot’s Contracts. That marked the ninth consecutive season they ranked among the top 11 teams in the sport in Opening Day payroll, the highest number coming in 2019 when they ranked fourth with a payroll of $197,203,691.

For the second straight year, the Nationals and Victor Robles filed for arbitration. And for the second straight year, they ultimately avoided an actual arbitration hearing, agreeing to a salary figure before reaching the courtroom.

The Nats announced today they settled with Robles on a one-year contract for 2023, while also agreeing to a club option for 2024.

The deal establishes a $2.325 million salary for Robles this season, according to the Associated Press, only slightly more than the $2.3 million the team was offering him through arbitration. Robles had been seeking $2.6 million, with a hearing before a three-judge panel set to take place in the coming days. 

This whole process, of course, was quite familiar to both parties. One year ago, Robles and the Nationals filed for arbitration, the player seeking $2.1 million while the team offered $1.6 million. They wound up settling at $1.65 million before going to a hearing.

Robles proceeded to labor through another frustrating season, batting a mere .224 with six homers, 33 RBIs, a .273 on-base percentage and career-worst .584 OPS across 407 plate appearances. He did rediscover his top defensive form in center field, finishing with 12 Defensive Runs Saved while being named a finalist for the Gold Glove Award.

As the start of spring training gets closer and closer – pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach in a mere nine days! – we’re looking at how unpredictable the upcoming season could be for each member of the Nationals’ potential roster on an individual basis.

With few established players that look like sure things entering the year, there’s a wide variance of possibilities in each case. We looked at the nine likely members of the lineup Friday. Today, we look at the pitchers most likely to be in the mix for spots on the Opening Day roster.

Here’s the best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2023 season for each of them …

MACKENZIE GORE
Best case: His elbow back to full health, the lefty picks up where he left off during the first half of last season in San Diego. Over 30 starts, he maintains an ERA around 3.00, striking out more than one batter per inning and establishing himself as the young leader of this rotation moving forward.
Worst case: A return of elbow discomfort would really be worst-case, but even if his arm feels fine there’s still a fear of diminished velocity and stamina. A fastball in the low 90s, combined with less-than-ideal command, could leave the Nationals questioning if he really will live up to his billing long-term.

CADE CAVALLI
Best case: Fresh off a restful winter, with his major league debut already behind him, Cavalli proves he’s ready to stick in the big league for the long haul. The Nats are still careful with his workload, limiting him to 26 starts or 140 innings, but he makes the most of those outings with a sub-3.50 ERA and more than 150 strikeouts.
Worst case: Even with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball, if he doesn’t maintain precise command, big league hitters will have success off that pitch. His secondary stuff helps bail him out sometimes, but a high WHIP leaves him looking like something less than a frontline starter.

The Nationals have added another experienced starter to a rotation depth chart that was lacking in that department, signing right-hander Chad Kuhl to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp later this month.

Kuhl, 30, has made 111 major league starts, the first 84 of which came for the Pirates from 2016-21. He spent last season with the Rockies, struggling to a 6-11 record and 5.72 ERA in 27 starts, though he did toss a three-hit shutout over the Dodgers on June 27 at Coors Field.

Kuhl actually totaled eight quality starts for Colorado, only one fewer than Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray produced for the Nationals.

Somewhat surprisingly, though, the right-hander fared worse on the road than he did at home, going 3-7 with a 6.32 ERA and 1.693 WHIP away from Coors Field while going 3-4 with a 5.04 ERA and 1.399 WHIP at mile-high altitude.

During his five seasons in Pittsburgh, Kuhl went 25-30 with a 4.44 ERA. His best performance came in 2017, when he went 8-11 with a 4.35 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 31 starts.

It’s never easy trying to predict how any ballplayer is going to perform in the coming season, but it feels like an especially difficult task trying to guess how the members of the Nationals’ projected lineup will perform in 2023.

Seriously, is there one sure thing in the entire group? One guy you can definitively say will reach certain statistical mileposts? It sure doesn’t look like it.

On the bright side, there’s the possibility for a lot of these players to have big seasons, whether youngsters realizing their potential or experienced hitters finding the form they displayed only a few years ago. On the down side, there’s also the possibility of complete disaster, from flash-in-the-pan candidates to supposedly highly touted youngsters failing to take that critical next step and enjoy success in the majors.

There’s a wide variance of possibilities for the 2023 Nationals lineup. You can see that when running through each player’s potential best-case and worst-case scenario for the coming year …

KEIBERT RUIZ
Best case: Up to 120 games started, with a batting average over .275, an increase in power to get his slugging percentage over .400, one of the highest caught-stealing percentages in the league and his first career All-Star selection.
Worst case: Nagging injuries prevent him from catching 100 games, he makes too much weak contact and bats .250 again with a .360 slugging percentage. Loses his magic touch behind the plate and tries to compensate by throwing too many balls away for costly errors.

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.