Johnny DiPuglia, who led the Nationals’ international scouting department for a decade-plus before his departure late in the 2023 season, has joined the Royals’ front office.

Kansas City announced this week it has hired DiPuglia as special assistant of international scouting, adding one of baseball’s most respected Latin American evaluators to its staff.

DiPuglia’s new position is not as high-ranking as his previous one with the Nats was. He’ll report to Royals senior vice president of major league and international operations Rene Francisco. But it’s nonetheless a prominent landing spot for the 60-year-old, who surprisingly found himself looking for work this offseason.

Initially hired by the Nationals in 2009, DiPuglia was one of the organization’s longest-tenured employees and one of general manager Mike Rizzo’s most-trusted confidants. Tasked with overseeing a Latin American program that was in disarray following a scandal involving the falsifying of supposed top prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez’s name, age and playing ability, he helped turn the operation around during his 15 years in charge.

DiPuglia’s most notable achievement with the Nats was the discovery and signing of teenage outfielder Juan Soto, but he signed a number of other young Latin American prospects who reached the big leagues, including Victor Robles, Luis García, Joan Adon, Jose A. Ferrer, Wander Suero, Reynaldo López, Wilmer Difo, Jefry Rodriguez and Israel Pineda. Among the homegrown Latin American prospects still in the Nationals’ farm system are Jeremy De La Rosa, Cristhian Vaquero and Andry Lara.

It's been three weeks since our last Q&A, and I'd like to say a lot has happened since then. That, of course, would be a lie. The Nationals have made no consequential news since mid-December, and though one of these days they're going to do something, that day hasn't come yet. (Watch them announce a big move this morning while we're in the middle of the Q&A!)

But press on we must, and that means another chance for you to pose whatever questions you have on the Nats. Be creative. Come up with something different. The way this offseason has gone so far, there's nothing to lose!

Submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back throughout the morning for my responses ...

Pick any lineup the Nationals fielded in September out of a hat, and you’re guaranteed to find the names of several players who have received scant attention around here all winter.

Jake Alu. Alex Call. Carter Kieboom. Ildemaro Vargas. Jacob Young.

Every single lineup card Davey Martinez filled out in September included at least two of those players. Many of them included three, or even four of them.

They received some of the most regular playing time on the roster late last season, and they’re all still part of the 40-man roster. But who – if anyone – is actually in the Nats’ 2024 plan?

If the rest of the winter plays out as expected, none should be in line to start Opening Day. And only a couple or three of them should even wind up on the Opening Day bench.

As they sought reasons for optimism one year ago, the Nationals knew they could point to the development of their young players, the potential bounce-back performances of some veterans and improved defense (especially around the infield).

They also hoped Major League Baseball’s new schedule format would make a positive difference.

The 2022 Nats were bad at everything, but they were especially bad at beating their division rivals. They finished an atrocious 17-59 against the NL East, a .224 winning percentage that was the worst by any big-league club since division play began in 1969.

Ah, but in 2023 the schedule underwent its most dramatic makeover since interleague play debuted in 1997. For the first time in baseball history, every NL team would play every AL team in at least one three-game series.

The domino effect of that increase in interleague play: A dramatic drop in intra division games, from 76 (19 vs. each opponent) to 52 (13 vs. each opponent). And boy did the Nationals benefit from that.

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.

Happy New Year to everybody out there. With 2023 officially behind us, it’s time to look ahead to 2024. (My references to “last season” and “this season” will officially change as well.)

It was an encouraging year in many ways for the Nationals, though not nearly enough ways to leave everyone satisfied. The good news: There’s plenty to hope for in the new year, with a lot of potentially positive developments on the horizon.

With that in mind, let’s run through some reasonably optimistic outlooks for 2024 for the following notable parties …

KEIBERT RUIZ: A continuation of what he did in the second half at the plate, and some major improvement behind the plate.

JOEY MENESES: A chance to play first base on a regular basis and – with a healthy knee – a return of the power stroke he showed off during his out-of-nowhere rookie season.

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 conclude the series today with the development of several key young players at both the major- and minor-league levels …

The Nationals won 71 games this year, and they happily accepted the praise that came with the 16-game improvement that represented from the previous year. But at no point during the season did anyone in a position of power within the organization believe the team’s final record would be the best indicator of their success or failure. The best indicator: How many of their young cornerstone players took a step forward and further established themselves as part of the long-term plan.

In that regard, the most important development of 2023 wasn’t the 71-91 record. It was the development of CJ Abrams into a dynamic leadoff man and capable shortstop. It was the development of Keibert Ruiz into a more selective – and often clutch – hitter. It was the development of Josiah Gray into an All-Star. It was the development of MacKenzie Gore into a potential future ace. And it was the development of several top prospects in the minors who are now poised to make their major-league debuts sometime in 2024: Dylan Crews, James Wood, Brady House and more.

“I think we’re in a good place,” general manager Mike Rizzo said at season’s end. “I like where our young core major leaguers are, and I like the developmental year that the minor leagues had. I think that we’re on track to turn this thing around in the near future.”

None of these players, to be sure, has reached his full potential yet. Each of them still has something significant to improve upon before he truly can be deemed part of the plan. But it’s hard to dispute that each of them did take a step forward in 2023, and that’s why the Nationals are encouraged.

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 continue the series today with sad news that came just before the start of spring training: Ted Lerner’s death …

Ted Lerner was born Oct. 15, 1925, the same day the Washington Senators lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He would spend the next 94 years waiting to see a major-league ballclub from D.C. win the ultimate game.

Lerner was a smart and successful businessman, to be sure. He 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. But his passion was baseball, and when the opportunity finally came for him to purchase the Nationals at 80, he didn’t hesitate to write the check for $450 million to Major League Baseball.

Lerner spent the next 13 years trying to build a championship franchise. It wasn’t always smooth, and mistakes were made along the way. But on Oct. 30, 2019, he stood on a makeshift stage near second base at Minute Maid Park in Houston and accepted the Commissioner’s Trophy from Rob Manfred, his lifelong dream realized at last.

“They say good things come to those who wait,” he said at the Nats’ victory parade that weekend. “Ninety-five years is a pretty long wait. But I’ll tell you, this is worth the wait.”

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 perhaps the most significant player acquisition of 2023: Dylan Crews …

Five times in club history, the Nationals have owned one of the top five picks in the MLB Draft. The first three times they held such a pick, they emerged with some of the most important players in D.C. baseball history: Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper. The fourth time, they took a shot at a raw-but-gifted athlete whose ultimate fate won’t be known for years: Elijah Green.

And the fifth time? Well, it’ll also be a while until we know the true answer. But based on the early returns, it’s hard not to get immensely excited about Dylan Crews.

“He’s won every award that you can possibly win,” general manager Mike Rizzo said on draft night in July. “He’s been the best player on the best team in the country. And I think when you talk to him and watch him, this is only the beginning.”

The Nationals certainly are banking on that. Crews arrived with as impressive a resume as there was coming out of college: the Golden Spikes Award winner, a national championship at LSU and a jaw-dropping stat line in 71 amateur games this season (.426 batting average, 18 homers, 70 RBIs, .567 on-base percentage, 1.280 OPS).

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 inevitable (though still not official) end of Stephen Strasburg’s career …

As a new crop of Nationals players embarked on a new year in West Palm Beach some 10 months ago, it was impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. More specifically, the prominently located locker that still bore the same nameplate, number and uniform it did when the franchise first opened the facility in 2017.

The only thing missing: The player who has always used that locker.

Stephen Strasburg never reported for spring training. He never reported to the clubhouse at Nationals Park, either, at least not during the times when the entire team (and media members) were there. He was – and still is – technically a part of the team. But he has zero tangible presence anymore after an agonizing year that confirmed what everyone hoped wouldn’t be true: His pitching career is over.

Strasburg made one final attempt to build his body and his arm up for the rigors of major-league pitching last winter. But once he attempted to pitch off a bullpen mound, the nerve pain in his shoulder and arm returned, and that was the sign he and the Nats regrettably knew meant the end of a storied-yet-unsatisfying career.

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 on-field highlight of the season: the team’s extended run of success in July and August …

For 3 1/2 seasons, the Nationals hadn’t enjoyed any kind of sustained run like this.

Yes, there were a couple of fun weeks in June 2021, when Kyle Schwarber seemed to launch a leadoff homer every night and a still-star-laden roster tried to get itself back into the NL East race. But that was fleeting, done in by a spate of injuries (including Schwarber’s torn hamstring) and every other manner of disaster that could befall one team at once.

No, what happened to the Nats late this summer was in many ways more enjoyable, certainly more encouraging because of what it suggested this franchise might be getting close to doing again on a regular basis.

When they took the field July 21 to face the Giants in the opener of a weekend series, the Nationals were 20 games under .500, an afterthought around a sport that had little reason to think about them in quite some time. When they wrapped up a dramatic victory Aug. 26 at Yankee Stadium, they were only eight games under .500, now gained attention throughout the baseball world for their surprise resurgence.

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.

Recovery from major injuries like the one Stone Garrett sustained this summer requires patience and the willingness to focus on each individual milestone reached without focusing too much on the big picture.

Garrett, who fractured his left fibula trying to make a leaping catch at the wall in right field Aug. 23, can’t think about playing Opening Day for the Nationals right now. All he can do is achieve whatever task is currently in front of him.

And that task right now includes hitting baseballs for the first time since suffering his injury.

“I started hitting last week,” the 28-year-old said Thursday in an interview for the Nats Hot Stove Show on MASN. “I’ve been running on the treadmill for about a month now, so I’ve been trying to incorporate some explosive movements. I’m feeling pretty good.”

Four months removed from the gruesome injury, Garrett looks and feels like a healthy person again. Now he’s getting himself back into baseball shape.

The Trea Turner Rule is finally getting amended. Not eliminated altogether, but amended in a way that should at least somewhat appease the star shortstop and Nationals manager Davey Martinez after both were burned by it multiple times in the past.

Major League Baseball announced a series of rule changes for the 2024 season Thursday afternoon, and the most notable one for anyone with current or recent ties to the Nats surely was the alteration to the first base running lane.

The runner’s lane will now be widened to include the dirt area between the foul line and the infield grass, MLB announced. In other words, a batter-runner will now be permitted to run in fair territory as long as he stays on the dirt and doesn’t venture onto the infield grass.

Because dirt cutouts aren’t universal across baseball, there will be some leeway for dimensions. The distance between the foul line and the infield grass will be between 18 and 24 inches in every MLB park, with some limited grace periods granted due to difficulty in modifying fields (such as ballparks that use artificial turf).

“Widening the lane allows batters to take a more direct path to first base while retaining protection from interference,” the league said in announcing the change.

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.”

Josiah Gray and CJ Abrams turned their breakthrough seasons into some extra cash.

Gray and Abrams were among the 101 major leaguers who qualified for the league’s pre-arbitration bonus pool this year, which was designed to reward the sport’s best young players for their performances.

Gray was awarded a $311,171 bonus, with Abrams getting $297,023, according to figures published by the Associated Press. Gray’s official 2023 salary was $730,000, bringing his total earnings for the year to $1,041,171. Abrams’ official salary was $724,200, bringing his total earnings to $1,021,223.

As part of its new collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Players’ Association, MLB agreed to set aside $50 million toward a new bonus pool that would be dispersed among players who don’t yet have the three years of service time required to qualify for salary arbitration. The highest bonuses went to any such players who finished in the top five in voting for the MVP, Cy Young or Rookie of the Year awards or were named to the All-MLB first or second teams.

Whatever money remained after that was divided up among the other players according to a WAR formula.

What was the most astounding stat about the 2023 Nationals? How about the fact they only used eight starting pitchers the entire season?

That represented the second-lowest total in the majors (only the Blue Jays were better) and matched the club record for fewest starters used in a single season (previously set in 2012 and 2014).

Fewer starters, unfortunately, didn’t mean better starting pitching. The Nats rotation still ranked 25th in the majors in ERA (5.02), WHIP (1.501) and strikeouts (702). Improvement remains paramount.

But the Nationals still could take pride in their ability to keep just about everyone in their rotation healthy. Josiah Gray, Patrick Corbin and Trevor Williams each made 30-plus starts. MacKenzie Gore made 27 starts before a blister on his finger ended his season a couple weeks early. Jake Irvin joined the group in early May and never lost his spot. All of that allowed the team to overcome a lost year for Cade Cavalli, who tore his elbow ligament during spring training.

With Cavalli on target to return in June, the Nats should enter 2024 feeling good about the health of their rotation. They also should enter the new year fully aware the odds of duplicating their good luck are minimal.

As the final shopping week before Christmas arrives, we’re left wondering if the Nationals intend to make any more purchases in the coming days, or if they’re content to wait until after the holidays.

To date, they’ve addressed their short-term need at third base (Nick Senzel) and their need for bullpen depth (Dylan Floro). That still leaves first base, left field and the back of the rotation to be addressed.

Like third base, the Nats figure to treat left field and the back of the rotation as short-term fixes as well, knowing they’ve got top prospects knocking on the door at all three of those positions (Brady House, James Wood, a healthy Cade Cavalli). But the situation at first base isn’t as clear-cut.

The Nationals don’t have an obvious long-term first baseman in their farm system. Of course, first basemen often come from some other position, so it’s not necessarily a problem they don’t already have somebody in the minors targeted for that spot.

But where does that leave them right now? If they wanted to make a multi-year commitment, they certainly could. The problem: The notable free agents who fit that bill (Cody Bellinger, Rhys Hoskins) aren’t cheap. The Nats have been in touch with Hoskins, according to a source familiar with the discussions, but aren’t likely to get into a bidding war for the 30-year-old former Phillie, who missed all of this season with a torn ACL.

Sleep is precious for Lane Thomas these days, with a newborn son at home. So when he woke up one morning last week, checked his phone and saw he had missed a 12:30 a.m. call from Nick Senzel, he was incredulous at first.

“I called him back and was like: ‘Dude, I go to sleep at 9 with a child. What were you calling me at 12:30 for?’” Thomas recalled. “And he said: ‘I’m a Nat!’”

Thus did Thomas and Senzel become teammates, and not for the first time.

Flash back two decades to a youth field in Knoxville, Tenn., and there you find a travel ball team of 7- and 8-year-olds starring a couple of kids named Nick Senzel and Lane Thomas. Being 7-year-olds who didn’t know any better, they absolutely would’ve believed they’d someday not only both be major leaguers, but teammates for the Nationals (a team that didn’t even exist at the time, by the way).

As they got older, that dream scenario faded. Who really thinks like that once they have just a little bit of life perspective?