Two players the Nationals let go at season’s end found new homes Tuesday, with Ildemaro Vargas signing a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks and Jordan Weems getting his own minor league deal with the Braves.

Both Vargas and Weems were regular members of the Nats roster in 2023 and were expected to remain in their respective roles throughout the 2024 season, as well. Vargas did survive the full year but was dropped from the 40-man roster in November and elected to become a free agent. Weems was designated for assignment in August, and though he cleared waivers and finished the season at Triple-A Rochester, he became a free agent in October.

Neither is assured of a major league job in 2025, but each will get an opportunity to make a case for himself in the spring with invitations to big league camp.

Vargas, 33, has previous ties with the Diamondbacks, signing with them in 2015 and making his major league debut in 2017. The infielder spent parts of the next four seasons in Arizona, playing in 144 games while batting .247 with seven homers, 36 RBIs and a .648 OPS.

He bounced around after that, going from the Diamondbacks to the Twins to the Cubs to the Pirates and back to the Diamondbacks again in 2021. The Nationals then signed him to a minor league deal in May 2022, and when the need for a utility infielder arose in August following the trade of Ehire Adrianza to Atlanta, they called him up.

Jacob Young, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams and Jake Irvin all performed well enough this season to earn some extra money before the holidays.

Young, Gore, Abrams and Irvin recently were revealed as part of a group of 101 players with less than three years of big league service time who qualified for Major League Baseball’s “pre-arbitration bonus pool.”

The pool was created as part of this collective bargaining agreement to reward players who have yet to reach salary arbitration but played beyond their experience levels. Anyone who finishes in the top five in voting for the MVP or Cy Young awards, first or second for Rookie of the Year or is named to the all-MLB first or second team receives a bonus ranging from $500,000 to $2.5 million. Any money remaining from the $50 million total pool is divided up among other players based on a WAR formula.

None of the Nationals received votes for the aforementioned awards, but four young players did compile enough WAR to qualify for these bonuses.

Young, who ranked 56th out of the 101 pre-arbitration players, received a bonus of $333,239. That’s added to his base rookie salary of $740,000, making his total income for the season $1,073,239.

We spend most of our time around here asking what the Nationals are going to do about their most glaring roster needs. Are they going to sign a big-name slugger to play first base? Are they going to spend money on a proven starting pitcher? Are they going to bolster a now-depleted bullpen with experienced late-inning arms?

So far, we don’t have the answers to any of those questions. The Nats have not yet acquired a major league player this offseason, aside from reliever Evan Reifert in last week’s Rule 5 Draft. Their most glaring holes remain holes to this point.

Let’s start this week off, though, looking at the roster in an entirely different way. We know what the Nationals need. Which means we also should know what they already have. It’s worth remembering where around the field they already appear to be set, because it’s actually a majority of the positions on the team.

The Nats have a middle infield, no questions there. CJ Abrams, despite his end-of-season demotion, is the everyday shortstop, coming off an All-Star year that showcased his elite combination of skills. Yes, he needs to prove he can put those skills together on a more consistent basis over a six-month season. But the team remains fully committed to him, of that there appears to be no doubt.

They’re also fully committed to Luis Garcia Jr., who after a spring full of tough love finally blossomed into the second baseman they always believed him to be. Garcia was the most pleasant development of the 2024 season, and the expectation will be for more of the same, if not even more improvement from him in 2025.

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on the first installment of our 20 Greatest Players in Nationals History series. If you missed it, click this link to find out who checked in at Nos. 16-20 before proceeding with this week’s piece featuring Nos. 11-15.

Reminder: This is a purely subjective exercise. Stats were considered, of course, but greatness is about more than stats. It’s about impact, both on and off the field. It’s about significance to the franchise during its two decades in D.C. And on some instinctual level, it’s just about the players that you think most fondly of when you consider the last 20 years of Nats baseball.

We’ll continue the series each Sunday through the rest of the month, culminating with the Top 5 on Dec. 29 …

NO. 15 – LIVÁN HERNÁNDEZ
Starting pitcher, 2005-2006, 2009-11
Stats: 44-47, 4.32 ERA, 129 GS, 828.2 IP, 915 H, 430 R, 398 ER, 82 HR, 262 BB, 476 SO, 94 ERA+, 1.420 WHIP, 7.7 bWAR, 10.2 fWAR

Perhaps no player better epitomizes the early years of the Nationals than the man who threw the first pitch in club history. Hernández already had enjoyed a notable career before coming here, winning National League Championship and World Series MVP honors as a rookie for the Marlins in 1997, then again pitching in the World Series for the Giants in 2002. He was traded to the Expos in 2003 and established himself as the workhorse ace of that staff by the time he joined them in relocating to Washington.

It’s not the kind of major splash everyone’s been waiting for, but the Nationals have signed a couple of free agents in recent days who could pitch their way onto the roster in 2025.

The Nats signed left-hander Konnor Pilkington and right-hander Clay Helvey to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training, adding a pair of pitchers who will compete for jobs in big league camp.

Pilkington, 27, has some major league experience, appearing in 16 games (11 of those starts) for the Guardians in 2022-23 with decent results. He sports a 3.75 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 60 innings, though he also walked 33 batters while compiling a 1.450 WHIP.

Originally a third-round pick of the White Sox in 2018 out of Mississippi State, Pilkington was traded three years later to Cleveland for a name familiar to Nationals fans: César Hernández (who played in D.C. in 2022). The Diamondbacks then purchased him in May 2023, and he spent the majority of the last two seasons at Triple-A Reno, going 3-5 with a 5.91 ERA, 1.764 WHIP and 79 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings in 2024.

Pilkington, whose fastball averages 92-93 mph, has mostly run into trouble when he can’t throw strikes. He has averaged 4.6 walks per nine innings throughout his minor league career.

Good morning, everyone. We hoped this would be an eventful week, with the Winter Meetings offering an opportunity for news. And it was more eventful than any previous week this offseason, just not necessarily in a way anyone would have guessed.

Juan Soto signed with the Mets for an insane $765 million. The Nationals selected reliever Evan Reifert from the Rays in the Rule 5 Draft. Oh, and they won the Draft Lottery and surprisingly now hold the No. 1 pick next summer.

What they haven't done yet is sign any major league free agents or completed any trades. Hopefully that's on the horizon, sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we'll take another opportunity to answer your questions about what has - and what hasn't - happened so far.

If you've got something you'd like to ask, please submit it in the comments section below. Then check back throughout the morning for my responses ...

Juan Soto stole the biggest headline at the now-completed Winter Meetings – and for $765 million, rightfully so – but the most significant broader storyline to develop out of Dallas might well have been the shape of the pitching market.

In short, it’s expensive. Really expensive.

While only a handful of top position players have signed so far this offseason, a good number of free agent starters have found new homes. And they’ve been paid handsomely for their services.

The real eye-opener so far was Max Fried, who parlayed the Yankees’ frustration at losing Soto to the Mets into a gargantuan, eight-year, $218 million contract. That shattered most predictions for the left-hander, who undoubtedly is one of the league’s better starters but has dealt with some injuries in recent years and isn’t a prototypical power pitcher.

Fried’s deal, which runs through his age-38 season, was the biggest one given to a pitcher so far this winter. But it’s not the only one that exceeded expectations.

Success in the Rule 5 Draft is never assured. It’s actually quite rare. The Nationals, though, were willing to take a shot on an unprotected prospect for the third straight year, hoping Evan Reifert bucks the trend and proves himself a valuable member of their pitching staff for years to come.

The Nats selected Reifert today in the final official event of the Winter Meetings in Dallas, using the No. 6 pick in the draft to snag the right-hander reliever away from the Rays.

Reifert, 25, has never pitched above Double-A, but he’s coming off a dominant 2024 season for Tampa Bay’s affiliate in Montgomery. In 34 appearances, he posted a sparkling 1.96 ERA and 0.919 WHIP, striking out 65 batters in only 41 1/3 innings.

Originally a 30th-round pick of the Rangers in 2018 from North Iowa Area Community College, Reifert chose not to sign with Texas and instead transferred to Central Missouri. He wasn’t selected in the pandemic-condensed 2020 draft, but signed with the Brewers and began his professional career.

After a strong 2021 season in Single-A ball, Reifert was traded to the Rays in a deal for big leaguer Mike Brosseau, then spent the last three seasons in Tampa Bay’s farm system. A shoulder injury derailed most of his 2023 campaign, but he returned strong this year at the Double-A level.

When it was revealed Tuesday evening the Nationals had won the Draft Lottery, it was immediately appropriate to mention the two previous times this club held the No. 1 pick and the two iconic players who were selected with those picks.

Obviously, the Nats would be thrilled if the first player taken in the 2025 Draft has the same impact Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper did a decade and a half ago. But there’s a distinct difference to note about this future draft pick from those prior ones. The difference in the state of the franchise at the time of the pick.

When they drafted Strasburg on June 9, 2009, the Nationals were undoubtedly the worst team in baseball. They lost a league-worst 102 games in 2008, which is how they were awarded the No. 1 pick in the pre-lottery days. And on that night, they owned an abysmal 16-41 record, en route to a 103-loss season that would lock up the No. 1 pick again the following year.

It would be three more seasons before the Nats secured their first winning record, which also happened to come with their first division title and postseason berth. By then, the roster had been completely overhauled by still-newish general manager Mike Rizzo, who combined homegrown prospects with experienced veterans acquired via free agency and a few calculated additions via trade.

Strasburg and Harper were a huge part of that. Maybe the Nationals still would have made the 2012 playoffs without either young star, but there’s no way they would’ve won 98 games. And both continued to be critical to the organization’s success over the next several years, leading to three more division titles through the 2017 season.

The Nationals nearly won Major League Baseball’s first Draft Lottery in 2022, finishing runner-up to the Pirates. They technically did win the 2023 lottery but were ineligible to hold the No. 1 pick, which wound up going instead to the Guardians.

There were no such restrictions this time around, just low odds. Which proved not to be a problem when the Nats were revealed the surprise winners of the 2024 lottery.

The grand prize: The No. 1 pick in next summer’s draft, the third time in club history they’ve held the first overall selection. The previous two players selected: Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010, a couple of franchise icons.

Strasburg and Harper were drafted during some of the lowest points in the club’s two decades in D.C., immediately following 100-loss seasons. They were key figures in securing the team’s first winning record (and division title) in 2012. This No. 1 pick will join the organization three years into a roster rebuild that already has seen top prospects (Dylan Crews, James Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore) reach the majors, with an eye on returning to contention as soon as 2025.

“We’ve got a good system in place right now. Getting the first pick is just going to add to that, and add value to our organization,” general manager Mike Rizzo told MLB Network shortly after learning the news at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. “We’re extremely excited. We’re lucky. And we don’t want to ever be in this position ever again.”

The Nationals’ No. 1 need this offseason is no secret. They need a power bat, ideally at first base but potentially at another position if there’s a good match.

This team ranked last in the National League with 135 home runs. It ranked second-to-last in home runs by first basemen with 14. The only returning candidates to play that position are Juan Yepez and Andres Chaparro, who combined for 10 homers over 381 plate appearances.

If they want to put forth a more productive lineup next season, it’s the obvious upgrade that must occur this winter.

To date, they haven’t upgraded at first base. Nor have they upgraded at any position so far during an awfully quiet offseason. The good news: Nobody has.

Not a single free agent first baseman has signed anywhere yet. And the list includes a good number of prominent names just waiting to be courted and locked up.

Good morning, Nationals fans. For those of you who weren’t up late Sunday night and missed the news … Juan Soto is going to be a New York Met. For a very long time. For more money than any professional North American athlete has ever received.

Hours before the Winter Meetings officially commenced in Dallas, Soto and the Mets agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract, per every prominent national baseball reporter on the planet. Yes, that’s 15 years and $765 million. That’s $51 million per year, on average, until he turns 41. It exceeds Shohei Ohtani’s previous record-setting $700 million deal with the Dodgers from last winter by a healthy margin.

And it brings Soto back to the National League East, making him the latest in a long line of former Nats greats to sign a massive new contract with a division rival.

Soto’s signing was going to sting for Nationals fans, no matter where he wound up. But it probably would have stung less had he chosen to stay with the Yankees, or instead bolted for another American League East franchise like the Red Sox or Blue Jays. The Mets, though? That’s a tough pill to swallow for many.

In the end, Steve Cohen proved once again he’s the major league owner more desperate to win a World Series than any other in the sport. The Mets haven’t hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy since 1986. Only seven franchises are mired in longer championship droughts. Desperation (and tens of billions of dollars made in hedge fund management) is a powerful tool this time of year. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it drives an owner to dole out more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to one player in a sport where one player traditionally isn’t the difference between winning and losing.

The Nationals recently announced plans for their 20th anniversary celebration in 2025, with a number of special events and giveaways promised, not to mention a ranking of the 20 greatest moments in club history.

We here were already planning our own 20th anniversary celebration, and why wait until 2025 to get started with that? The Nats already have completed 20 full seasons in D.C., so this is as good a time as any to get the ball rolling with a weekly series that will run every Sunday through the rest of December: The 20 Greatest Players in Nationals History.

What constitutes “greatness?” For these purposes, we’re considering a combination of quantity and quality, plus impact on and off the field. Some of these guys played many years here and had lots of time to make names for themselves. Some of them weren’t here very long but still made a difference with specific acts of greatness.

We only considered a player’s contributions for the Nationals at the major league level. It doesn’t matter what they did before or after they were in Washington. No one singular stat was deemed more important than any other. Postseason performance wasn’t required, but it certainly elevated some players’ cases for inclusion on this list. This is, to be clear, a subjective exercise. There’s no right answer. And that means there will surely be some healthy debate about the choices, which is how these things are supposed to be.

We’ll unveil five names each week, culminating with the top five on Dec. 29. And with that, we begin today with No. 16-20 …

It's been a slow offseason to date, to say the least. The World Series ended more than a month ago, and the Nationals have yet to acquire a major league player, whether via free agency or trade.

The good news: There are still more than two months to go before pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach, Fla. And there are tons of available unsigned players looking for jobs, including most of the top free agents on the market. So there's plenty of time for the Nats to get to work. And with the Winter Meetings set to begin Monday in Dallas, you'd like to think we're about to start seeing some action at last.

In the meantime, though, we'll take this opportunity to hold another Q&A with your trusty beat writer. If you've got something you'd like to ask, please do so in the comments section below. Then check back throughout the morning for my responses ...

A lot can happen in 20 years. Two decades ago, the Nationals were scrambling to get RFK Stadium renovated and ready for the park’s first full-time baseball club in 33 years. A roster made up mostly of former Expos players was bolstered with a few affordable free agents. The general manager only had the job on an interim basis. The manager was a legitimate baseball legend finishing out his Hall of Fame career in a manner he never could have foreseen.

The Nationals of 2025 will look nothing like the Nationals of 2005. That’s true of the uniforms they now wear, the ballpark they now play in, the people in charge of the organization and the men who take the field for them. Only a couple of employees who embarked on this adventure from the outset remain.

The franchise was down for several years, then was up for several more, then was on top of the baseball world for a brief time, then came back down to earth and now hopes to climb that mountain again.

There’s a surprising amount of history packed into these 20 years of existence, enough to spur the organization to make the 2025 season a celebration of its history.

The Nationals announced plans this morning for a season-long anniversary celebration, dubbed “NATS20.” It will include a significant prize giveaway, planned appearances by team alumni and a revisiting of the most memorable moments of the last two decades.

The predominant headline two weeks ago at the non-tender deadline was the Nationals’ decision not to retain Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey. Drawing less attention at the time was their decision to retain six other arbitration-eligible players: Luis Garcia Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Josiah Gray, Derek Law, Riley Adams and Mason Thompson.

Perhaps the most surprising name on that list was Adams, who after a difficult season that twice saw him optioned to Triple-A Rochester seemed like a potential non-tender candidate. Instead, the Nats opted to keep the 28-year-old catcher, creating a potential tricky situation come March.

With 3 years, 5 days of big league service time, Adams qualifies for arbitration this winter for the first time in his career. He made $750,900 this season and is on track for a modest raise in 2025, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting a salary of $1.1 million.

That’s not a huge difference, of course, but that’s not the tricky part of the situation for the Nationals. If Adams and the team are able to agree to a 2025 salary without going to an arbitration hearing, that salary will be guaranteed in full.

This is a little-known change to the current collective bargaining agreement, which went into effect after the 2022 season. Previously, if a club released an arbitration-eligible player during spring training, it was only responsible for 30 or 45 days’ worth of termination pay, depending on the exact date the transaction was made. We saw the Nationals take advantage of that rule several times in the past, most notably releasing right-hander John Patterson (their 2007 Opening Day starter) in March 2008.

When the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy opened in 2014, the franchise that bears its name hoped the brand new facility would help make a positive difference in the lives of underprivileged children in Southeast Washington.

Ten years later, the academy has made a difference for more than 6,000 local kids and has established itself as one of the premier youth facilities run by any professional sports organization. So much so that Major League Baseball is now bestowing a significant honor on it to commemorate its 10th anniversary.

MLB announced today the Nationals have won the 2024 Allan H. Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence, one of the sport’s highest honors, for its decade of service through the youth academy.

The Selig Award, named for former commissioner Bud Selig, was created in 2010 to recognize the charitable and philanthropic efforts of major league clubs. The Nationals become the 12th franchise to win the honor.

“The Nationals Youth Baseball Academy is a terrific example of how our clubs are making a difference in the lives of young people with opportunities on and off the field,” commissioner Robert Manfred said. “I congratulate the Lerner family, the Washington Nationals organization, Nationals Philanthropies and the entire staff at the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy for this well-earned recognition. We are proud to celebrate their efforts, and we look forward to their continued impact throughout the Greater D.C. region.”

Thanksgiving has come and gone, the calendar has flipped to December and every other commercial on TV right now is Christmas-themed. We’ve entered a new phase of the year, and that should include the official firing up of the Hot Stove at last.

Though there’s always some baseball news in November, it’s usually the quietest month of the offseason, certainly from an acquisition standpoint. Only a handful of prominent free agents has signed at this point, but that should change in short order as teams finally get serious about making moves of consequence.

The annual Winter Meetings open one week from today in Dallas, and that’s always good for injecting some life into the offseason. And if we look back at recent history, the flipping of the calendar to the 12th month also has spurred the Nationals to get involved.

One year ago, general manager Mike Rizzo signed three eventual major leaguers from Dec. 6-12. He inked Juan Yepez to a minor league deal on Dec. 6, with Yepez becoming a mainstay in the lineup over the final three months of the season. He signed Nick Senzel on Dec. 7, a transaction that did not work out so well in the long run. And he signed Dylan Floro on Dec. 12, a solid addition to the bullpen that was later flipped at the trade deadline for Andres Chaparro.

Go back one year prior, and Rizzo got to work a few days earlier, signing Jeimer Candelario and Stone Garrett on Nov. 29, then Trevor Williams on Dec. 9, then Erasmo Ramirez on Dec. 15.

The so-called utility man has always been thought of in somewhat negative terms. If someone plays multiple positions, it’s probably because he’s not good enough to play every day at one position.

While that line of thinking has mostly held true throughout baseball history, there have been some more recent examples of teams treasuring a good player’s versatility. Utility men don’t have to come off the bench. Sometimes they hold regular spots in the lineup, just not at the same position in the field on a day-to-day basis.

And the best of them can be handsomely rewarded for those rare skills. Ben Zobrist made nearly $87 million in career earnings while playing four different positions (shortstop, second base, left field, right field) at least 200 times in the majors, plus occasional work at three other positions (center field, first base, third base).

And now Tommy Edman is the latest utility man to cash in, signing a five-year, $74 million extension with the Dodgers on Friday. Edman, who spent the first five seasons of his career with the Cardinals, was traded to Los Angeles this summer and became a key contributor to a World Series title, winning National League Championship Series MVP honors while starting games at both shortstop and in center field.

Not every team values versatility as much as the Dodgers, but Nationals manager Davey Martinez has always spoken highly of players who can be used all over the field and when possible has preferred to keep at least one on his roster.

OK, maybe this hasn’t been as great a year as many probably hoped it would be. There’s still plenty to be thankful for today, though, right?

Of course there is. Even as it pertains to baseball, which may not be back to the level we’d all prefer but undoubtedly is trending in the right direction at last, with the ultimate payoff perhaps not as far off as you’d think.

So before you put the turkey in the oven and sit down to watch what on paper looks like three pretty blah football games, let’s run through everything the Nationals are thankful for on this day …

KEIBERT RUIZ
The opportunity to bounce back from a poor season that in some circumstances could have cost him his job, but won’t here because of the contract extension he signed in 2023.

LUIS GARCIA JR.
Just enough of a display of faith from his manager and general manager to get one last shot to realize his potential this year, which he most definitely did.