The Nationals are currently doing something they haven’t done in their nearly 20 years since relocating to D.C.: Running out a rotation with four left-handers.

Injuries to right-handers Josiah Gray and Trevor Williams have called for replacements, who just happened to be left-handers to make for a mostly lefty rotation that is rarely seen in baseball.

They are in the middle of a stretch where they have all four starting in succession. Three are scheduled to start against the Marlins this weekend started by MacKenzie Gore on Friday, and continuing with DJ Herz today and Mitchell Parker on Sunday.

It’s an ironic roster quick for manager Davey Martinez, who isn’t used to having too many lefties on his roster, starter or reliever.

“I couldn't even explain that really,” he said. “I sit back and go, 'How in the world did that happen?' But I like the ones we got, that's for sure. They're doing really well. Even DJ. I talked to him a little bit about the shape of his breaking ball. Right now, his changeup is good, his fastball is good. We worked out a little bit on the shape of his breaking ball. So when that starts coming around, he could really, really, really do well. So the other guys, they got no fear, right? I love them. They attack the zone. They're not afraid to throw their pitches when they need to, sliders or splits. They've been really good.”

There was a moment in the top of the second inning Sunday when it felt like DJ Herz was about to crumble.

The rookie left-hander, in only his second career start, had cruised through the top of the first but then during a four-batter span the following inning had given up two runs after issuing two walks, allowing two singles and uncorking two wild pitches, the last of which came after back-to-back, high-and-tight fastballs to Jarred Kelenic that left the Braves left fielder contemplating whether he needed to charge the mound.

And then Herz, who had been known in the minors to let a game get away from him from time to time, battled back and struck out Kelenic on his next pitch before getting Ozzie Albies to fly out on the pitch after that. The inning was over, and Herz had thrown 33 pitches, but only the two runs had crossed the plate.

“I’m proud of him,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said. “Because a situation like that, and a good team like that, he was able to get composed and throw strikes when he needed to, get out of a big jam there and keep us in the ballgame.”

Herz wasn’t credited with his first big league win at the end of the day. Because he didn’t complete the requisite five innings, he couldn’t get the W, which instead went to reliever Jacob Barnes at the official scorer’s discretion. But he impressed nonetheless during his 4 1/3 innings, the majority of which featured plenty of outs and few baserunners.

To swing or not to swing at the first pitch? That is the question the Nationals have confronted too regularly this season with a lineup that preaches an aggressive approach but often takes things too far and makes way too many quick outs that make life way too easy on opposing starters.

And for three innings today, it looked like that approach was once again going to be their undoing, with a rapid flurry of outs made against a rookie in his major league debut.

Here’s the thing, though: Across the sport, hitters have better numbers on the first pitch than almost any potential count. And as much as it feels like they struggle in this department, the Nats actually hit .332 on the first pitch, slightly better than the leaguewide average of .330.

So by sticking to the aggressive approach, and most importantly actually making hard contact, the second time around, the Nationals exploded for their biggest offensive inning of the year and went on to beat the Braves 8-5 to complete another series win over their division rivals, this one before an appreciative crowd of 34,282.

"Look, I don't mind being aggressive. We talk about it all the time," manager Davey Martinez said. "But you've got to get the ball in the zone. We can't just swing at everything. It's talked a lot in the dugout about it. And then when they finally do it, the results are a lot better."

DJ Herz makes his second career start today. And he’ll be more experienced than the guy he’s going up against in the Nationals’ series finale against the Braves.

Yep, Atlanta’s starter is Hurston Waldrep, called up from Triple-A Gwinnett to make his major league debut less than one year after he was drafted out of the University of Florida. Waldrep is the organization’s top prospect, and he’s supposedly got a devastating splitter. But he made only one start at Triple-A, and the Braves decided to bring him up instead of pitching Max Fried today. Fried will be pushed back two days to face the Orioles.

So the Nats, who have already won two of the first three games of this series, now seemingly have a better chance of winning three of four against the Braves for the second time in two weeks. They’ll still need to figure out Waldrep at the plate. And they’ll need Herz to be better than he was in his debut last week.

The left-hander, who replaced the injured Trevor Williams in the rotation, held his own against the Mets. But he still wound up charged with four runs in four-plus innings, two of those runs scoring after he departed in the fifth. The nerves should be a little less severe today for Herz, so we’ll see how he handles this assignment.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 16 mph left field to right field

There’s nothing more tempting in baseball than to try to predict a team’s pitching plan for both the short-term and long-term. And there are few exercises that almost always turn up results that don’t come to fruition.

Way back in March, as the Nationals prepped for the season in West Palm Beach, it seemed a given that Trevor Williams’ hold on the fifth spot in the Opening Day rotation was tenuous at best. Shoot, there even seemed to be a reasonable chance he would lose the job to spring training invitee Zach Davies. Then Davies had a blowup start that led to his release and Williams retained his starting job entering the season.

Even so, the leash on Williams figured to be short, especially on the heels of a miserable 2023 season. A couple of bad weeks to begin April and he might be bumped to the bullpen, opening the door for Jackson Rutledge (presumably the first-man up at Triple-A) to get his shot.

Then Williams got off to a great start to the season, and instead the opening in the Nats rotation came via injury to Josiah Gray. The choice to replace Gray wasn’t Rutledge (who was off-schedule at the time) but Mitchell Parker, who was thrown to the wolves at Dodger Stadium and conceivably could be sent back to Rochester one or two rough starts into his career.

Then Parker exceeded everyone’s expectations and now has solidified his place in the big league rotation for the foreseeable future. And alongside the improving MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin, plus the still-effective Williams, the Nationals had four quality starters giving their team a chance to win every time they took the mound.

DJ Herz’s major league debut wasn’t the fairytale Mitchell Parker experienced two months ago at Dodger Stadium. Neither was it the nightmare suffered by countless other Nationals rookies over the last decade.

Herz wasn’t great in his first career start. Neither was he bad. The rookie left-hander pitched with some confidence, escaped a couple of early jams, then began to succumb as his evening progressed.

In the end, Herz allowed two runs while he was in the game, plus another two that were charged to him after he departed in the top of the fifth. And because his teammates did very little at the plate themselves, he wound up charged with the loss as the Nationals fell 6-3 to the Mets.

"He was a little nervous," manager Davey Martinez said. "He was sweating like crazy out there. But you know what, in big moments he kind of settled down and threw strikes and looked really good."

The Nats hoped for something more akin to Parker’s sparkling April debut in Los Angeles, when the unheralded rookie left-hander struck out Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani, went five strong innings and became the franchise’s first starting pitcher to win his major league debut since Stephen Strasburg.

Who’s ready to watch a major league debut tonight? An unexpected one, at that.

Trevor Williams was supposed to start the second game of this series against the Mets, but he was placed on the 15-day injured list with a flexor muscle strain in his right arm, so DJ Herz got the call from Triple-A Rochester and will make his first major league start tonight instead.

Who is DJ Herz? He’s a 23-year-old left-hander, acquired last summer from the Cubs for Jeimer Candelario. He’s had big strikeout numbers in the minors, but he’s also had big walk numbers. He’s been a lot better in recent outings, though, and in his last start Thursday he struck out 10 with only one walk over 5 2/3 innings. Herz is going to be amped up big-time. His ability to control his emotions will go a long way toward determining if he has success or not.

Some run support would also help, of course. The Nationals scored seven runs Monday night, and they’d love to do the same tonight against New York left-hander David Peterson, who makes only his second start of the season after recovering from hip surgery.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 9 mph right field to left field

The Nationals rotation, a surprising strength for the club so far this season, is getting a surprising shakeup today.

Trevor Williams has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a flexor muscle strain, opening the door for left-hander DJ Herz to make his major league debut tonight.

Williams was scheduled to face the Mets in the second game of a three-game series, hoping to continue his strong run to begin the season. The 32-year-old right-hander is 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 1.076 WHIP through 11 starts, having surrendered only two homers one year after he led the league with 34 homers allowed.

Williams last pitched Thursday in Atlanta and showed no outward signs of physical ailment. He held the Braves to one run over 5 2/3 innings, throwing 95 pitches (his second-highest total of the season).

The flexor muscle strain is the same injury suffered by Josiah Gray in April. Gray is scheduled to face live hitters today for the third time since going on the IL, and if all goes well is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment after that.

It was a fun day on South Capitol Street, as the Nationals played the first-ever “On Deck: Nationals Futures Game” for their final exhibition outing before starting the regular season Thursday in Cincinnati.

The Nationals’ major leaguers were set to play a team full of the organization’s top prospects, many of whom spent the majority of spring training in big league camp. There were smiles all around this morning as the youngsters prepped for the game in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park, while the major league team got settled into the home locker room with bags packed for tomorrow’s early morning flight to Cincy.

But once the game started, the niceties between organizational teammates disappeared for the next 2 hours and 35 minutes as the major league team flexed its muscles while dominating the Futures Team 13-1 in front of an announced paid crowd of 10,294 at Nats Park.

“It was good,” said major league manager Davey Martinez. “We had some good at-bats. I thought we played really well. The key was to get some at-bats, see some pitches. We had a day off yesterday, but I saw some really good things. And the young kids, they stood up there and they weren't afraid. The guys that we had, they swung the bats well. Our kids got up there and they got their swings. So it was a good day.”

MacKenzie Gore set the tone early in his final tune-up before taking the ball Monday for the Nats’ home opener against the Pirates. Facing top prospects Robert Hassell III, Dylan Crews, James Wood and Trey Lipscomb, the left-hander recorded three strikeouts in the first frame while only surrendering an opposite-field double to Wood.

JUPITER, Fla. – It took nearly four weeks, but the Nationals finally made their first round of cuts this morning, removing seven players from their spring training roster, the majority of them young starting pitchers who weren’t going to get the innings they needed had they remained in big league camp.

Right-handers Joan Adon, Cole Henry and Amos Willingham, left-handers DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker and infielder Jake Alu all were optioned to Triple-A Rochester. Outfielder Travis Blankenhorn, who isn’t on the 40-man roster, was reassigned to minor league camp.

Adon, Henry, Herz and Parker all could figure into the Nationals’ rotation plans over the course of the season, the latter three hoping to make their major league debuts. Adon has spent parts of the last three years in the majors as a fill-in starter.

“I really wanted to see some of these young guys pitch up here, and for the most part I saw some really good things,” manager Davey Martinez said. “But it’s time to get these guys stretched out and get them on a regular routine.”

Herz joined the organization last summer, acquired from the Cubs along with infielder Kevin Made for Jeimer Candelario in the Nats’ lone trade deadline deal. The 23-year-old lefty impressed in eight starts at Double-A Harrisburg down the stretch, then pitched in the Arizona Fall League and was added to the 40-man roster over the winter.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – By recent standards, the Nationals were unusually quiet at last year’s trade deadline despite being in last place and receiving interest in a handful of their major league players.

But general manager Mike Rizzo made only one move, sending third baseman Jeimer Candelario and cash to the Cubs for prospects DJ Herz and Kevin Made.

Both entered the Nats system as mid-level prospects, but by season’s end, one clearly stood out as the one with the highest ceiling.

Herz, who turned 23 in January, quickly inserted himself as one of the best pitching prospects, and maybe the best left-hander, on the Nats farm in just eight starts with Double-A Harrisburg. He finished the season 2-2 with a 2.55 ERA, one home run allowed, 20 walks, 53 strikeouts and 1.132 WHIP and 13.5 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate in 35 ⅓ innings with the Senators.

Now on the Nats’ 40-man roster to be protected from last December’s Rule 5 Draft, Herz is settling into his first major league spring training with his new team.

As the first week of the new year comes to a close, we’ve done our fair share of looking back at the Nationals’ 2023 season and ahead to the 2024 campaign. At the major league level.

During this week’s “The Hot Stove Show” on MASN All Access (which you can watch here), Brendan Mortensen and I talked a lot about the Nats’ top prospects in the minor league system and what to expect from some of them this year.

That got me thinking: We haven’t really looked back at the most significant stories from last year on the farm.

So to briefly coincide with Mark Zuckerman’s “Most significant stories of 2023” series from the week leading up New Year’s Day, here are seven of the most important headlines from the Nationals’ minor league side of the past year …

1) Dylan Crews drafted No. 2 overall
This one is the most obvious selection. At this time a year ago, one of the main focuses heading into the season was who the Nationals would select with the No. 2 pick in the MLB Draft.

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.

Last month, the Nationals promoted longtime front office staffer Eddie Longosz to vice president and assistant general manager of player development and administration after spending the last 13 years in the club’s scouting department, most recently as the director of scouting operations for the last eight.

Before the promotion, Longosz, a D.C. native, assisted general manager Mike Rizzo on all aspects of the organization's amateur, professional and international scouting operations.

That means he is now in charge of developing the players in the Nats’ farm system that he helped scout and draft.

The upper echelon of the farm system is now loaded, especially with position players, thanks to high draft picks, numerous trades and impressive international signings over the last three years, all with Longosz’s input.

At the top of the board is top prospect Dylan Crews, this year’s No. 2 overall draft pick, reigning national champion from LSU and Golden Spikes Award winner. The other recent first-round picks include third baseman and No. 3 prospect Brady House (No. 11 overall pick in 2021) and outfielder and No. 5 prospect Elijah Green (No. 5 overall pick in 2022).

NASHVILLE – This afternoon’s Rule 5 draft marks the end of the Winter Meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Typically held on Thursday morning the week of the Meetings, the league bumped it up to Wednesday afternoon last year, much to the delight of beat reporters who get to travel home a day early.

The Nationals historically haven’t utilized this avenue of roster building. Designed to keep teams from stashing prospects in the minor leagues, general manager Mike Rizzo has usually turned to acquiring established major leaguers instead of taking a flier on an unproven prospect that has to take up a roster spot for the entirety of next season.

But the Nats did stray away from that last year by selecting Thaddeus Ward from the Red Sox with the first-overall pick in the Rule 5 draft, their first selection in 12 years.

Although they hold the No. 5 overall pick this afternoon and have two open spots on the 40-man roster, the Nats aren’t assured of making a selection. But that doesn’t mean the Rule 5 draft will definitely be uneventful for them.

The Nats, of course, can lose players in this event and they have already taken steps to assure they keep the ones they definitely want.

PROSPECT REVIEW: DJ HERZ

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Traded with Kevin Made from Cubs for Jeimer Candelario and cash in July 2023; originally drafted in eighth round by Cubs in 2019 from Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, N.C.

Ranking: No. 16 per MLB Pipeline, No. 25 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

The Nationals chose to protect four prospects, all pitchers, from being lost in the upcoming Rule 5 draft. To do so, they cut ties with three players who ended the season on their major league roster, most notably first baseman Dominic Smith.

Smith and right-hander Cory Abbott were both designated for assignment today, with reliever Andrés Machado granted his unconditional release as well to pursue opportunities in Japan. The team then used those three open slots, plus one that already was open, to add left-handers DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker, plus right-handers Cole Henry and Zach Brzykcy, to their 40-man roster. That ensures none of those four prospects can be lost in next month’s Rule 5 draft.

The decision to drop Smith came as the biggest surprise of the day, considering the manner in which club officials spoke up the first baseman’s defensive value and clubhouse leadership this season in spite of his offensive struggles. Signed for $2 million last winter after the Mets chose not to tender him a contract, Smith hit .254/.326/.366 with 12 homers, 46 RBIs and a .692 OPS in 153 games for the Nats. Six of his 12 homers came in September alone, leaving the 28-year-old with some hope he had solved the power woes he endured for the majority of the season.

Even with those woes at the plate, Smith was lauded for his glove work at first base, where he produced five Defensive Runs Saved and was a calming influence for young infielders CJ Abrams, Luis García and Carter Kieboom.

Smith was eligible for arbitration and was projected to make roughly $4 million through that process. Now, the Nationals will be in the market for a new first baseman for the second straight offseason, likely prioritizing power from that corner position to help bolster a lineup that hit a National League-worst 151 homers this year. They could also move Joey Meneses full-time to first base and seek a new designated hitter.

There are two significant roster-related deadline days across baseball this week. On Friday, all teams must tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players, with the possibility looming that some could be non-tendered. But before we get to that, today all teams must decide which of their prospects they want to add to their 40-man rosters in order to protect them from being lost in the Rule 5 draft.

This is a day that usually didn’t garner much attention from the Nationals’ perspective when they were consistent contenders and basically sat out the Rule 5 draft for a decade. But it became important again last year, both because they owned (and used) the No. 1 pick in the draft and because they had a high number of prospects they wanted to protect, forcing them to part ways with several big leaguers.

A refresher course, for those who don’t remember how this works: The Rule 5 draft gives teams the opportunity to select unprotected minor leaguers away from other clubs for $100,000, with one critical caveat: Any player selected must remain on the major league roster the entire season (90 days on the active roster) or else be offered back to the original club.

The Nats, who hadn’t selected a Rule 5 player since 2010, finally got back in the game last year by taking Thaddeus Ward with the first overall pick. The right-hander missed several months with a shoulder injury but met the required standard by staying on the active roster enough to remain with the organization, which can now option him to Triple-A if it wants.

The Nationals did not, however, have anyone selected away from them in last year’s Rule 5 draft, evidence perhaps of some smart decisions they made to protect certain players and perhaps of the lack of big-league-ready talent further down the organizational depth chart.

When the Nationals lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Brewers was published and Jeimer Candelario’s name wasn’t included, all eyes in the home clubhouse immediately turned toward the third baseman’s locker. Candelario, for the record, was there, in his usual Nats gear, preparing for batting practice.

Three hours later, he was no longer a National.

The Nats finalized a trade with the Cubs shortly before tonight’s game that will send Candelario back to the organization he began his career with, receiving two prospects in return, the club announced.

Kevin Made, a 20-year-old shortstop who was the Cubs’ 14th-ranked prospect, and DJ Herz, a 22-year-old left-hander who was their 16th-ranked prospect, will now join the Nationals organization.

Candelario was far and away the most likely Nationals player to be dealt before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline. A number of teams, headlined by the Angels and Yankees, reportedly were interested in the 29-year-old, who entered the day with an .823 OPS, 30 doubles, 16 homers, 53 RBIs and 3.3 bWAR in 99 games played.