JUPITER, Fla. – The finish line keeps inching closer. The Nationals have only five more games to play down here in Florida, then one final exhibition Monday in D.C. Which means we’re starting to see the regulars play more regularly, not to mention play more innings per game.

Most of the starters are in today’s lineup against the Cardinals, with only CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr. and Keibert Ruiz getting the day off. That will give Dylan Crews a chance to lead off. Davey Martinez is also trying out Josh Bell in the No. 3 spot in front of Nathaniel Lowe. That’s an arrangement he said we could see sometimes this season against lefties, which explains why we’re seeing it today against St. Louis veteran Steven Matz.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for his fifth start of the spring, and as was the case last year the right-hander has been outstanding down here. Irvin sports a 0.84 ERA and 1.125 WHIP over 10 2/3 innings, though strangely he has walked six while striking out only five. Look for him to try to reach the sixth inning today, provided he can keep his pitch count below triple digits.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, Jupiter
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: MLB.com (Cardinals’ feed)
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind 14 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
2B José Tena
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez
C Andrew Knizner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Who’s ready for some more baseball? The venues have switched, but the teams remain the same as the Nationals and Marlins play the second half of their day-night, split-squad doubleheader, this time at the friendly confines of CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.

With Mitchell Parker having looked pretty sharp in today’s matinee, there’s some increased pressure on Shinnosuke Ogasawara to perform better tonight. The Japanese left-hander hasn’t blown anyone’s socks off so far in his first three spring training starts. At some point as we move into mid-March, results do start to matter.

The top of the lineup features the big boys, headlined by the enticing 1-2-3 of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood. Luis García Jr. and Jacob Young are also starting tonight against Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS (ss) vs. MIAMI MARLINS (ss)
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EDT
TV: None
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain ending, 73 degrees, wind 21 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
DH Andrés Chaparro
2B Luis García Jr.
3B Amed Rosario
1B Juan Yepez
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Hello once again from sunny South Florida. It’s good to be back after a short respite at home. Many thanks as always to Bobby Blanco for a dynamite job covering the team all week in my stead.

The Nationals are back home with a night game against the Mets, and most of the regulars are in there for this one. That includes, for the first time this spring, the 1-2-3 of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood atop Davey Martinez’s lineup. That seems to be the order they have in mind to open the season, if everyone’s healthy and productive. We’ll see how they look against New York right-hander Paul Blackburn this evening.

Trevor Williams gets the ball for the Nats in his third outing of the spring. The veteran right-hander gave up a costly, two-run homer to the Marlins in his debut. He then held the Astros to one run over 2 1/3 innings last time out, but did give up five hits and a walk in the process. Williams faces a New York lineup tonight featuring Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and old pal Joey Meneses.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EST
TV: None
Radio: 980 AM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
CF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
2B Luis García Jr.
RF Alex Call
DH Andrés Chaparro
C Andrew Knizner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – MacKenzie Gore entered spring training as the presumed Opening Day starter for the Nationals. Patrick Corbin is no longer here and Josiah Gray is going to miss at least the first half of the season due to injury.

So the 26-year-old left-hander with electric, albeit inconsistent stuff is a likely choice to take the ball for the regular season opener against the Phillies.

First, he had to make the first of his handful of Grapefruit League starts Saturday in a 7-0 win over the Marlins at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Gore was originally scheduled to start last weekend’s spring opener, but his debut was pushed back so he could build up and go multiple innings against an actual opponent.

“Yeah, it was good,” Gore said after his outing. “It was good to finally get back out here. So yeah, I felt good.”

Gore completed three shutout innings with two hits, one walk, four strikeouts and one wild pitch. The free pass came against the Marlins’ first batter of the game, Xavier Edwards, and Gore issued first-pitch balls to three other batters over the course of the night as well. But once the southpaw settled in, he looked like his usual self getting some ugly swings against some nasty pitches.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – After starting Grapefruit League play 3-0, the Nationals have now dropped four straight games. Not that spring training records mean anything, but you would like to get back in the win column sooner rather than later.

Tonight’s game against the Marlins provides a perfect opportunity to do that.

The Nationals dominated the Marlins last year, winning 11 of their 13 matchups. And they’ve already beat up on the Fish this spring with a 14-7 win in Jupiter on Tuesday.

MacKenzie Gore also dominated the Marlins last year, going 2-0 with 24 strikeouts to four walks and only allowing two earned runs over 19 innings (0.95 ERA). There are a lot of new and relatively unknown names in Miami’s lineup tonight, so this should be the perfect opponent for the young lefty to start his spring action on a positive note.

Gore was originally slated to start the Nats’ Grapefruit League opener a week ago against the Astros. But after he talked with manager Davey Martinez, the Nats decided to bump him back because the southpaw wanted to be able to go multiple innings in his first actual spring start. So look for Gore to go at least two frames tonight, perhaps three (as Michael Soroka did this afternoon) if his domination of the Marlins continues in quick fashion.

JUPITER, Fla. – The Nationals are now known for their speed. They made a point to take advantage of their youth and the new rules that encourage basestealing to swipe a major league-best 223 bags last year.

But that young speed manifests itself defensively, too.

The Nats’ projected starting outfield of James Wood in left, Jacob Young in center and Dylan Crews in right boasts three of the fastest guys on the team. And with all three having extensive experience playing center field, manager Davey Martinez feels very confident they have the entire outfield covered.

“When I look at it, all three of them were center fielders. So you potentially have three center fielders playing together, which is pretty awesome,” the skipper said before today’s split-squad doubleheader against the Cardinals and Marlins. “Those guys, I told them I expect them to get to everything. I really do. And they do. They're really good out there when you watch them play together. Jacob does a great job of moving them around. They follow Jacob's suit. They understand that he is the center fielder. He takes control and takes command out there, which is awesome.”

Young’s first full season as a major league center fielder was one of the best defensive seasons the Nats have ever seen.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals play their first night game of the spring, with the Braves making a rare visit from all the way across the state. Atlanta isn’t sending a whole lot of big names, aside from Marcell Ozuna, but they do have Bryce Elder on the mound, which should make for a nice challenge for the Nats lineup.

Davey Martinez does have plenty of regulars in his batting order, pretty much everyone but James Wood (who is set to DH on Friday in his delayed spring debut) and Keibert Ruiz (who caught Wednesday). So we’ll get multiple at-bats tonight from CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell and Luis García Jr.

Jake Irvin, meanwhile, becomes the first member of the rotation to make his second start of the spring. The right-hander should be good to go two innings in this one as he continues the slow build-up to regular-season form.

Tonight’s game is available live on MLB Network, if you’re interested in watching.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EST
TV: MLB Network (Braves’ feed)
Radio: MLB.com (Braves’ feed)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 76 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

JUPITER, Fla. – It’s only three games, and it’s only spring training, so take everything with a healthy grain of salt. Now, having made that all-important caveat, here’s what you should know: The Nationals are off to a great start to the Grapefruit League season.

With convincing victories over the Astros, Mets and Marlins, the Nats are 3-0 in exhibition play, having outscored their opponents 31-16. They’re averaging more than 10 runs scored per game. And their starting pitching, while taking on a minimal workload at this early stage, has pitched quite well.

“We’re really preaching getting good pitches to hit,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We’re getting balls in the zone, and we’re making good contact, which is great. That’s what we’re talking about: We’ve got to have better swing decisions. And the last couple days, I’ve seen a lot better decision-making when the ball’s in the zone.”

As a team, the Nationals are batting .321 (second-best in the majors), with a .419 on-base percentage (best in the majors) and .924 OPS (also best in the majors). They’re the only team averaging 10 runs per game. They’re even a perfect 10-for-10 on stolen base attempts.

There’s plenty to like on an individual level, as well. Andres Chaparro is 4-for-7 with a homer and four RBIs. Jacob Young is 3-for-6 with a homer and two steals. Dylan Crews is 3-for-6 with a triple, an RBI, two walks and two steals. Robert Hassell III is 4-for-9 with two doubles, a homer, five RBIs and a steal. Josh Bell is 3-for-7 with a double, two RBIs and a walk. Nathaniel Lowe has reached base in all three of his plate appearances. Alex Call has reached base in five of his.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It wasn’t the kind of hit most will remember. Dylan Crews has and will hit plenty more pitches a lot harder and create a lot more damage than he did with the slider he got from Astros reliever Miguel Castro in the Nationals’ exhibition opener Saturday afternoon.

But ask Crews about that bloop RBI single over a drawn-in infield and his eyes immediately light up. He knows how important that seemingly nondescript moment on Feb. 22 was in the broader scale of his development as a major leaguer.

“For sure,” he said. “I think you learn something new every day. I’m trying to get better every day, and this is why we’re doing this right now in spring training. Trying to really just look at the details of what the game’s providing you, and then trying to succeed as much as you can. So then when you get to the season, they just almost happen naturally.”

Why was that bloop base hit so significant? Because of the situation it came in (runner on third, less than two outs) and because of the type of pitch it came on (an 0-2 slider off the plate).

Crews did a lot of things well in his first five weeks in the big leagues last fall. He smoked fastballs with authority. He excelled in right field. He ran the bases well.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Robert Hassell III has been here before. One year ago, in his spring training debut, the Nationals prospect went 2-for-3 with a triple. Three days later, he homered. By the end of March, he sported a .357 batting average and 1.198 OPS.

So there was a comfort level for Hassell when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a tie game this afternoon. Sure, he was annoyed at striking out in his first at-bat back in the fifth and lining out his next time up in the eighth. Here, though, was another opportunity to make a statement.

And that’s just what Hassell did, driving a two-out, two-strike pitch from Astros reliever Joey Mancini off the left field wall for a three-run double, the decisive blow in the Nats’ 6-3 victory to open the Grapefruit League season.

“I think I’m more prepared, for sure,” he said when asked to compare this spring to the previous one. “I think last year, they were coming right at me, the pitchers were. It wasn’t too fast for me, but just like today, I was getting down in counts a little bit. But I’m definitely more comfortable just from being here, for sure.”

A year ago, Hassell wasn’t able to parlay a strong spring into a strong regular season. Hampered yet again by a persistent hand injury, he was limited to 85 games between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester. He batted just .241, slugged just .328, totaled just 16 extra-base hits in 362 plate appearances.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If there was any reason to debate who will hold the top spot in the Nationals’ batting order to begin the season, Davey Martinez put it to rest today with a fairly definitive revelation.

“CJ is going to lead off,” the eighth-year manager said. “The 3-4-5 will be kind of different. The 2-spot might be a little different at times. But we do know CJ’s going to lead off for us, and we’ll go with that for now.”

So there you have it: CJ Abrams will reclaim the leadoff spot he held for the majority of the 2024 season but did lose at one point when he was struggling at the plate.

The Nats have long believed in Abrams as their long-term answer at the top of the lineup. And over a 13-month stretch from July 2023 into August 2024, he held that job nearly every day, batting .252 with a .318 on-base percentage, .441 slugging percentage, 111 runs scored, 35 doubles, nine triples, 28 homers, 89 RBIs and 56 stolen bases.

But Abrams’ second half slump last summer prompted Martinez to move him out of the leadoff spot for a while, giving him a chance to clear his mind and hopefully get himself back on track. During that stretch – and during the final week of September after Abrams was demoted to the minors for disciplinary reasons – rookie Dylan Crews took over the No. 1 position in the order.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If you can’t be optimistic on the first day of spring training, what’s even the point?

So obviously the Nationals were optimistic Wednesday as pitchers and catchers officially reported, with a plethora of position players also already on hand at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches several days before they are required to be here.

But they also have legitimate reason to be optimistic about the upcoming season. Three years into the franchise’s rebuild, they look around the clubhouse and see a room full of promising players who could come together to produce the team’s next contender.

“Absolutely. We’ve got incredible, young, talented players here now,” right-hander Jake Irvin said. “There’s no reason we can’t win right away.”

The Nationals haven’t had a winning record since they won the World Series in 2019. They bottomed out in 2022 at an abysmal 55-107, then rebounded to go 71-91 the following season. An identical record in 2024 wasn’t what anyone had in mind, but it can be reasonably argued it still represented progress because of the arrival of several top prospects, headlined by James Wood and Dylan Crews.

Spring training, believe it or not, starts three weeks from today when pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach, Fla. It’s hard to believe that, because it feels like the Nationals still have plenty of work to do between now and then, with a roster that still includes several glaring holes.

Maybe there are moves to come between now and Feb. 12. Or maybe there are moves to come after camp begins, as we’ve seen in several recent years. Regardless, we’re close enough now to start looking at the roster as currently constructed and wonder how it will compare with the one we saw in 2024.

The Nats’ goal – every team’s goal, for that matter – is to field a better team this season than last season. That can be accomplished through additions from the outside. It can also be accomplished by improvement from within. In this case, the Nationals are going to need both to come true if they want to make a necessary leap from back-to-back, 71-win seasons and approach (or even surpass) the coveted 81-win mark.

Are they positioned to pull that off? Let’s go position by position, determining if they should be better, worse or the same at each spot in 2025 …

CATCHER: Slightly better
The Nationals didn’t get nearly enough last season out of their catchers, who combined to bat .229 with a .269 on-base percentage, 16 homers and 63 RBIs. Keibert Ruiz, of course, was the primary culprit because he played the most games. But Riley Adams was a big disappointment as well, and Drew Millas didn’t show a whole lot when he got his opportunities after Adams was demoted to Triple-A. The Nats need improvement all around here, and it almost certainly has to come from within. Ruiz remains the No. 1 catcher, and there will be real pressure on him to be better in every way. You’d like to believe that’s more likely than a repeat performance from 2024.

Scan the Nationals’ current roster, and it’s easy to lump young, core players into one of three categories: Those who were acquired via the draft, those who were acquired via trade and those who were acquired via international signing.

That final group, the international free agents, is by far the smallest group, which underscores just how difficult it is to discover and sign good players from other countries at age 16 and then develop them into big leaguers. But it is a vital part of roster building, and the Nats know they need to improve in that area just as they’ve been trying to improve in the drafting and developing of young American players.

The two notable homegrown Latin American players currently on the major league roster are Luis García Jr. and Jose A. Ferrer. García, still only 24, was signed out of the Dominican Republic for $1.3 million way back in 2016, making him the longest tenured player in the entire organization. Ferrer, also 24, was signed one year later in 2017 for a mere $100,000.

Also on the 40-man roster is Andry Lara, the Venezuelan right-hander signed in 2019 for $1.25 million who finally enjoyed his breakthrough season and earned a promotion to Double-A Harrisburg.

But that’s it on the 40-man roster. Other recent Latin American signees like Armando Cruz (21), Jeremy De La Rosa (23), Cristhian Vaquero (20) and Victor Hurtado (17) are still either in the lower levels of the minors or haven’t performed well enough yet to climb the organizational ladder.

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2024. We conclude the series today with the long-awaited arrival of James Wood and Dylan Crews to the big leagues …

For three years, the Nationals’ best pitch to fans and the baseball world in general was to ask for patience. The franchise had torn down its championship roster, and it would take some time for the next generation of potential stars to rise through the ranks and take over in D.C.

It’s not easy to be patient, especially when it pertains to a ballclub that enjoyed eight straight winning seasons (five of those resulting in playoff berths) before falling into five consecutive losing seasons (one of which featured a club-record 107 losses). But the Nats insisted there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And the best evidence of that came this summer with the long-awaited promotions of two of the best prospects in baseball.

When James Wood debuted on July 1 and Dylan Crews followed on Aug. 26, the Nationals entered a new phase of the rebuild. They weren’t a winning team yet, far from it. But the addition of two elite young players to a roster already filled with other potential building blocks felt extra significant. For the first time since the teardown began in July 2021, the field was awash not in veterans set to be flipped at the trade deadline, not in stopgap solutions who had no real future here. No, everyone on the field had a chance to be part of the next winning team in D.C.

“They’re going to grow together,” manager Davey Martinez said at the conclusion of Crews’ first full series. “We’re going to do some really good things, and a lot faster than people think.”

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.

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.

Organizational prospect rankings, by their nature, are going to fluctuate year to year. And this has especially been true for the Nationals, who have seen their farm system completely overhauled in recent seasons.

As recently as 2021, the organization’s top 10 list (as compiled by Baseball America) was headlined by three homegrown pitchers (Cade Cavalli, Jackson Rutledge, Cole Henry) and two internationally signed infielders (Yasel Antuna, Armando Cruz).

Only two years later, that list looked totally different, bolstered by the additions of top prospects acquired in the Juan Soto trade (James Wood, Robert Hassell III) and more recent first round draft picks (Elijah Green, Brady House).

The top-tier talent perhaps peaked one year ago, when Dylan Crews and Yoyo Morales joined Wood, House and Cavalli to create a pretty impressive one through five.

Now, with Baseball America releasing a new top prospects list within the last week, there’s a whole new set of promising young players busting down the doors, with five of the new top 10 having been acquired by the Nationals in the last 16 months alone.

I want to thank reader and commenter Peter Wood for posing this question back in September that I thought was an interesting topic to address in the offseason: Who do we think will have a better career, Dylan Crews or Jackson Holliday?

It is, of course, way too early to make any proclamation one way or the other. But with each playing a substantial amount in the major leagues this season, there are significant data points to start the conversation.

Crews and Holliday are both highly touted young players and former No. 1 overall prospects in the sport. The Nationals got Crews out of Louisiana State with the No. 2 overall pick in 2023. Holliday, out of Stillwater High School in Oklahoma, was the No. 1 overall selection when the Orioles drafted him in 2022.

Both youngsters were anticipated to make their big league debuts this year, which they did. In fact, they each had a shot at making his respective team’s Opening Day roster. Many around the league believed that leaving Holliday off the Orioles roster to start the season was a surprising snub.

And so it was that both prospects started the year in the minor leagues, with Crews at Double-A Harrisburg and Holliday at Triple-A Norfolk.

PLAYER REVIEW: DYLAN CREWS

Age on Opening Day 2025: 23

How acquired: First-round pick, 2023 Draft

MLB service time: 35 days

2024 salary: $740,000