WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Cade Cavalli will require season-ending Tommy John surgery, a crushing blow to the Nationals and their top pitching prospect two weeks before Opening Day.

An MRI of Cavalli’s right elbow revealed a Grade 3 sprain, which is a complete tear, of the ulnar collateral ligament. Had it been a lesser-grade sprain, it’s possible Cavalli could have avoided surgery and attempted to return sooner via rest and rehab. The complete tear requires surgery to replace the ligament.

“While Cade will not pitch in 2023, he continues to be a very important part of our franchise’s future,” general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement released by the team, “and we look forward to having him back on the mound.”

The Nationals’ first-round pick in the 2020 draft, Cavalli was making his fourth appearance of the spring Tuesday afternoon and looked dominant through his first 2 2/3 innings, allowing only one of the nine Mets batters he faced to reach base. But then he threw an 87 mph changeup to Brandon Nimmo that sailed high and away of the New York leadoff man, began shaking his right arm and paced around the mound, hunching over in pain.

Manager Davey Martinez, head athletic trainer Paul Lessard and catcher Keibert Ruiz converged around Cavalli, and though the pitcher wanted to try to throw a warmup toss, he was told he needed to depart the game alongside Lessard.

It's Christmas morning, and all who celebrate are rushing to see if their holiday wishes were placed under the tree.

For the Nationals, that could have been any number of things coming off a 107-loss year.

But like every major league team over the course of a 162-game season, the Nationals dealt with their fair share of injuries this year.

In fact, they placed 24 different players on the injured list for 25 different stints, with Stephen Strasburg landing on the 10-day IL at the start of the season while recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome, and then on the 60-day IL with a stress reaction in his ribs after his lone start in June.

Those 24 players combined to miss 1,778 games for the Nationals in 2022. So like many, the Nats may be wishing for better health in 2023.

Sean Doolittle will have season-ending surgery to repair the partial tear of his elbow ligament that he hoped to return from this year, believing the operation will allow him to return healthy in time for spring training.

The surgery, an internal brace procedure in which a collagen-soaked wrap is placed around the ulnar collateral ligament, is less invasive than Tommy John surgery, with recovery expected to be five to seven months instead of 12 to 18 months. By having it done now, Doolittle sees a path to be ready for the start of the 2023 season.

“I feel really good about it,” the left-hander said. “I don’t feel good about getting surgery. I feel really good that this is the right course of action for me right now at this point in my career, at this point in this process with my elbow. As far as I’m looking at it, 2023 starts right now. I’m viewing this as a long, extended ramp-up into the season next year.”

Doolittle initially landed on the injured list in April after five consecutive scoreless appearances with what was deemed a partial tear of the UCL. With consultation from doctors, he attempted to avoid surgery with a rehab program that included a platelet-rich plasma injection. He began building up his arm strength again, and last week threw off a bullpen mound for the first time and was pleased with how he felt physically during it.

But as he continued to ramp up, he began experiencing the same elbow soreness he had in April, and that was a red flag to him. A new MRI was taken and sent to doctors, who found no more serious tear but not enough healing of the original tear to believe it was wise to continue pitching.

MINNEAPOLIS – Infielder Ramón Urías is expected to begin his injury rehab assignment tonight with Double-A Bowie.

Urías hasn’t played since June 9 due to a strained left oblique. Jonathan Araúz and Tyler Nevin are handling third base, and Richie Martin is available to share second base duties with Rougned Odor.

Starter Kyle Bradish threw on flat ground yesterday without any discomfort in his right shoulder, and he’ll have a bullpen session Sunday morning.

“Encouraged by both of those things,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “Good to see Kyle start to get ramped up a little bit, going through his throwing progression, and Ramón in some game action.”

“Hopefully there aren’t any setbacks and he stays healthy during his rehab assignment.”

Stephen Strasburg was already in the home clubhouse at Nationals Park by the time Sunday’s 6-5 victory over the Rockies was completed, the traffic on northbound Interstate-95 apparently not nearly as awful as you’d typically expect it to be on a holiday weekend.

While the Nats were hanging on to beat Colorado and earn their first home series win of the season, Strasburg was making his second rehab start for Single-A Fredericksburg. And unlike his uneven first outing Tuesday night, this time he dominated his far-less-experienced opponents.

Strasburg tossed five no-hit innings. He retired the first 14 batters before finally surrendering a walk with two outs in the fifth. He struck out six. He did all this in only 58 pitches (38 strikes). Suffice it to say, it was about as best-case scenario as you could draw up under the circumstances.

And most importantly, it moves the 33-year-old one step closer to rejoining the Nationals and finally making his 2022 debut.

Manager Davey Martinez has said he’d like Strasburg to be able to complete six innings and/or throw 90 pitches before coming off the injured list. After going five innings Sunday, he should be cleared to go six in his next outing. The pitch count progression might lag a bit behind; it’s tough to imagine the organization would let him throw more than 75 or so pitches next time out. But as efficient as he was in this one, it’s entirely possible he could complete six frames around that total.

MILWAUKEE – Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross are ready at last to pitch in games. Minor league games, to be sure, but that’s nonetheless a significant development for both Nationals right-handers as they move closer to making their 2022 major league debuts.

Strasburg and Ross will begin minor league rehab assignments Tuesday night, manager Davey Martinez revealed before today’s series finale against the Brewers. Strasburg will start for Single-A Fredericksburg, with Ross starting for Double-A Harrisburg.

Each hurler is scheduled to throw four innings and roughly 60 pitches in their first true game appearances following lengthy rehab stints at the Nationals’ spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“Now they’re actually competing in a regular scenario,” Martinez said. “You can’t take them out after 15-16 pitches an inning. They have to go out there and compete, and they have to get outs. They’re going out there to help our affiliate teams win. I want them to understand that they’ve got to go out and compete and help those teams win.”

Strasburg has been out since thoracic outlet surgery last summer. Ross has been out since suffering a sprained elbow ligament last summer and then having a bone spur removed from that elbow this spring. Each has been on the 60-day injured list and rehabbing in Florida, slowly building up from bullpen sessions to live batting practice to simulated games, the most recent of which took place Thursday.

When Hunter Harvey first felt what he described as a cramp in his right forearm during Wednesday night’s relief appearance, he knew he now faced a serious dilemma. Should he let the Nationals know he might be hurt, or should he try to pitch through it, knowing he was quickly establishing himself as one of the more trusted members of Davey Martinez’s bullpen only two weeks after joining the club?

Throughout his career with the Orioles, Harvey tended to keep these things to himself. That got him nowhere, aside from the injured list, usually for months at a time.

This time, he decided to speak up immediately. And though he’s now on the 10-day IL with a right pronator strain, he believes the stint will be brief because it’s being addressed now and not later.

“I’ve had too many times where I’ve felt stuff like this that I told them: ‘I think I can pitch with it; I don’t think it would be a problem,’ ” Harvey said. “But I’ve pitched with stuff like this before, and I’ll start doing something different trying to protect it and then I’ll end up blowing something out.”

Martinez certainly appreciated Harvey’s willingness to be forthcoming with his injury, an approach plenty of players in his position wouldn’t take.

Davey Martinez knew this might happen. He’d been through a condensed, three-week spring training in 1995 following the end of the players’ strike, and he remembered the physical damage that caused, on pitchers in particular, once the season began later than originally planned.

So the last thing Martinez is right now is surprised. He had a hunch some pitchers wouldn’t be ready for the regular season grind after the short camp. And wouldn’t you know what happened?

First it was right-hander Mason Thompson, who landed on the 10-day injured list April 10 with biceps tendinitis. Then came the back-to-back blows this week: Sean Doolittle, who sprained his left elbow ligament, followed by Hunter Harvey, who has a pronator strain in his right forearm.

“When I went through this as a player in ’95, (for) a lot of these pitchers, April was pretty strenuous,” Martinez said. “I don’t know if it’s anything related to the short spring training, but you’ve got to look at (that), trying to ramp these guys up. That being said, this is the reason we tried to have so many different options, in case something like this would happen.”

Thompson pitched twice in the season’s first three days before he was placed on the IL. Doolittle pitched in six of the Nats’ first 12 games before telling club officials about the elbow pain that was growing worse. And Harvey, who pitched four times in 10 days after he was called up from Triple-A Rochester, reported physical issues following Wednesday night’s game. By Thursday afternoon, he joined the others on the IL.

The Nationals were relieved to learn Josh Bell could return to today’s lineup after departing Wednesday night’s game with tightness in his left knee. They were not so relieved to learn another member of their bullpen is out with an arm ailment.

The Nats placed Hunter Harvey on the 10-day injured list shortly before today’s series finale against the Diamondbacks with a right pronator strain, a situation that appears to have just emerged within the last 24 hours after the hard-throwing reliever tossed a scoreless inning.

Harvey, the former Orioles first-round pick whose career has been beset by a smorgasbord of injuries, made four scoreless appearances since joining the Nationals bullpen during the season’s opening weekend. The 27-year-old was starting to earn his way into manager Davey Martinez’s good graces and perhaps start getting called upon in high-leverage situations, but something apparently didn’t feel right during Wednesday night’s game.

Harvey entered that outing averaging 97 mph on his fastball in his first three appearances. That number went down to 96 mph during Wednesday’s game, bottoming out at 94.3 mph on one of the 12 pitches he threw to three Arizona batters.

The pronator is part of the flexor mass group of muscles and tendons in the forearm, near the elbow. A pronator strain would be to one of the muscles in that area, not an uncommon injury for pitchers.