We’re less than a month away from the start of spring training and there are still plenty of questions swirling around the baseball offseason.

As it pertains to the Nationals, we know you still have a lot of questions before the team reports to West Palm Beach next month. Mark Zuckerman’s weekly Q&A sessions with readers have been filled with your inquiries on the club’s roster, farm system and projections for the 2025 season.

But this morning, I had the thought to turn the tables on you, the readers.

Here are some Nats-related questions for you to ponder and answer in the comments section below:

Which offseason addition (so far) will have the biggest impact this season?

The initial reaction for many to the Nationals and Nathaniel Lowe filing for arbitration Thursday night was one of incredulity. This is really how they’re going to treat their biggest offseason acquisition, by haggling over money and taking him to court?

It’s admittedly not a great look when a team can’t work out a contract with any player and has to rely on the arbitration process to determine that player’s salary. Even more so when that player is brand new and doesn’t already have some kind of established relationship with the club.

But let’s not get too worked up about this. It may not look great on the surface, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s actually not that uncommon. And there’s a decent chance this saga doesn’t even end with a hearing.

The Nationals had six arbitration-eligible players they needed to work out 2025 salaries with before Thursday’s deadline. They managed to settle on deals with five of the six: Luis García Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Josiah Gray, Derek Law and Riley Adams. They could not get a deal done with Lowe, the 29-year-old first baseman acquired from the Rangers last month for reliever Robert Garcia.

So the two sides had to formally file for arbitration, with Lowe seeking a salary of $11.1 million and the Nats countering with an offer of $10.3 million, according to MLB.com. A hearing will be set for early February, with a three-judge panel ultimately deciding which side wins.

It’s arbitration deadline day across Major League Baseball, the day when hundreds of players either agree with their clubs on 2025 salaries or file for arbitration.

The decisions made today don’t change the contractual status of any player. All are already under club control and don’t have the ability to leave. Teams can’t decide now to release them, having already announced plans to tender them contracts in November. The only thing determined today (or later, if cases go to arbitration) is the players’ salary figures for the upcoming season.

And yet, the way this day proceeds often tells us a lot about the relationship between players and teams, and whether the two sides value each other in a comparable way or not.

Who’s impacted by this deadline? It’s anyone with at least three years but fewer than six years of big league service time, plus the top 22 percent of players with at least two years of service time (the so-called “Super-2” players).

The Nationals entered the offseason with nine arbitration-eligible players: Kyle Finnegan, Luis Garcia Jr., Josiah Gray, Derek Law, MacKenzie Gore, Riley Adams, Ildemaro Vargas, Tanner Rainey and Mason Thompson. Finnegan and Rainey, however, were non-tendered, and Vargas was cut loose as well, bringing the number down to six.

The Nationals entered the offseason knowing they needed to bolster their lineup, especially in the power department. They have made two prominent additions so far, trading for Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and bringing back old friend Josh Bell to serve as designated hitter in his second go-around with the club.

Will those two make a substantial difference to a lineup desperate for more production? If they duplicate their 2024 performances, yes, they should make a difference. Though improvement is still needed elsewhere in the lineup.

It’s worth noting how much (or how little) production the Nationals got from their first basemen and designated hitters last season. Their first basemen combined for a .686 OPS, which ranked 22nd among major league teams. Their collective 0.3 bWAR ranked 21st out of 30 teams. Meanwhile, their assortment of DHs combined for a woeful .615 OPS (28th in the majors) and 0.1 bWAR (25th).

Yeah, that’s bottom-of-the-barrel production out of two of the most important offensive positions in baseball.

Lowe and Bell may not be superstars, but they’re clearly better than what the Nats had in 2024.

It’s officially 2025 now, and that means a fresh start and raised expectations for a Nationals club that made strides in 2024 but still hasn’t climbed all the way out of the franchise rebuild they first embarked on in July 2021.

This is the year, everyone hopes, when the Nats end their streak of five consecutive losing seasons. This is the year, everyone hopes, when they return to contention for the first time since 2019. This is the year, everyone hopes, when their new core of young players realizes its full potential and leads the club to heights not experienced since the last star-studded core did it over an eight-season run of success.

And this is the year, everyone hopes, when the Nationals start adding established big leaguers via free agency and/or trade to bolster that promising young core.

Alas, that didn’t happen during the final two months of 2024. The Nats made very little news through all of November and the majority of December, but the final two weeks finally saw a flurry of activity with the acquisitions of four major league players.

It began with the signing of Michael Soroka to a one-year, $9 million contract, giving the pitching staff a former All-Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up whose career in Atlanta was sidetracked by freak injuries but may have been rejuvenated late last season in the White Sox bullpen.

Nathaniel Lowe wasn’t exactly shocked when he got the news Sunday.

The Rangers first baseman had already seen his team acquire corner infielder Jake Burger from the Marlins this month, and there were rumblings they were in the market for Joc Pederson as well. He seemed to be getting squeezed out of his everyday job, maybe squeezed out of Texas altogether.

So when his phone rang Sunday and the caller ID showed “Chris Young,” Lowe correctly guessed he had just been traded. The only question was where he was going.

“When you see the GM’s phone pop up in the middle of winter, that’s kind of usually how that goes. It’s my second time getting traded in the winter,” Lowe said during a Zoom call with reporters Monday. “I’m excited for a new opportunity. And when he said I was going to Washington, I was like: ‘Let’s go for it!’”

Acquired by the Nationals for reliever Robert Garcia, Lowe has had 24 hours to process the news and look forward to a new challenge. The 29-year-old is embracing this one, in large part because it stirs up echoes of his joining the Rangers in 2021 after getting limited playing time the previous two seasons with the Rays.

For two months, we knew the Nationals’ biggest offseason need was a first baseman. And for two months, we waited and waited and waited to see who Mike Rizzo would acquire for that all-important position.

In the end, he didn’t sign one of the big-name (aka high-priced) free agents. Pete Alonso remains unsigned, with a return to the Mets perhaps the likeliest outcome. Christian Walker is now an Astro, getting three years and $60 million.

Nor did Rizzo sign one of the second-tier, fallback options in free agency. Paul Goldschmidt went to the Yankees for one year and $12.5 million. Carlos Santana went to the Guardians for one year and $12 million, shortly after Cleveland traded Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks.

In the end, Rizzo went the trade route himself, snagging Nathaniel Lowe from the Rangers for Robert Garcia on Sunday evening in a deal that finally addressed his team’s biggest need while at the same time creating additional need at another critical position: reliever.

Who is Lowe? He’s a 29-year-old, lefty-hitting, righty-throwing native of Norfolk, Va., who went to high school in suburban Atlanta and played in college at Mississippi State before the Rays used their 13th-round pick on him in the 2016 draft. After getting a taste of the big leagues in 2019-20, the Rays traded him to the Rangers, who gave him the opportunity to play every day.

The Washington Nationals acquired first baseman Nathaniel Lowe from the Texas Rangers in exchange for left-handed pitcher Robert Garcia on Sunday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

Lowe, 29, won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2023, a Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award in 2022, and was a member of the 2023 World Champion Texas Rangers. In 2024, he paced the Rangers and ranked in the American League in walks (6^th, 71) and on-base percentage (9^th, .361). His .361 on-base percentage ranked second among American League first basemen, while his .762 OPS ranked third. Lowe’s 12.6% walk rate ranked fourth in all of Major League Baseball.

In his fourth season in Texas in 2024, Lowe hit .265 with 16 doubles, one triple, 16 home runs, 69 RBI, 71 walks, two stolen bases and 62 runs scored in 140 games. He ranked second among American League first basemen with seven outs above average and fourth with a .995 fielding percentage. Lowe is under club control through the 2026 season.

The left-handed hitting Lowe is a career .272/.356/.433 hitter with 114 doubles, 10 triples, 89 home runs, 329 RBI, 314 walks and 334 runs scored in 686 games across six Major League seasons with Texas (2021-24) and Tampa Bay. A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Lowe was originally selected by the Rays in the 13^th round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Mississippi State University.

The Nationals have acquired a much-needed first baseman. Not via free agency, but trade.

The club finalized a deal this evening that will bring former Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Award winner Nathaniel Lowe to Washington in exchange for left-hander Robert Garcia, a trade that fills a major hole in the roster but also creates another hole in an already thin bullpen.

Having seen a flurry of top free agent first basemen (Christian Walker, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana) sign elsewhere in the last 48 hours, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo instead turned to the trade market to fill what arguably was his roster’s biggest hole. He found a willing partner in Rangers GM Chris Young.

Lowe, 29, isn’t as well-known as the aforementioned free agents, but he’s put together a solid career both at the plate and in the field. Over parts of six big league seasons with the Rays and Rangers, he owns a .272/.356/.433 slash line, having averaged 26 doubles, 20 homers and 75 RBIs each over the last four years.

A left-handed batter and right-handed fielder, Lowe’s best season at the plate came in 2022, when he hit 27 homers with a .302 batting average and .851 OPS to win the American League Silver Slugger Award at his position. He followed that up with his best defensive season in 2023, winning the Gold Glove Award for the World Series champions while leading all AL first basemen in putouts, assists, double plays and Fielding Runs Above Average.