We’ve reached the final countdown to spring training, so we’re counting down the biggest storylines facing the Nationals this spring in West Palm Beach. We conclude today with the No. 1 issue that continues to hover over the entire franchise: the state of ownership …

When the Lerner family first let it be known publicly last April it was exploring a possible sale of the Nationals, the surprised reaction across the organization and throughout the baseball world was genuine. There had never been any prior indication the family had ever considered selling the team it purchased in 2006. It would continue to be handed down from one generation to the next, solidifying itself as a true Washington institution.

Ten months later, the greater surprise is the fact the Lerners still own the Nationals, with little reason to believe that’s going to change in the near future.

What figured to be a robust and timely process instead has dragged on nearly a full year. And as pitchers and catchers officially report to West Palm Beach, Fla., today for the start of spring training, the uncertain long-term state of ownership still looms large over everything.

The situation became even more uncertain Monday following the news of family patriarch Ted Lerner’s death at 97. Though the elder Lerner had ceded day-to-day control of the franchise to his son Mark nearly five years ago, he still was part of every major decision made by the ownership group. The sale process would not have happened without his full endorsement.

Theodore N. Lerner, the onetime usher at Griffith Stadium who went on to build a local real estate empire, then purchase the Nationals from Major League Baseball and watch the franchise win its first World Series title, has died. He was 97.

Mr. Lerner’s death, which came two days before pitchers and catchers are due to report for spring training, was announced by the club this morning.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Founding Managing Principal Owner, Theodore N. Lerner,” the Nationals said in a statement. “The crowning achievement of his family business was bringing baseball back to the city he loved - and with it, bringing a championship home for the first time since 1924. He cherished the franchise and what it brought to his beloved hometown.”

A lifelong Washingtonian who grew up rooting for local sports teams, Mr. Lerner was born Oct. 15, 1925, the same day the Senators lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Pirates, one year after the franchise won its one and only championship. He attended occasional games as a child and became a ballpark usher as a teenager, then like so many other area baseball fans was heartbroken when the second incarnation of the Senators relocated to Texas following the 1971 season.

By then, Mr. Lerner was already two decades into his professional career, having founded Lerner Enterprises in 1952 off a $250 loan from his wife, Annette, and built it into the largest private real estate company in the region.

We’ve reached the final countdown to spring training, so we’re counting down the biggest storylines facing the Nationals this spring in West Palm Beach. We continue today with a look at a rotation that is counting on the healthy return of multiple starters …

If the Nationals are going to show significant improvement in 2023, if this franchise is going to take a big step forward in its rebuilding process this year, it is almost certainly going to coincide with a major turnaround from what was the majors’ worst rotation in 2022.

What used to be the organization’s unquestioned strength was its unquestioned No. 1 weakness last season. The rotation finished with an abysmal 5.97 ERA, an abysmal 30-86 record and a 1.563 WHIP that was the worst mark by any major league rotation since the 2012 Rockies.

How could the situation improve this season? The best hope comes in the form of two young potential building blocks with all the ability in the world but little track record, at least while wearing a Nationals uniform.

Cade Cavalli made one start for the Nats last year. MacKenzie Gore made none. That won’t be the case this year. If it is, the franchise is in serious trouble.

We’ve reached the final countdown to spring training, so we’re counting down the biggest storylines facing the Nationals this spring in West Palm Beach. We continue today with a look at players not on the team’s 40-man roster who might still have a shot to make the Opening Day roster …

For a team coming off a miserable, 107-loss season, the Nationals don’t appear to have that many jobs up for grabs this spring. Assuming perfect health – it’s never a good idea to assume perfect health, by the way – we could probably pencil in nine everyday position players, five starting pitchers, at least four relievers and a couple bench guys before anyone has officially reported to West Palm Beach.

Which isn’t to suggest there can’t still be some surprises in store over the next six weeks. Or that everyone who heads north with the club has to come from the pre-existing 40-man roster.

The Nats haven’t formally announced how many players in total will be in big league camp, but we already know there will be a healthy number of players invited to compete who signed non-guaranteed, minor league deals over the winter. Some of them, actually, are very well-known players, including a couple with significant recent history with this organization.

None of these players is assured of a job come March 30, but all of them should have a legitimate chance to make their case to the coaching staff and front office this spring. And if anybody does enough to stand out from the crowd, there’s ample reason to believe a roster spot or two could be created for them.

We’ve reached the final countdown to spring training, so we’re counting down the biggest storylines facing the Nationals this spring in West Palm Beach. We begin today with a storyline that will impact every major league club this year: The implementation of several dramatic rule changes …

As long as baseball has existed, what has distinguished it from every other prominent team sport? No clock.

As long as anyone can remember, what has remained constant in this sport? The size of the bases.

As long as teams have been trying to record outs in the field, where have the seven players behind the pitcher positioned themselves? Anywhere they want, so long as they set up in fair territory.

Until now.

Pitchers and catchers don’t have to officially report to the Nationals’ facility in West Palm Beach until Tuesday. But it’s not uncommon to see guys start arriving a week or so early.

Josiah Gray is among those already down there getting ready for the start of camp. He joined “The Hot Stove Show” last week over Zoom from his back patio under cover from the sun after getting Florida license plates for his car.

Even professional athletes can’t avoid the pain of a trip to the DMV. A necessary evil to save the hassle for future spring trainings.

This will be Gray’s second spring training in West Palm Beach after coming over to the Nats in the blockbuster trade with the Dodgers in July 2021. And this time he’ll be looking to become one of the top pitchers in the starting rotation.

While a lot of focus will be on the Nats’ top prospects entering the second full season of this rebuild, attention will still be paid to the young players at the major league level to see how their development progresses, Gray included.

Well, we're almost there now. Pitchers and catchers (and yours truly) report to West Palm Beach in five days, with the first workout of the spring to come the following afternoon. A long, mostly uneventful winter has nearly come to an end, and the prospect of actual baseball is tantalizingly close at last.

We'll have plenty of spring training preview material in the coming days, but first let's take one last opportunity to answer your questions on the offseason, the upcoming season or anything else that catches your fancy. Preferably, it would be baseball-related.

As always, submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back throughout the morning for my replies ...

Fifty-five players appeared in a game for the Nationals last season, and six of them made their major league debuts in the process.

At least one of those debuts, by Cade Cavalli, was both expected and promoted. The others, though, came as something of a surprise, whether it was Lucius Fox making the Opening Day roster, Jackson Tetreault and Evan Lee getting summoned to start big league games after others got hurt, Israel Pineda getting a September call-up or Joey Meneses finally making it at age 30.

A 162-game season is full of twists and turns, and the 2022 season had no shortage of those from the Nationals’ perspective. And there’s every reason to believe the 2023 season will feature a number of debuts, of both the expected and the unexpected variety.

Who might we see don a curly W cap for the first time?

The likeliest candidate among the organization’s top prospects is Robert Hassell III, though the 21-year-old outfielder is hardly a lock to make it to D.C. this season.

There’s still time for things to change – for the team to sign another player or two, for others to make the club off minor-league deals, for someone to get hurt – but with eight days to go until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, we have a pretty good idea what the Nationals’ payroll is going to look like this season.

What it’s going to look like: A lot less than we’ve been accustomed to seeing from this franchise over the last decade.

Monday’s announcement that Victor Robles had avoided arbitration and agreed to a $2.325 million salary was the final significant piece to the puzzle. At this point, everybody who figures to make the Nats’ Opening Day roster either has a set salary or will be making close to the league minimum of $720,000.

And when you add up the salaries of the projected 26-man roster, plus a couple guys who will probably begin the season on the injured list, you get a grand total of $99,291,667. That’s a dramatic drop-off in salary commitments in the span of only two years.

The 2021 Nationals boasted an Opening Day payroll of $183,122,247, which ranked sixth out of 30 Major League Baseball clubs, according to Cot’s Contracts. That marked the ninth consecutive season they ranked among the top 11 teams in the sport in Opening Day payroll, the highest number coming in 2019 when they ranked fourth with a payroll of $197,203,691.

For the second straight year, the Nationals and Victor Robles filed for arbitration. And for the second straight year, they ultimately avoided an actual arbitration hearing, agreeing to a salary figure before reaching the courtroom.

The Nats announced today they settled with Robles on a one-year contract for 2023, while also agreeing to a club option for 2024.

The deal establishes a $2.325 million salary for Robles this season, according to the Associated Press, only slightly more than the $2.3 million the team was offering him through arbitration. Robles had been seeking $2.6 million, with a hearing before a three-judge panel set to take place in the coming days. 

This whole process, of course, was quite familiar to both parties. One year ago, Robles and the Nationals filed for arbitration, the player seeking $2.1 million while the team offered $1.6 million. They wound up settling at $1.65 million before going to a hearing.

Robles proceeded to labor through another frustrating season, batting a mere .224 with six homers, 33 RBIs, a .273 on-base percentage and career-worst .584 OPS across 407 plate appearances. He did rediscover his top defensive form in center field, finishing with 12 Defensive Runs Saved while being named a finalist for the Gold Glove Award.

As the start of spring training gets closer and closer – pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach in a mere nine days! – we’re looking at how unpredictable the upcoming season could be for each member of the Nationals’ potential roster on an individual basis.

With few established players that look like sure things entering the year, there’s a wide variance of possibilities in each case. We looked at the nine likely members of the lineup Friday. Today, we look at the pitchers most likely to be in the mix for spots on the Opening Day roster.

Here’s the best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2023 season for each of them …

MACKENZIE GORE
Best case: His elbow back to full health, the lefty picks up where he left off during the first half of last season in San Diego. Over 30 starts, he maintains an ERA around 3.00, striking out more than one batter per inning and establishing himself as the young leader of this rotation moving forward.
Worst case: A return of elbow discomfort would really be worst-case, but even if his arm feels fine there’s still a fear of diminished velocity and stamina. A fastball in the low 90s, combined with less-than-ideal command, could leave the Nationals questioning if he really will live up to his billing long-term.

CADE CAVALLI
Best case: Fresh off a restful winter, with his major league debut already behind him, Cavalli proves he’s ready to stick in the big league for the long haul. The Nats are still careful with his workload, limiting him to 26 starts or 140 innings, but he makes the most of those outings with a sub-3.50 ERA and more than 150 strikeouts.
Worst case: Even with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball, if he doesn’t maintain precise command, big league hitters will have success off that pitch. His secondary stuff helps bail him out sometimes, but a high WHIP leaves him looking like something less than a frontline starter.

The Nationals have added another experienced starter to a rotation depth chart that was lacking in that department, signing right-hander Chad Kuhl to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp later this month.

Kuhl, 30, has made 111 major league starts, the first 84 of which came for the Pirates from 2016-21. He spent last season with the Rockies, struggling to a 6-11 record and 5.72 ERA in 27 starts, though he did toss a three-hit shutout over the Dodgers on June 27 at Coors Field.

Kuhl actually totaled eight quality starts for Colorado, only one fewer than Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray produced for the Nationals.

Somewhat surprisingly, though, the right-hander fared worse on the road than he did at home, going 3-7 with a 6.32 ERA and 1.693 WHIP away from Coors Field while going 3-4 with a 5.04 ERA and 1.399 WHIP at mile-high altitude.

During his five seasons in Pittsburgh, Kuhl went 25-30 with a 4.44 ERA. His best performance came in 2017, when he went 8-11 with a 4.35 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 31 starts.

When Sean Doolittle was traded to the Nationals on July 16, 2017, it was for sure a major change in his career. He was going from the last-place Athletics to the first-place Nats.

What he probably didn’t know at the time was that it was a major life change for him and his soon-to-be wife, Eireann Dolan.

Doolittle brought a lot of value to the Nationals in that trade with the Athletics in that he was under team control for three more seasons after the 2017 campaign ended. After recording a 2.40 ERA and 21 saves to help the Nats win the National League East in 2017, he pitched to a 3.20 ERA and 1.047 WHIP while striking out 132 and walking just 25 with 54 saves over the next three seasons.

Of course, he helped the Nationals win the 2019 World Series, and he was given the Good Guy Award as voted on by members of the local media in each of his first three full seasons with the club.

This offseason, he added some new hardware to his mantle. Doolittle and Dolan were both included in a group of 11 locals who were named Washingtonians of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine in December. It’s an annual honor the publication awards to people “who make our region an even better place.”

It’s never easy trying to predict how any ballplayer is going to perform in the coming season, but it feels like an especially difficult task trying to guess how the members of the Nationals’ projected lineup will perform in 2023.

Seriously, is there one sure thing in the entire group? One guy you can definitively say will reach certain statistical mileposts? It sure doesn’t look like it.

On the bright side, there’s the possibility for a lot of these players to have big seasons, whether youngsters realizing their potential or experienced hitters finding the form they displayed only a few years ago. On the down side, there’s also the possibility of complete disaster, from flash-in-the-pan candidates to supposedly highly touted youngsters failing to take that critical next step and enjoy success in the majors.

There’s a wide variance of possibilities for the 2023 Nationals lineup. You can see that when running through each player’s potential best-case and worst-case scenario for the coming year …

KEIBERT RUIZ
Best case: Up to 120 games started, with a batting average over .275, an increase in power to get his slugging percentage over .400, one of the highest caught-stealing percentages in the league and his first career All-Star selection.
Worst case: Nagging injuries prevent him from catching 100 games, he makes too much weak contact and bats .250 again with a .360 slugging percentage. Loses his magic touch behind the plate and tries to compensate by throwing too many balls away for costly errors.

While numerous outlets are releasing their latest top prospects rankings leading up to the start of spring training, it’s easy to keep track of how the Nationals farm system is improving on paper. But a lot of work needs to continue throughout this rebuild behind the scenes. Improvements under the surface that won’t show up in any prospect rankings.

The Nationals announced on Wednesday their minor league player development staff for the 2023 season. The roster includes some familiar faces, new names and new positions. Overseeing all of it are president of baseball operations and general manager Mike Rizzo, entering this 15th season as the head man, and director of player development De Jon Watson, entering his second season in this position after spending five seasons as a special assistant to the GM.

The familiar names include Matt LeCroy (Triple-A Rochester), Mario Lisson (High-A Wilmington) and Jake Lowery (Single-A Fredericksburg) returning to manage their respective affiliates. Field coordinator Bob Henley, pitching coordinator Sam Narron and catching coordinator Randy Knorr continue their long careers with the organization. And fan favorite Gerardo Parra enters his first full season as special assistant to Rizzo after being named to the position last year.

A lot of new names are taking over the staff at Double-A Harrisburg, headlined by manager Delino DeShields replacing Tripp Keister, who was fired this offseason after 11 years with the organization. A first-round pick by the Expos in the 1987 draft, DeShields joins the Nats after spending the last 14 seasons in various roles in the Reds organization. Joel Hanrahan also joins Harrisburg as the pitching coach after flipping spots with Justin Lord, who now holds the same position at Fredericksburg.

Among the new roles added to the player development department this year are an assistant director of player development technology and strategy (Patrick Coghlan), a player development analyst (Allen Ho), a senior biomechanist (Bill Johnson), a biomechanist (Brittany Mills) and a performance analyst at each minor league affiliate. The performance analysts will help use data from the Hawk-Eye machines tracking players at Nationals Park, all of the organization's minor league stadiums and their facility in West Palm Beach.

The Nationals added another experienced pitcher to their growing spring training roster Tuesday, signing right-hander Wily Peralta to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.

Peralta, 33, joins an expanding list of veterans who will get a chance to compete for a spot on the Opening Day pitching staff, his addition coming on the heels of a comparable minor league contract given to reliever Alex Colome late last week.

It remains to be seen what kind of role the Nationals have in mind for Peralta, who has been a starter most of his career but pitched out of the bullpen last season for the Tigers.

A 17-game winner for the Brewers in 2014, Peralta has spent his entire career pitching in the Midwest. After six seasons in Milwaukee, he went to Kansas City in 2018 and served as a reliever for the Royals for two seasons. He then moved on to Detroit, initially signing minor league deals prior to both the 2021 and 2022 seasons but pitching his way onto the big league roster in each case.

Peralta compiled some disparate stats in 28 appearances last year. He posted an impressive 2.58 ERA but did so while seeing his WHIP climb to 1.513. The biggest problem: He walked 24 batters in only 38 1/3 innings.

There was a time, believe it or not, when Joe Ross looked like he might prove just as valuable to the Nationals as Trea Turner. Maybe even more so.

When Mike Rizzo swooped into trade talks between the Rays and Padres in December 2014 and helped those two teams complete a deal that sent Wil Myers to San Diego and several prospects to Tampa Bay, most attention was focused on Turner, who couldn’t even officially be part of the trade for another six months because he had just been drafted that year.

But Ross was no secondary piece. A first-round pick of the Padres himself, the right-hander was a highly touted prospect in his own right, and after posting impressive numbers at every level of the minors he earned a promotion to D.C. in June 2015.

Three starts into his big league career, Ross had two wins, a 2.66 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings. And by the end of the 2016 season, just as Turner was beginning to make a name for himself as a dynamic center fielder for the Nats, Ross was the proud owner of a 12-10 record, 3.52 ERA and 1.222 WHIP across 181 2/3 innings.

He looked like he was going to entrench himself as a key part of a star-studded Nationals rotation for years to come.

When he made the decision in July to have a relatively new and somewhat unproven procedure on his injured left elbow, Sean Doolittle was confident he’d be ready to pitch again come spring training. But because he was going to be a free agent at season’s end, he figured he’d still be unemployed in late-January, hoping he could show enough progress in his rehab to convince some club to sign him shortly before camps opened.

Instead, Doolittle found himself last week packing his things for an early departure to West Palm Beach, Fla. The left-hander and his wife, Eireen Dolan, are about to report to camp two weeks before pitchers and catchers are required to arrive, having known since early-November he was returning to the Nationals on a minor league deal with a good shot to make the Opening Day roster.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” Doolittle said in an interview for MASN’s Nationals Hot Stove Show. “I was mentally prepared to go through the offseason and then have to show teams I was ready for camp sometime in January or early-February. Maybe do like a showcase bullpen, or something like that. So it was best-case scenario when they reached out.”

Knowing he wouldn’t need to worry about where he was going to pitch in 2023, Doolittle instead spent all winter preparing himself to pitch again. After completing a five-month rehab program following the internal brace procedure he underwent in July, he began throwing off a bullpen mound just after Christmas. He has since thrown about 10 more, gradually increasing the volume and the intensity of his pitches.

All of which should leave Doolittle reporting for camp in shape no different than any other healthy pitcher on the roster.

In some respects, the Nationals’ signing of veteran reliever Alex Colomé to a minor league deal Friday makes perfect sense. Why wouldn’t this team take a chance on a 34-year-old with 159 saves and a 3.34 ERA over 446 career big league appearances, especially on a contract that won’t cost them anything unless he makes the club out of spring training?

But will he actually make the club? Is there room for Colomé in a bullpen that already looked plenty deep on paper prior to his signing?

The unquestioned strength of the Nationals during a dismal 2022 season, the bullpen returns almost entirely intact in 2023. Kyle Finnegan, Carl Edwards Jr. and Hunter Harvey all avoided arbitration and agreed to affordable one-year deals. Erasmo Ramirez, so valuable last season as a jack of all trades, re-signed for a guaranteed $1 million, with the possibility of earning another $1 million in incentives.

Mason Thompson, who impressed in limited big league time last season, is back and should be given a good look as a potential long-term piece. Thad Ward, the top pick in the Rule 5 draft, has to make the team and stay in the majors or else be offered back to the Red Sox. And conventional wisdom suggests the Nats will keep either Paolo Espino or Cory Abbott as a long reliever and emergency starter.

So that’s seven spots right there, and we haven’t even mentioned Sean Doolittle, attempting to return from an elbow procedure and serve as the only left-hander in the 'pen. Or Victor Arano and Jordan Weems, who seemingly are in the mix but are likely saddled by the fact each still has minor league options.

The writing has been on the wall all offseason. Baseball has changed over recent years, and the Nationals have committed to adapting to it.

Versatility is the name of the game.

Gone are the days managers would trot out the same eight defenders in their same designated positions along with a starting pitcher expected to go seven or eight innings every day over the course of a 162-game season.

Now it’s all about getting more bang for your buck. Can a player fill multiple roles? Can he play all over the infield, or both the infield and the outfield? Can a fringe starting pitcher also be a swing man out of the bullpen?

Find a way to keep your best players fresh and on the field as much as possible based on what the matchups dictate.