Two years ago today, the Nationals made a surprise acquisition that created a busier Christmas Eve than we were expecting in the D.C. area. General manager Mike Rizzo was able to send two minor league pitchers to the Pirates for All-Star first baseman Josh Bell.

While the timing was surprising, the acquisition itself was not. The Nationals had made the first baseman a potential trade target for a while, with the expectation at the time being he would get a majority of the starts at first while Ryan Zimmerman would be the backup if he returned for his 17th campaign after sitting out the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Rizzo won praise for the early Christmas present to Nats fans in acquiring a power bat to provide protection for Juan Soto and Trea Turner in the lineup with two years left of team control and without giving up any top prospects. At the time, the Nats’ most coveted prospects were Cade Cavalli, Jackson Rutledge, Carter Kieboom and Yasel Antuna.

Only Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean were required to bring Bell to Washington. At the time, Crowe was 26 years old and the Nats’ No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, and Yean was 19 and the club’s No. 6 prospect.

Crowe had made his major league debut that summer, posting an 11.88 ERA and 2.640 WHIP in 8 ⅓ innings over his three starts. A second-round pick in 2017 out of South Carolina, the right-hander was expected to compete as a rotation depth piece the following spring.

The Nationals’ latest waiver claim was noteworthy in that it was a well known name that was surprisingly available.

Jeter Downs, whom the Nats claimed on outright waivers from the Red Sox yesterday, is known for being a former top shortstop prospect and being included in two major trades since the Reds made him the No. 32 overall pick in the 2017 draft.

He was grouped with Homer Bailey and Josiah Gray – the latter now his Nationals teammate – in a Dec. 21, 2018 trade to the Dodgers for Kyle Farmer, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Alex Wood. Then on Feb. 10, 2020, he was famously included in the package with Alex Verdugo and Connor Wong that went to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts and David Price.

A central piece in two major trades and a highly rated prospect before turning 22 years old, Downs was, surprisingly, exposed to waivers when the Red Sox designated him for assignment last week after signing outfielder Masataka Yoshida. But of course, there’s a reason for that. His struggles in the Red Sox system and during his brief stint in the majors forced Boston to give up on the now 24-year-old.

Now, almost four years to the day since his trade to Los Angeles, Downs joins a Nationals organization where he is reunited with fellow former Dodgers prospects Gray and Keibert Ruiz. And he brings much-needed infield depth, whether he’s on the major league roster or in the minor league system.

Just three days before Christmas, general manager Mike Rizzo remains busy checking things off his list.

The Nationals announced this afternoon they have claimed infielder Jeter Downs on outright waivers from the Red Sox. Downs was designated for assignment last week when the Red Sox signed outfielder Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90 million contract.

Downs, 24, was born in San Andrés, Colombia, where his father was a professional baseball player. He was named after Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, and ironically would go on to record his first major league hit and RBI then score the game-winning run against the Yankees and hit his first big league home run at Yankee Stadium this season.

He was a 2017 first-round pick (32nd overall) by the Reds out of Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens, Fla. He has since been traded twice, first with current Nationals starting pitcher Josiah Gray and Homer Bailey to the Dodgers in exchange for Kyle Farmer, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood and cash in December 2018. But Downs is probably most known for being a central piece in the package along with Alex Verdugo and Connor Wong to go to Boston in the Mookie Betts and David Price trade in February 2020.

Primarily a shortstop, Downs was considered a top prospect around the sport. He was the Red Sox’s No. 1 and No. 2 prospect in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and was ranked as high as the No. 44 prospect in baseball two years ago, per MLB Pipeline.

The Nationals’ offseason to date has been just as expected: quiet.

There hasn’t been a lot of activity on their front with the major league roster. More additions are on the way as we get closer to the start of spring training in February, likely in the form of minor league deals with invitations to major league camp. Just like last week’s minor league deal with Matt Adams.

But general manager Mike Rizzo hasn’t been completely dormant. He signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a one-year, $5 million contract and right-hander Trevor Williams to a two-year, $13 million deal within the last month.

Candelario is expected to be the starting third baseman, while also filling in some at first base and as the designated hitter. Williams has been told he’s been brought in to join the starting rotation after serving more as a swing man with the Mets this year.

Both guys, however, are also expected to take on a role that may be a little foreign to them: leader. And they both mentioned they discussed it with manager Davey Martinez during their introductory press conferences with the local media over Zoom last week.

The Nationals made a handful of roster moves yesterday, headlined by officially announcing re-signing right-hander Erasmo Ramirez to a one-year deal. To make room on the 40-man roster, right-hander they designated Gerardo Carrillo for assignment.

Also part of the news dump was the Nats announcing they agreed to terms on a one-year contract with Tanner Rainey, avoiding arbitration, and that Lucius Fox cleared outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Rochester. The Nats designated Fox for assignment last week when they claimed right-hander A.J. Alexy off waivers from the Rangers. A lot of moving parts for a simple one-year signing. But you can’t blame general manager Mike Rizzo for getting as much work done as possible before the holidays.

While we shouldn’t expect more news the rest of the week (my famous last words while I’m covering for Mark Zuckerman through Christmas), we can look back on the changes made to the Nationals roster so far this offseason and what they mean in the big picture.

Carrillo was the second of the four players the Nationals received from the Dodgers in exchange for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner at the 2021 deadline to be designated for assignment this year. The Nats designated Donovan Casey for assignment in August when they claimed left-hander Jake McGee from the Brewers. Casey cleared waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Rochester two days later.

After a year that was limited to 21 appearances overall due to injuries and saw him post an 11.32 ERA in 10 games at Double-A Harrisburg, Carrillo is expected to take a similar route as Casey and Fox, going unclaimed on waivers and being re-assigned to one of the Nats’ minor league affiliates.

The Nationals didn’t have a lot of high-profile free agents set to depart the team this offseason, but they have retained one they valued a lot in 2022.

Erasmo Ramirez is returning to Washington on a one-year deal for 2023, the team announced this afternoon after reports the two sides were in agreement surfaced last week. Ramirez needed to pass a physical before it could become official.

The 32-year-old could earn up to $2 million with incentives this year, as confirmed by our own Mark Zuckerman.

Signed to a minor league deal in March and only earning a modest $700,000 this year, Ramirez filled a variety of roles for manager Davey Martinez. The right-hander was a bridge arm covering multiple innings between starters and the back end of the bullpen, he pitched high-leverage innings late in games during the season’s last couple of months and he even made two emergency starts against the Braves.

His 2.92 ERA, 1.077 WHIP and 4.36 strikeout-to-walk rate over 86 ⅓ innings earned him Pitcher of the Year honors, as voted on by Nationals media members. He was one of only three major league relievers with an ERA under 3.00 while pitching at least 75 innings, joining the Rangers’ Brock Burke and the Angels’ Jaime Barria.

Versatility has been the name of the Nationals’ roster building game ever since they started the organizational rebuilding process two summers ago. They value players who can play multiple positions.

Find jacks of all trades and have them fill a variety of roles.

That works pretty well for position players (infielders who can play all over and outfielders who can fill all three spots). But you might run into a master of none situation when it comes to pitching.

While the Nationals fared very well this season utilizing pitchers out of the bullpen in multiple ways, is there such a thing as too many swing men?

Get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking baseball here.

The baseball world is like a circle. Sooner or later, you come back around to work with someone you know from your past.

The Nationals have taken this approach while filling roster holes: Bringing back bounce back candidates who used to play on the team or have a connection to someone already on the staff from a past gig.

Jeimer Candelario is the latest example, reuniting with manager Davey Martinez from their time with the Cubs after the third baseman signed a one-year, $5 million contract three weeks ago. Candelario spent parts of the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Cubs while Martinez served as then-manager Joe Maddon’s bench coach.

Candelario relishes the opportunity to reunite with Martinez, now the head man in Washington who had a big impact on the 22-year-old infielder’s development on the North Side of Chicago.

“It means a lot, it means a lot, because in 2016, we were champs,” Candelario said last week during an introductory Zoom session with Nationals reporters. “I was not on the team, but I was in the (organization). And I came up that year. It was a special, special team. Really good coaching staff and he was part of it. He was a really good part of that team.”

Though this offseason hasn’t seen the Nationals make a lot of major waves, it has seen them make plenty of minor ones.

More than one-quarter of the slots on the organization’s 40-man roster have changed since the season ended, with 11 new additions to the mix. Some were promoted from within the farm system. Others were acquired either via free agency or from other clubs.

There are still more changes to come, perhaps one more within the next day or two once Erasmo Ramirez’s new one-year deal becomes official, requiring the removal of someone else from the roster.

But in the meantime, let’s review who is currently on the 40-man roster, and where the Nationals’ most significant needs still remain …

CATCHERS (3): Keibert Ruiz, Riley Adams, Israel Pineda
Comment: The Nats appear pretty much set here. Ruiz is the clear-cut No. 1 catcher. Adams and Pineda should compete with each other during spring training for the backup job, with the loser headed to Triple-A Rochester.

From the moment the Nationals declared his season over due to lingering soreness in his shoulder, Cade Cavalli has been itching to get back on a mound and start pitching again.

He hasn’t quite reached that point yet in his offseason throwing program, but that’s not for lack of desire on his part.

“Cade said he’s ready to fire the ball, and I told him: ‘Well, don’t do that yet,’ ” manager Davey Martinez said last week at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. “We’ve got plenty of time. But he’s fired up.”

Cavalli knows no other way. The energetic 24-year-old is eternally optimistic, which is why he has never viewed his September shoulder issues as anything but an important lesson in understanding when not to try to pitch through something that doesn’t feel 100 percent right.

Cavalli didn’t feel 100 percent right during his Aug. 26 major league debut. On a hot, muggy summer night at Nationals Park, he had all kinds of trouble gripping the ball and wound up allowing seven runs in 4 1/3 innings to a less-than-imposing Reds lineup, walking two batters while hitting three more.

The Nationals’ offseason moves to date have been, well, less than inspired.

They signed Jeimer Candelario for one year and $5 million, then Trevor Williams for two years and $13 million. They acquired, via the Rule 5 draft and the waiver wire, unproven players named Thad Ward, Stone Garrett and A.J. Alexy. They brought back sentimental favorites Sean Doolittle and Matt Adams on minor league deals. And they’re now on the verge of bringing back Erasmo Ramirez for one year and perhaps as much as $2 million if he hits all his incentives.

Not exactly a rousing Hot Stove League to date. Certainly not compared to the rest of the National League East, which has seen the Mets, Phillies and Braves continue to bolster what already were playoff rosters with even more talent and even more dollars devoted to payroll.

It’s frustrating, for fans and team employees alike who were hoping for a bit more financial commitment from ownership on the heels of a 107-loss season.

Are the 2023 Nationals as currently constructed any better than the 2022 Nationals were? It sure doesn’t look like it on paper. They might even be worse, hard as that is to believe.

The Nationals are close to finalizing a deal to bring Erasmo Ramirez back for the 2023 season, re-signing an invaluable member of this season’s pitching staff.

There remain a few more details to sort out before the deal is announced, including the removal of someone else from the club’s 40-man roster to open a slot, but a source confirmed the two sides are close and it should be finalized within a few days. The one-year contract would pay Ramirez as much as $2 million if he meets all incentives, according to The New York Post’s Jon Heyman.

Of the Nationals players who became free agents at season’s end, Ramirez looked the most likely to return, given his importance to the pitching staff and modest contract demands. It took a few months, but the sides appear on the verge of a deal that should be a boost to an already deep bullpen.

Though his work was often unheralded, Ramirez was a critical part of the Nats pitching staff this season, a jack of all trades who finished with a 2.92 ERA and 1.077 WHIP over a hefty 86 1/3 innings. He was one of only three major league relievers – along with the Rangers’ Brock Burke and the Angels’ Jaime Barria – to post an ERA under 3.00 while pitching at least 75 innings.

Originally signed to a minor league deal, Ramirez didn’t make the Opening Day roster. The Nationals called up the 32-year-old from Triple-A Rochester only two weeks into the season, though, and he never went back.

It’s a bit unusual for a seven-year veteran to depart a playoff team and sign a multi-year deal with a rebuilding organization.

But that’s exactly what Trevor Williams did when he agreed to a two-year, $13 million deal with the Nationals over the weekend after spending the last two seasons with the Mets.

Although he was left off the Mets roster for the Wild Card Series against the Padres, the 30-year-old got his first taste of a pennant race this year and was expected to be included on the Division Series roster had New York advanced.

Now he’s coming to D.C., where the Nats are coming off their third straight last-place finish in the National League East. But the right-hander understands the situation and is comfortable committing to the Nats for two years.

With such a young team in a rebuilding phase, Williams doesn’t know too many current Nationals. He had only just met manager Davey Martinez over the phone earlier this week. But he is familiar with Josh Bell, who was Williams’ teammate for five years in Pittsburgh and spent the last 1 ½ seasons in Washington, and Craig Stammen, the former Nationals draft pick who spent the first seven years of his big league career in D.C. and knows Williams from playing for his hometown Padres over the last six years.

In their quest to add more left-handed power to a lineup that sorely lacks it, the Nationals have harkened back to their glory days and found an old friend who wants to return.

The Nats have signed Matt Adams to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp, the club announced this morning, bringing the big slugger back three years after he launched 20 homers during their championship season.

The Nationals also announced the signings of three others to minor league deals with spring training invitations: infielder Travis Blankenhorn and right-handers Anthony Castro and Tommy Romero.

Adams, 34, certainly is no stranger to Washington, having spent most of the 2018-19 seasons here. Across 605 total plate appearances, he blasted 38 homers and drove in 104 runs, batting .240 with a .786 OPS.

Notoriously streaky, Adams cooled off during the second half of the 2019 season. A shoulder sprain also hindered him and left him mostly a bystander for the postseason. He took only four plate appearances that October, all as a pinch-hitter.

During the course of six seasons with the Tigers, Jeimer Candelario established himself as an everyday player, then established himself as a proven hitter, then fell back to earth with a disappointing 2022 campaign. That one down year prompted Detroit to cut ties with him last month, making him a free agent for the first time.

It was something of a humbling experience for the 29-year-old, but it also opened the door for him to come to Washington and attempt to re-establish his credentials as a proven big league hitter.

“It’s going to be a fresh start with the Nationals,” Candelario said Tuesday in a Zoom session with reporters. “I know who I am, and I know what I can do. Right now, this is a big opportunity for me playing every single day at third base. It’s a big opportunity for me. I know what I can do.”

What Candelario can do is lead the league in doubles, which he did in 2021 with 42. He can produce an impressive .297/.369/.503 slash line, which is what he did during the shortened 2020 season. He can play a solid third base, which is what he did in 2022 when he ranked ninth out of 16 qualifying players at his position in defensive runs saved. And he can play first base if needed, which is what he has done 64 times in a career that dates back to 2016 with the Cubs.

The Nats just need him to prove he can do some or all of that again in 2023. They were confident enough in that possibility to give him a guaranteed $5 million contract two weeks ago, one of only two non-minimal major league deals they’ve been willing to hand out so far this offseason.

The Nationals claimed right-hander A.J. Alexy off waivers from the Rangers, dropping infielder Lucius Fox from their 40-man roster in the process.

Alexy, 24, was designated for assignment last week by the Rangers. He pitched in nine big league games for them (four of those starts) over the last two seasons, producing a 6.30 ERA and 1.633 WHIP.

Alexy spent the majority of this season starting for Texas' Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock, where he struggled to a 5.91 ERA and 1.708 WHIP. His biggest problem areas: walks (5.3 per nine innings) and home runs (25 allowed in 96 innings).

Originally an 11th round pick of the Dodgers in 2016, Alexy was one of three players dealt to the Rangers in 2017 for ace Yu Darvish. His best season came in 2021, when he finished with a 1.66 ERA and 1.015 WHIP in 65 combined innings at Round Rock and Double-A Frisco.

Alexy doesn't figure to be a serious contender for a spot in the Nationals' Opening Day rotation, but they continue to seek pitching help for Triple-A Rochester. The right-hander still has an option year remaining, so he could be sent up and down up to five times during the 2023 season if the Nats so wanted.

On the heels of what he termed a “unique year” with the Mets, Trevor Williams knew different teams would look at him in different ways this winter.

Having had success as a swingman in New York, bouncing back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen for a club that made the postseason, the 30-year-old right-hander might appeal to other organizations who value that kind of versatility.

Williams, though, still believed he could be an effective full-time starter, returning to the role he held with the Pirates from 2017-20. And the opportunity to return to that role shaped his approach to free agency, which ultimately landed him in Washington.

“It was a decision for my career: Do I want to follow down that path? Do I want to be a swing guy for the rest of my career? Or do I want to prove again that I can be a serviceable starter?” he said Monday during an introductory Zoom conference with Nationals reporters. “And because I’ve shown both in the past, I preferred starting.”

It appears the Nationals will meet his preference. Williams, who agreed a two-year, $13 million deal Friday, said he was told he’ll be a member of the rotation in 2023.

We don’t really know yet what effect Major League Baseball’s ban on the infield shift will have on hitters next season, but teams are taking the change into consideration as they make roster decisions this winter.

That includes the Nationals, whose first offensive addition of the offseason could be among those who benefit from the lack of a shift.

Jeimer Candelario is coming off a down year in Detroit, one in which his batting average fell 54 points, his on-base percentage fell 79 points and his slugging percentage fell 82 points from the 2021 season, when he hit .271/.351/.443 and led the American League with 42 doubles.

So, why did the Nationals target the 29-year-old corner infielder after the Tigers didn’t tender him a contract last month? In part because they saw peripheral numbers this season that suggested he was especially hurt by the shift.

“We had a list of 9-10 guys that we thought could fit,” manager Davey Martinez said last week at the Winter Meetings. “And we looked at Jeimer and his numbers and the amount of ground balls he did hit to the pull side, and we thought: ‘Hey, it could definitely help him.’ ”

The signing of Trevor Williams – which became official Saturday night – wasn’t anything that was going to send shock waves through Nationals Park or the baseball world. A two-year, $13 million deal for a 30-year-old right-hander with a career 4.27 ERA is hardly the kind of move that shapes a team’s fortunes to any great extent.

What the Williams signing did do, however, was punctuate a point the Nationals seem to be making this winter: If they can’t spend big on top-tier pitchers, they’re going to make sure they get guys who can comfortably bounce back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen.

That was Williams’ role in New York this season. When the Mets were dealing with rotation injuries from April through June, he was asked to start every five days. When that rotation finally was healthy from July through September, he shifted into a long relief role.

In that respect, Williams proved to be hugely valuable to a Mets roster that was loaded with star power but needed his versatility and effective performance to navigate through a long season that ended with a berth in the National League Wild Card Series.

Williams did whatever New York needed of him. He made nine starts. He made 21 relief appearances. He finished five games. He recorded one save. He completed at least two innings in 13 of his relief outings, completing at least four innings in four of those.

The Rule 5 draft is a resource hardly utilized by the Nationals in the past. In fact, with the No. 1 overall pick Wednesday, they made their first selection in 12 years.

But for a rebuilding team with such a high selection at such a low cost, it made too much sense for the Nats not to take a flier on a Rule 5 player and give him a shot at staying on the roster throughout the upcoming season.

So with the No. 1 pick in the Rule 5 draft, the Nationals selected right-hander Thad Ward from the Red Sox.

If you don’t know the drill by now – and no one would blame you because the Rule 5 draft is complicated and Nats fans haven’t had to worry about it in over a decade – the Nationals pay $100,000 to the Red Sox to acquire Ward and then have to keep him on the major league roster for the entire 2023 season. He has to spend at least 90 days on the active roster, not including the injured list, or offer him back to the Red Sox for $50,000.

It’s a classic low-cost, high-reward situation.