Why aren't the Nats as aggressive as they were one year ago?

On Jan. 2, 2020, the Nationals signed Will Harris to a three-year deal.

On Jan. 3, 2020, they signed Starlin Castro to a two-year deal.

On Jan. 6, 2020, they re-signed Daniel Hudson to a two-year deal.

Roughly two hours later, they signed Eric Thames to a one-year deal.

That's four significant free agent moves in a four-day span, an avalanche of news that feels oh-so-quaint to revisit right now, does it not?

Look, we knew this was going to be a slow-developing market, even slower than we saw the last two winters. But the process continues to move at a snail's pace.

What was the big news around the baseball world Tuesday? Blake Treinen re-signed with the Dodgers for two years and $17.5 million. Nothing against Treinen, one of the nicest ballplayers you'll ever meet, but that's not an earth-shattering development.

So why is this happening? Why is almost every club in the sport moving so slow this winter? It's not like they don't know what they need, and it's not like there's a shortage of quality players available.

It's happening, in all likelihood, for two reasons:

* Everyone's still waiting for Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association to hash out a plan for the 2021 season. Pitchers and catchers allegedly report in six weeks, but we've heard nothing official from the league or the union about a plan for spring training or the season to follow. What health and safety protocols are going to remain from 2020, what can be dropped and what needs to be added? Will teams be able to fully travel, or does the schedule need to be altered again? Will the season begin before players have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, or does it need to wait 'til the shot is more readily available to healthy young men?

* Even if the pandemic never happened, owners and players were prepared for another rough winter. Players have been frustrated for two years now that teams aren't spending more money to improve their rosters. Teams have been frustrated that players and agents still believe guys deserve to make more money in their 30s than they do in their 20s, among other issues. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of 2021, everyone was already gearing up for a major labor war. Against that backdrop, why would either side be motivated to give in right now?

That said, there remains a golden opportunity for somebody to swoop in and make reasonable offers to specific players who will fill that team's roster holes and beat the rest of the sport to the punch.

Maybe clubs going after the top-tier free agents (George Springer, Trevor Bauer, DJ LeMahieu) aren't able to be that aggressive. The agents for those players surely want to drag things out and create a bidding war before accepting the best offer.

But clubs in pursuit of second-tier free agents (Michael Brantley, Jon Lester, Justin Turner) surely could be more aggressive and try to get something done now, right?

It's not like Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo doesn't know what his team needs. And it's not like he hasn't already created a wish list depth chart, identifying his Plan A guys, his Plan B guys and so forth.

If Nationals ownership really has given Rizzo the resources to build a "championship-caliber" roster as he stated last month, why not use them now and bring aboard the players you've determined you need?

That's basically what the Nats did one year ago when they signed four free agents to fill specific holes in the first week of January.

What's stopping them from doing it again this year?