The 2023 holiday season officially kicked off yesterday with Thanksgiving, but the Nationals got a head start to the season of giving earlier this week.

This week Washington Nationals Philanthropies hosted Turkeypalooza, its now sixth annual food distribution event across the D.C. area.

“Turkeypalooza is an annual event that Washington Nationals Philanthropies hosts, in partnership with BetMGM now for the second year,” said Tal Alter, CEO of Nationals Philanthropies. “We're going to distribute 900 turkeys over the next few days, which means 3,600 different meal units being presented to members of the community who are unfortunately food insecure. At this time of year, it's just incredibly important for everyone to be able to celebrate the holidays with dignity, and food is the fundamental piece of that.”

The event started on Monday in front of the BetMGM sportsbook outside Nationals Park with volunteers handing out turkeys and bags filled with shelf-stable items and fresh produce. Nats outfielder Stone Garrett was even in attendance to help out with the distribution.

“Our fans support us all season long, so to give back to the community, it means a lot,” Garrett said. “It means a lot, especially during the holiday season.”

Happy Thanksgiving, Nationals fans!

To celebrate the holiday, I’m going to take a break from my usual prospect reviews (there are only seven left!) and look back on the 2023 year for reasons the Nats and you should be thankful.

Is a 71-91 season reason to celebrate? Of course not. But the organization did make some significant strides in this crucial rebuilding year.

Let’s start with that final record. Although still 20 games under .500, it was a 16-game improvement from the dreadful 55-107 record in 2022.

While still a last-place finish, their fourth in a row since winning the 2019 World Series, many outlets had the Nats barely winning 60 games at the beginning of the season. Eclipsing 70 wins was a major step forward for the major league club, setting up higher expectations for 2024.

PROSPECT REVIEW: DJ HERZ

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Traded with Kevin Made from Cubs for Jeimer Candelario and cash in July 2023; originally drafted in eighth round by Cubs in 2019 from Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, N.C.

Ranking: No. 16 per MLB Pipeline, No. 25 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: TRAVIS SYKORA

Age on opening day 2024: 19

How acquired: Drafted in third round in 2023 from Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas

Ranking: No. 11 per MLB Pipeline, No. 11 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2027
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

Voting for the annual Baseball Writers' Association of America awards has always seemed like a distinguished honor. And at times a difficult one.

Needless to say, I was very surprised and grateful when I learned I had been assigned a ballot for this year’s National League Rookie of the Year Award in my first season as a BBWAA member.

At first, I was intimidated by the daunting task. How could I – a humble D.C.-area kid who grew up to be fortunate enough to cover his hometown baseball team – be given such an important task as to vote for one of the sport’s most prestigious awards and by so doing become a part of the sport’s incredible history? Again, while in my first year as a member, nonetheless?

Thankfully, this year’s NL Rookie of the Year decision ended up being sort of a no-brainer instead of one of the highly debated awards.

In fact, entering last night since 2003, four NL Rookie of the Year awards have been won unanimously, with a majority of the others winning by a landslide. Only four races for this award over the last two decades were actually close, the latest coming in 2012 when Bryce Harper took home the hardware for the Nationals by narrowly beating the Diamondbacks’ Wade Miley by a score of 112-105 (Harper was awarded 16 first-place votes, eight second-place votes and eight third place votes while Miley was awarded 12 first-place votes, 13 second-place votes and six third place votes on a 5-3-1 scoring system).

PROSPECT REVIEW: JARLIN SUSANA

Age on opening day 2024: 20

How acquired: Traded with MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood, Robert Hassell III and Luke Voit from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell in August 2022; originally signed as international free agent by Padres from Dominican Republic, January 2022

Ranking: No. 12 per MLB Pipeline, No. 10 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: JAKE BENNETT

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2022 from University of Oklahoma

Ranking: No. 10 per MLB Pipeline, previously No. 10 per Baseball America before Nov. 6 top 10 update

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: COLE HENRY

Age on opening day 2024: 24

How acquired: Drafted in second round in 2020 from LSU

Ranking: No. 18 per MLB Pipeline, No. 17 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: CADE CAVALLI

Age on opening day 2024: 25

How acquired: Drafted No. 22 overall in 2020 from University of Oklahoma

Ranking: No. 4 per MLB Pipeline, No. 4 per Baseball America

MLB debut: Aug. 26, 2022

PROSPECT REVIEW: ROISMAR QUINTANA

Age on opening day 2024: 21

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2019

Ranking: No. 6 per MLB Pipeline, No. 14 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: T.J. WHITE

Age on opening day 2024: 20

How acquired: Drafted in fifth round in 2021 from Paul M. Dorman High School in Roebuck, S.C.

Ranking: No. 27 per MLB Pipeline, No. 16 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: ARMANDO CRUZ

Age on opening day 2024: 20

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, January 2021

Ranking: No. 26 per MLB Pipeline, No. 18 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: DARREN BAKER

Age on opening day 2024: 25

How acquired: Drafted in 10th round in 2021 from University of California, Berkeley

Ranking: No. 24 per MLB Pipeline, No. 26 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2023
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: DREW MILLAS

Age on opening day 2024: 26

How acquired: Traded with Richard Guasch and Seth Shuman from Athletics for Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and cash in July 2021; originally drafted in seventh round by Athletics in 2019 from Missouri State University

Ranking: No. 22 per MLB Pipeline, No. 28 per Baseball America

MLB debut: Aug. 28, 2023

PROSPECT REVIEW: ISRAEL PINEDA

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2016

Ranking: No. 21 per MLB Pipeline, No. 21 per Baseball America

MLB debut: Sept. 11, 2022

PROSPECT REVIEW: ANDREW PINCKNEY

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Drafted in fourth round in 2023 from University of Alabama

Ranking: No. 19 per MLB Pipeline, NR per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2026
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: KEVIN MADE

Age on opening day 2024: 21

How acquired: Traded with DJ Herz from Cubs for Jeimer Candelario and cash in July 2023; originally signed as international free agent by Cubs from Dominican Republic, July 2019

Ranking: No. 15 per MLB Pipeline, NR per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: JEREMY DE LA ROSA

Age on opening day 2024: 22

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2018

Ranking: No. 17 per MLB Pipeline, No. 13 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2024
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: TREY LIPSCOMB

Age on opening day 2024: 23

How acquired: Drafted in third round in 2022 from the University of Tennessee

Ranking: No. 14 per MLB Pipeline, No. 15 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2025
* Projected by MLB Pipeline

PROSPECT REVIEW: CRISTHIAN VAQUERO

Age on opening day 2024: 19

How acquired: Signed as international free agent, January 2022

Ranking: No. 9 per MLB Pipeline, No. 9 per Baseball America

MLB ETA: 2027
* Projected by MLB Pipeline