On arbitration avoidance, Chavis' move and Roessler's return to N.Y.

It took the entire day, but the Nationals did sign all four of their arbitration-eligible players to 2024 contracts Thursday, with Lane Thomas ($5.45 million) and Luis García ($1.95 million) agreeing to their deals prior to Major League Baseball’s 1 p.m. deadline, then Kyle Finnegan ($5.1 million) and Hunter Harvey ($2.325 million) agreeing to their deals before the 8 p.m. deadline to file arbitration offers.

With that, the Nats avoided any awkwardness – or even nastiness – that could have come from an arbitration hearing next month. The best takeaway from the day: The team and the players appear to have been on the same page on those players’ value to the club. That’s always better than the alternative.

The other notable takeaway from the day: The team’s Opening Day payroll is starting to come into clearer focus.

The Nationals now have 13 players signed for the 2024 season. The list is top-heavy, with both Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin set to earn $35 million this year (though each is deferring at least $10 million until a later date, so their actual income will be closer to $25 million.

Four other players are signed for $5 million to $7 million: Thomas, Finnegan, Keibert Ruiz ($6.875 million) and Trevor Williams ($7 million). Everyone else makes less than $3 million, that list including Harvey, García, Victor Robles, Dylan Floro, Nick Senzel, Tanner Rainey and Ildemaro Vargas.

Add that all up, and you get $98.1 million, though factor in the Strasburg and Corbin deferrals and that number drops to about $76.7 million.

If they don’t sign another player this winter, the Nationals would fill the other 13 remaining roster slots with younger players making at or slightly above the league minimum salary ($740,000 this year). Add that to the grand total and you wind up with a projected Opening Day payroll of roughly $108 million (only $87.2 million when you remove the deferred money).

That’s not a particularly large payroll, certainly not in 2024. It would represent a slight increase from last season’s Opening Day total of $101.2 million), but it would undoubtedly continue to rank in the bottom third of the sport.

We know the Nationals remain in the market for a left-handed power bat, probably a left fielder, first baseman or designated hitter. We don’t know if they might spend big for that bat, or if they’ll seek modest one-year deals like they did last winter with Corey Dickerson and Dominic Smith. But if they do stick with the latter route, the Nats’ payroll isn’t going to look all that imposing.

* Michael Chavis, who held a utility role for the Nationals throughout the 2023 season, has signed a minor-league deal with the Mariners, according to ESPN.com.

The 28-year-old infielder/outfielder had an odd season in D.C. He was on the active roster for all 162 games but played in only 48 of them, totaling 96 plate appearances and a pedestrian .622 OPS.

The Nats appreciated Chavis’ professionalism and big personality in the clubhouse, but they dropped him from the 40-man roster in November and he elected to become a free agent.

* Pat Roessler, the Nationals’ assistant hitting coach for the last four seasons, has been hired by the Yankees to hold that same position.

It’s a return to New York for Roessler, who was the Yankees’ director of player development from 2004-13, then a hitting coach on the Mets’ big-league staff from 2014-18.

Roessler joined the Nats in 2020 as Kevin Long’s assistant hitting coach and remained in D.C. even after Long departed for the Phillies. Roessler wound up assisting new hitting coach Darnell Coles the last two seasons but was let go along with bench coach Tim Bogar, first base coach Eric Young Jr. and third base coach Gary DiSarcina at the conclusion of the 2023 season.