Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo has already conceded the Nationals will be sellers at next week’s trade deadline. And he also mentioned he’s not looking to trade the team’s top young players, such as MacKenzie Gore, though he said he would answer the phone if another team called to ask.

That likely just leaves veterans on expiring contracts to be traded as two-month rentals. The price tags for such players are usually low, but teams may become desperate as they look to reload their rosters ahead of playoff runs.

Luckily, the Nats have a handful of such players. And even more fortunately, those players are trending in the right direction at the right time.

Perhaps the most positive development has been Josh Bell’s recent surge.

After slashing just .151/.254/.289 through his first 45 games this season, the switch-hitter is now slashing .298/.374/.497 with an .871 OPS, nine doubles, seven home runs, 23 RBIs and 17 walks to 19 strikeouts over his last 43 games. Even better, he’s slashing .309/.389/.491 with an .880 OPS over his last 32 and has homered in back-to-back games.

Apologies that my annual Nationals draft tracker was not up this year. I was making my way back from covering the team in Milwaukee on Monday and couldn’t follow along the second day of the MLB Draft live.

But on this, the slowest day in the sports calendar, let us revisit the 17 picks the Nationals made in Rounds 4-20 throughout the day Monday.

Of course, we know the Nationals brass – now led by interim general manager Mike DeBartolo along with mainstays vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas, senior director of amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek and assistant director and national crosschecker of amateur scouting Reed Dunn – made somewhat of a surprising pick by taking Oklahoma high school shortstop Eli Willits at No. 1 overall.

Their other two picks from Sunday night include power-hitting outfielder Ethan Petry out of the University of South Carolina at No. 49 overall and right-hander Landon Harmon out of East Union Attendance Center High School (Miss.) with the No. 80 overall pick.

And with that, let’s take a look at the rest of the Nationals’ 2025 draft class (round, overall, name, position, B/T, height, weight, age, school) …

The No. 1 pick was always going to dominate the conversation about the Nationals’ 2025 draft class, no matter who they selected. And a front office that experienced major change just one week ago desperately wants and needs Eli Willits to become everything they believe he can be, putting to rest any doubts about their somewhat-surprising decision to draft him.

But the Nats also know this draft can’t be considered a success if only their first round pick pans out. Among the reasons ownership decided to make a change of general managers was the organization’s lack of development of later round picks over the last decade.

There have been some strides made in that area more recently, with the likes of Cole Henry (second round, 2020), Daylen Lile (second round, 2021), Jake Irvin (fourth round, 2018), Mitchell Parker (fifth round, 2020), Jacob Young (seventh round, 2021) and Brad Lord (18th round, 2022) all reaching the big leagues and becoming contributors of varying degrees. But it’s still not enough. The Nationals know they need to develop more quality players out of picks beyond the first round.

It will be some time before we know if they were successful in that regard this year, but it’s clear they took a different approach with several of their down-ballot draft picks over the last two days: They went for more high-upside high schoolers than has typically been the case.

“They’re such talented guys,” vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said. “Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”