WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Stone Garrett was taking fly balls with the rest of the Nationals’ outfielders earlier this week when one of the coaches sent a deep drive over his head. It was the first time he was forced to go back toward the wall to make a play this spring, the first time he engaged in such an activity since that awful August night at Yankee Stadium when he suffered a gruesome injury.

Garrett, though, never thought about any of that. He simply tracked down the ball, made the play and re-took his position, only realizing afterward the significance of the moment.

“It’s kind of like instinct,” he said. “It was weird, we were doing fly balls and one just shot off. … You just go get it, don’t think about the leg or anything. So it’s been pretty nice. No pain. No nothing, really.”

Garrett always knew he’d make a full physical recovery from the broken left fibula and damaged ankle he suffered trying to make a leaping grab at the wall in New York late last summer. The real test, though, was going to be mental. When the time came to make a tough baseball play, would he hesitate at all, or would instincts take over?

When those instincts indeed took over, Garrett breathed a sigh of relief.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – As he stood on the warning track to the side of the plate Tuesday morning watching several of his regular hitters step in to face Josiah Gray in the first round of live batting practice this spring, Nationals hitting coach Darnell Coles saw a few swings and misses. He saw a few called strikes. He saw a few weak ground balls.

A fan standing behind the backstop a few feet away brashly asked Coles: “Is that the Single-A team? They’re making Josiah look like a Hall of Famer!”

Coles, to his everlasting credit, didn’t berate the fan, who almost certainly had no idea who he was talking to. “Yeah, that’s the Single-A team,” he responded with a smile, fully knowing the results of a February practice session like this have no bearing on what’s to come from April through September.

Coles also knew what that fan – and perhaps many others out there – seem to forget: Gray is a good major league pitcher.

Before you pounce on that blasphemy, let’s review the facts. Gray finished last season with a 3.91 ERA, 15th best in the National League. His ERA-plus of 110 means he was above-average, a full 10 percent better than the league average to be precise. He was one of only 21 pitchers in the NL to make at least 30 starts. He made the All-Star team. He finished with 3.1 WAR, 15th-best in the NL, right behind Cy Young Award contender Spencer Strider.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – They took the field as a team for the first time in 2024, Nationals pitchers, catchers and position players alike emerging from the clubhouse and heading outside to stretch, warm up and then conduct fundamental workouts in unison on the first day of full-squad workouts.

“Great day,” manager Davey Martinez said afterward. “A lot of energy. The boys were good. I saw some good pitching. I saw some good hitting. It was a good day.”

Fifty-four of the 58 players who have been invited to major league camp so far participated. One (Mason Thompson) is still in the middle of a two-week shutdown due to elbow soreness. One (Zach Davies) just arrived today after signing a minor league deal Sunday. One (Trevor Williams) is due to arrive later this week after his wife gave birth to the couple’s fifth child over the weekend. And one (Stephen Strasburg) may or may not take up the club’s request to come to Florida and mentor young pitchers even though he's no longer physically able to pitch himself.

Everyone else was good to go, and the ensuing 2 1/2 hours provided a combination of serious instruction, intriguing head-to-head matchups among teammates and ample opportunity for laughter and fun.

Martinez chose to set the tone for the workout – and the entire spring – with some baserunning instruction right off the top. The seventh-year manager gathered every position player around the plate for a lengthy discussion of baserunning expectations, then ushered everyone to first base where he personally demonstrated the proper way to take leads, get back to the bag or take off for second base and beyond.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Pitchers and catchers had already reported to camps throughout Arizona and Florida, and Zach Davies was still sitting at home, waiting to figure out where he would be playing this season. The call from agent Scott Boras finally came last Wednesday with news of a minor league contract offer from the Nationals.

Davies took a couple of days “to see what else was out there,” and made the decision Friday night to accept the Nats’ offer. The veteran right-hander signed the deal Sunday, flew to West Palm Beach on Monday and today donned his new uniform for the first time.

And why was this the right choice for Davies?

“It’s a young, up-and-coming team,” he said. “I think it’s one of those (types of) organizations I’ve been with in the past. I know how it works. I’m trying to give myself an MLB opportunity somewhere along the line. And I’ll just try to help the team however I can.”

The Nationals had been in the market for rotation depth all winter. They arrived in Florida without having achieved that goal. Davies may not fit the description of a proven starter who can challenge Trevor Williams or Jake Irvin for a spot in the Opening Day rotation, but he’s a viable option if something happens to one of the projected starting five, whether during the spring or sometime after the season begins.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Nothing has ever been handed to Joey Meneses. He’s always had to earn his way through baseball, up to and including his long-awaited major-league debut in 2022.

Which is why, even on the heels of his remarkable opening two months with the Nationals, Meneses acted last season like he still needed to prove he deserved the job.

As he now prepares for his third season in the big leagues, the 31-year-old first baseman finally acknowledges he worries less about his standing on the roster.

“Maybe a little bit relaxed on that part,” he said. “But I don’t like to think this year is going to be easy. The first year, you want to prove you can do it. This year, I’m a little more relaxed.”

Meneses is in no danger of being cut at the end of spring training. Barring an injury, he’s going to be in the Nats’ Opening Day lineup, almost certainly somewhere in the middle of that lineup, tasked with delivering clutch hits the way he did last year. He may or may not be part of the organization’s long-term plan, but he’s most definitely part of the short-term plan.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Mark Lerner said publicly today what had become increasingly clear over the last calendar year: His family is no longer actively attempting to sell the Nationals.

“Nothing has really changed,” Lerner told the Washington Post. “We’ve just decided that it’s not the time or the place for it. We’re very happy owning the team and bringing us back a ring one day.”

Through a club spokeswoman, Lerner, the team’s managing principal owner, declined a request for a short interview or statement about the state of the sale process.

The Lerner family’s revelation in April 2022 that it had begun the process of exploring a potential sale of the Nationals caught nearly everyone in the organization by surprise. The group had never previously expressed any desire to sell the franchise it purchased from Major League Baseball in 2006 for $450 million.

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the team and on the family’s commercial real estate business, though, were significant and left some members of the ownership group looking to move on.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Ask Keibert Ruiz to evaluate his 2023 season, and he furrows his brow and has to think about how he wants to say this.

“I thought it wasn’t a bad season, but defensively it was bad,” the Nationals catcher replied. “It wasn’t where I want it to be.”

It requires the separation of Ruiz’s game into two parts. At the plate, there was a lot to like. He hit 18 homers. He slashed .300/.342/.467 in the second half. He batted a robust .365 with runners in scoring position, fifth-best in the majors.

But behind the plate, there was a lot to dislike. He rated 37th out of 38 MLB catchers who played at least 500 innings with minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved. He ranked in the bottom 6 percent of all catchers in every advanced defensive metric: framing, pop time, blocking pitches, caught stealing. Opponents stole a mindboggling 119 bases while he was in the game.

That’s not going to cut it long term, and Ruiz is the first to admit it.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Dylan Crews walked into the Nationals’ spring training clubhouse this morning, equipment bag over his shoulder and immediately found his locker and familiar faces nearby.

This is the first time Crews has been in big-league camp, the first time he’s been in spring training as a professional, but as he greeted teammates both young and old and scanned the rest of the room, last summer’s first-round pick looked very much in his element.

“Super-excited, ready to get going here,” he said. “I feel like I belong in this locker room right now.”

That statement could be taken the wrong way by someone who didn’t hear it. Crews said it not with any hint of cockiness, but rather with the kind of down-to-earth confidence he has always exuded.

At 6-feet, 205 pounds, he’s not an intimidating physical presence, not in these surroundings. But he’s been the best baseball player on his team everywhere he’s ever played. And though he may not have that status in a major-league clubhouse yet, few doubt he’ll get there soon enough.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – When Hunter Harvey landed on the injured list for a month last summer with a right elbow strain, the Nationals had plenty of reason to be concerned. Concerned not only for the well-being of Harvey, whose lengthy injury history is too well known. But concerned also for Kyle Finnegan, who suddenly was the only late-inning reliever Davey Martinez knew he could rely on.

Turns out Finnegan delivered his best stretch of the season while Harvey was out, making 14 consecutive scoreless appearances from mid-July through mid-August, notching the save or the win in 10 of those games and allowing only eight total batters to reach base.

Finnegan’s downfall came not while Harvey was out, but rather after Harvey returned. Over his final 16 appearances of the year, he surrendered 15 runs, allowing nearly two batters per inning to reach base.

The reasonable takeaway from all that: All the work asked of Finnegan earlier in the summer caught up to him by September.

“Yeah, they were a little worn down,” Martinez said, referencing both Finnegan and Harvey, who was scored upon in three of his final seven appearances. “They did a lot. Especially Finnegan, we really pushed him. But he’s a horse, and he wants the ball and doesn’t ever complain. To keep these guys healthy and fresh, we’d like to maybe stay away from them some days. And now we have an opportunity to do that.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Friday saw the Nationals address a need for bullpen depth with the addition of veteran reliever Jacob Barnes. Today saw the Nats address a need for rotation depth with the addition of veteran starter Zach Davies.

The Nationals and Davies agreed to a minor-league deal with an invitation to big-league camp, according to a source familiar with the terms. It won’t become official until he reports to West Palm Beach and passes a physical, but club officials expect that to happen by Monday.

Davies, 31, is an accomplished major-league starter with a 60-58 record and 4.36 ERA in 200 career outings, more than half of those coming with the Brewers. The right-hander is coming off a ragged season with the Diamondbacks, though, in which he finished with a 7.00 ERA in 18 starts and missed time with oblique and back injuries.

The Nationals don’t view Davies as a serious challenger to unseat one of the current projected five starters (Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Patrick Corbin, Jake Irvin, Trevor Williams) but would likely give him the first opportunity to take one of those slots should there be an opening.

It’s a role not unlike the one held last spring by Chad Kuhl, who came to camp on a minor-league deal but wound up making the Opening Day rotation after Cade Cavalli suffered a torn elbow ligament in March. By season’s end, Kuhl was one of only eight big-league starters the Nats used, the second-lowest total in the sport.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Jesse Winker had played in Washington several times before as a member of the Reds and Mariners. He had played well in D.C., compiling a 1.084 OPS across 34 plate appearances. He had enjoyed touring the city during his downtime. And anyone he ever spoke to about the Nationals offered positive feedback.

So when the opportunity came this week to sign with the Nats, even if it was on a minor-league deal, Winker didn’t have to think twice about saying yes.

“Oh my god, there’s a bunch of talent here. A lot of really good players,” the 30-year-old outfielder said. “It’s a great city. I’ve heard nothing but great things about the coaching staff and everybody involved here. It’s an amazing spot to play. It was very easy to pull the trigger on it.”

Winker said this Friday afternoon shortly after arriving in the Nationals clubhouse for the first time, unpacking his bags and trying on some of his new employer’s gear. He joins a clubhouse full of young players trying to make their own name for themselves in the big leagues, plus a few other veterans he’s crossed paths with over the years.

The minor-league contract offers no guarantees, but the situation is favorable for Winker. The Nats need more experienced hitters, especially from the left side of the plate. Winker is coming off a down year but was an above-average hitter in each of his previous six big-league seasons, earning an All-Star selection as recently as 2021. He would seem to make for a nice platoon partner with Stone Garrett at the DH position.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – These early days of spring training are supposed to be reserved for pitchers and catchers. Position players technically don’t report until Tuesday.

Stroll through the Nationals clubhouse, though, or walk around their practice fields, and you can’t help but notice how many position players already are here.

Of the 29 position players invited to big league camp this spring, all but two were on the field today for informal workouts. Only prospects Dylan Crews and Darren Baker have yet to be seen, and if they show up Saturday they’d still be reporting three days early.

This isn’t a byproduct of any message from club officials, subtle or unsubtle. It’s been up to the individual players to arrive at their own preferred pace, and nearly all of them chose to arrive early.

“The message is to make sure they’re ready go for spring training,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I always tell them: Be in shape as if you’re coming in to play a game. And they took it to heart. A lot of them – because the weather’s so good – they came here early and started to work out. When I came here, we already had 15-16 guys working out. I thought that was pretty impressive. I’m happy they’re here. I’m happy they’re working this early.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A Nationals club in need of more pitching depth this spring – and perhaps beyond – added another arm to the mix today, signing veteran reliever Jacob Barnes to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.

Barnes, 33, has considerable experience, having pitched in 265 major league games since 2016 for eight different franchises. His best success came early in with the Brewers, for whom he delivered a 3.93 ERA and 1.359 WHIP in 167 games from 2016-19. He has since pitched for the Royals, Angels, Mets, Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees and Cardinals.

The right-hander appeared in 13 games for St. Louis late last season, finishing with a 5.93 ERA and 1.537 WHIP. That came after he enjoyed consistent success for the Triple-A affiliates of the Rangers, Phillies and Cardinals, posting a 2.47 ERA and 1.314 WHIP in 35 games.

Barnes, who already has a locker in the Nationals clubhouse, is expected to report in the next day or two and then try to make his case for a spot in the Opening Day bullpen.

“Another guy we feel like should still have something left in the tank,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We’re going to give him an opportunity. He’ll strengthen our bullpen. He’ll be here soon. I can’t wait to get eyes on him. … Here’s a guy that’s been a competitor. I think he’ll fit right in. You can’t have enough arms. We’re going to give him an opportunity in spring training and see what he can do.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – When MacKenzie Gore returned home in October and contemplated his season, the Nationals left-hander focused on the two extremes he experienced.

“Some good and some bad,” he said. “I’ve really just got to figure out why I was good at times, and why I wasn’t. Fix that and go into this year.”

Gore truly did pitch at both ends of the spectrum in 2023. He was either really good, or he was the opposite. Rarely did his outings fall somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps the best statistical evidence of that: In his 17 wins and no-decisions, Gore posted a 2.58 ERA and 1.282 WHIP. In his 10 losses, those numbers skyrocketed to 7.71 and 1.612.

“Just trying to figure out how to have less of those big starts where it’s like six runs or more,” he said. “It definitely helps you have confidence that it’s in there. It’s just: Can you do it for 25 starts, or whatever it is?”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It was something of an offhand comment, thrown in near the end of a longer answer to a question about his bench options to begin the season. But what Davey Martinez said Wednesday made a few ears perk up.

“We’re going to have a battle for center field with Young and Robles,” the Nationals manager said in his first media session of the spring, suggesting Victor Robles and Jacob Young were on equal footing entering camp.

That was a bit surprising, if only because Robles was re-signed over the winter for $2.65 million after missing most of the season with a back injury. Young, meanwhile, began 2023 at Single-A Wilmington and finished with 33 big-league games in D.C.

So, the inevitable follow-up question came Thursday during Martinez’s second media session of the spring: Is there an open competition in center field, with both Robles and Young having the same chances of starting Opening Day?

“If I had a say right now, I’d say Vic has a little bit of the upper hand,” Martinez clarified. “But I liked everything I saw about Jacob. He’s young, but you’ve got to remember, Vic is still really young. And he got hurt. I want to give him the opportunity to come back this year, and have a good spring training and see what he can do. I love what Jacob did, and I know he can play up here and help us win games. I think he showed that, and I think he’s going to get better. But Vic was our center fielder, and right now I say they’re going to compete. If they both were equal, I would say that Vic has the upper hand.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Mason Thompson was enjoying what he believed was a productive offseason. Determined to bounce back from an erratic 2023, the Nationals reliever set out to make some mechanical changes to his delivery, and a couple weeks ago faced a live hitter near his home in Texas for the first time this year.

Everything was going swimmingly. Until his elbow told him otherwise.

“It felt great. Ball was coming out good,” Thompson said. “Made it towards the end and just felt something, just felt some discomfort, something that just didn’t feel great. Gave it a couple of days, kind of was hoping that it was just some fatigue from the first time facing hitters throwing full speed. Unfortunately, it just kind of continued to persist, and now we’re here.”

Neither Thompson nor the Nationals know exactly where “here” is yet. He’s been shut down for two weeks, at which point he’ll be re-evaluated and a course of action will be determined.

Thompson, though, is no stranger to arm injuries. He had Tommy John surgery nine years ago while still a junior in high school. He dealt with a biceps strain in 2022 with the Nats and missed three months as a result.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – When he threw his first pitch off the mound Monday, Cade Cavalli could have flashed right back to the last time he performed such an act, that horrible day nearly one year ago and about 50 miles up the road in Port St. Lucie when he tried to throw a changeup to Brandon Nimmo and felt his elbow ligament snap in the process.

Instead, Cavalli chose to focus on what this moment – his first bullpen session since Tommy John surgery – meant for him. There was no feeling of regret, only a feeling of achievement and optimism for what he hopes will come in another few months when he finally pitches for the Nationals again.

“To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it much,” the right-hander said when asked about the pending anniversary of his injury. “I just want to forget about it and move on. I’ve got a new elbow. It’s a new me. That’s how I’m approaching it. It’s been a great 11 months.”

Cavalli already was something of a “power of positive thinking” guy before any of this happened. The injury only pushed him to embrace that mindset even more as he began the long, slow, often infuriating process of rehabbing from ligament replacement surgery.

“It’s something that happens, and I believe like I said to you guys 11 months ago, it’s how you look at it and how you approach it,” the 2020 first-round pick said. “If you just approach it with a positive mindset – that this is a blessing in this moment, and I believe God is putting me through something to get me stronger to be able to help this club in the long run – that’s what my mindset’s been.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It’s impossible to miss inside the Nationals clubhouse. It’s prominently located, at the end of a row of lockers belonging to the rest of the members of the team’s starting rotation.

It’s the same locker Stephen Strasburg has used since the organization began training here in 2017. And it continues to be adorned with his name, his jersey, his shoes and a stack of correspondence, virtually unchanged from the state it was in one year ago.

And as was the case one year ago, Strasburg isn’t here using his locker. He remains at home in Northern Virginia, having conceded last summer he could no longer attempt to revive his pitching career.

But because Strasburg and the Nationals have not been able to agree to the financial details of his retirement, he remains on the club’s 40-man roster. Which means he still gets a locker. Which, it appears, the organization now believes he is obligated to use.

Do the Nats actually expect Strasburg to come to West Palm Beach this spring?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Though a number of Nationals who ended the 2023 season injured reported for spring training on target to return as planned, a new ailment cropped up over the winter for one potential member of the bullpen.

Mason Thompson experienced elbow discomfort while throwing an offseason bullpen session and was told not to throw after arriving in West Palm Beach. The right-hander will be shut down for two weeks before he’s re-evaluated, according to manager Davey Martinez.

“Mason, right now, he’s got a little arm issue,” Martinez said this afternoon in his camp-opening session with reporters. “We’re going to see what’s going on with him. We’ll take it slow with him.”

Thompson, who turns 26 next week, has a history of arm injuries, most notably a biceps strain that forced him to miss nearly three months of the 2022 season. He hasn’t missed any time due to arm injuries since, but he spent 15 days on the injured list last summer with a bruised knee.

“We’re a little bit concerned,” Martinez said. “Like I said, we’ll take it slow with him. We’re still really early in spring training, so we’ll see. We’ll rehab him and see where we’re at in two weeks.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – There admittedly hasn’t been a lot of juice at Nationals spring training in recent years. Such is life when you tear down the remnants of a championship roster and start over, recognizing it’s going to be a while until the fruits of your labor pay off.

For the last two years, it felt like there was more reason to pay attention to minor-league camp than major-league camp, as the franchise’s next wave of prospects began the long trek up the organizational depth chart.

The Nats aren’t all the way there yet. There is no serious talk of contention in 2024. When the season begins, those prospects are almost certainly all still going to be in the minor leagues.

But for the first time, several of them will be participating in major-league camp. And even if none of them survive to the end of March, their presence alone is going to create some sorely needed juice that’s been lacking in recent springs.

The three big non-roster invitees to camp are Dylan Crews, James Wood and Brady House, the organization’s consensus top three prospects. Two first-round draft picks (House in 2021, Crews in 2023) and perhaps the best of the five young players acquired in the Juan Soto trade (Wood). All closed out last season at Double-A Harrisburg, suggesting all could be on track to debut in D.C. sometime this season.