SARASOTA, Fla. – Spring training can be a whirlwind.  New faces, stars of the game and top prospects are scattered across the fields at the Orioles' spring training complex at Ed Smith Stadium.  A team fighting to recapture an American League East crown has plenty of storylines. On “The Bird’s Nest,” Annie Klaff and I broke down some of the standou

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Two weeks into the new year, the Nationals had only one relief pitcher on their roster with any kind of substantial big league experience: Derek Law. Clearly, Mike Rizzo still had plenty of work to do before the start of spring training. The process remains slow, but the Nats have managed to add three experienced relievers o

SARASOTA, Fla. – The transition is in such a young phase that some players don’t know whether changes are forthcoming in the way that the Orioles teach hitting or to what extent. Whether the general philosophy will be tweaked. If the approach will be scrambled a bit from the past. The full squad didn’t have its first workout until Tuesday. Meetings

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Two days into full-squad workouts, more than a few observers have noticed a crispness to the Nationals’ infield defense that wasn’t always there last year. With middle infielders CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. returning, now joined on the corners by Nathaniel Lowe and Paul DeJong, the unit as a whole looks sharper than it did

Hall of Fame sportswriter Thomas Boswell, whose columns chronicled the return of baseball to the nation’s capital, the Washington Nationals 2019 World Series run and everything in between, will throw out the ceremonial Opening Day first pitch as the Club begins its 20th Anniversary celebration on Thursday, March 27. Visit nats.com/February to secur

SARASOTA, Fla. – Zack Britton stood behind the row of bullpen mounds Tuesday morning with another former Orioles pitcher, Ben McDonald, and watched the side sessions. He went indoors earlier with a fungo bat in hand to retrieve his glove, unsure whether he might actually use it. This is Britton’s first experience as a guest instructor, and the enjo

SARASOTA, Fla. – Gary Sánchez’s experience catching Japanese pitchers won’t necessarily give him regular starts on days that Tomoyuki Sugano is on the mound. Maybe it evolves that way. Sánchez was behind the plate yesterday for Sugano’s bullpen session, and he’s caught Masahiro Tanaka with the Yankees and Yu Darvish with the Padres. “Post-bullpen,

The Washington Nationals agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Lucas Sims on a one-year contract and transferred right-handed pitcher Mason Thompson to the 60-day Injured List on Wednesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Sims, 30, joins the Nationals after he pitched to a 4.38 ER

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals have added a much-needed experienced arm to their bullpen, albeit one trying to bounce back from a rough year. Veteran Lucas Sims formally signed a one-year deal with the Nats this morning, the 30-year-old right-hander getting a major league contract and thus a near-guaranteed spot on the Opening Day staff. Nee

SARASOTA, Fla. – There aren’t many prospects in baseball with an 80 grade tool.  The grading scale, ranging from 20 to 80, evaluates five different tools for position players: Hit (evaluating contact), power, run (evaluating overall speed offensively and defensively), arm and field.  MLB Pipeline’s highest graded position player, Roman Anthony, doe