Can you smell it? Are your baseball senses tingling? Soon, the hot dogs will be on the grill, the popcorn poppin’, and the freshly cut green grass can excite the brain after a long cold winter. It is hard to believe that with all of the snow still on the ground in the DMV that we are just 35 days to Opening Day, and the first Spring Training games for the Washington Nationals are on Saturday.

We discussed the Nationals roster in a three part set of articles on the position players, the starting rotation, and the bullpen. And Sao Magnifico did his annual Who’s Who at Spring Training camp. All but one of the coaches is new. Even James Wood said he had mistaken a coach as a player. The photos we have seen need in-depth research. A photo of an unidentified catcher with tattoos on his left arm turned out to be bullpen catcher Jarrett Gonzalez.

Who will make the final roster is anyone’s guess. Everyone has an opinion. Will it be the best performer’s in Spring Training or will it be based on contract status? Per Roster Resource, Miles Mikolas, Richard Lovelady, and Griff McGarry,  are the only 40-man pitchers without options. Now if minor league signed free agents like Trevor Gott, Cionel Perez, and Drew Smith make the roster, they don’t have options to be sent back down without clearing waivers and accepting a Triple-A assignment. On the position player side, Luis Garcia Jr., Keibert Ruiz, Jose Tena, and Joey Wiemer are your 40-man players without options.

Should the lack of options force those players onto the Opening Day roster? McGarry is a Rule-5 player and his situation is unique. Mikolas and Garcia are considered locks to make the roster, and most expect Ruiz to make it considering the Nats have to pay him the rest of his guaranteed $37 million he is owed through the 2030 season. Tena doesn’t have much competition for the back-up utility infielder if Garcia in fact becomes the primary first baseman. Wiemer has to battle Jacob Young and Robert Hassell III for an outfield slot, and much of that is dependent on whether the team signs another DH.

The bullpen will have eight slots, and much of that is up to seeing which starting pitchers get shifted to the bullpen. Each NRI (Nats official roster is not updated) in camp would also need a 40-man roster spot if they were named to the Opening Day roster. Right now, every spot is filled. That also will affect the roster strategy for naming the final roster for Opening Day.

Given the locks to make the roster, Lovelady, McGarry, Ruiz, Tena, and Wiemer are all in a similar situation of they either make the roster, or the Nats risk losing them. But if any of them go off the roster — then a 40-man slot opens up. Again, most assume Ruiz is a near lock to make the Opening Day roster. And right now based on need, Tena has a good shot also. That leaves Lovelady, McGarry, and Wiemer as players who really need to step up in Spring Training.

Then you have the 10 healthy non-roster invitee pitchers (below) in camp who want to be the surprises to make the roster. Some have a really good shot of making it. As we wrote this week, there are legitimately over 20 pitchers vying for just eight spots.

Even the catcher’s position has a competition for Opening Day when you consider Ruiz, Harry Ford, and Drew Millas as the three players competing for two spots.

In an interview of Dylan Crews, compare his words from yesterday to how he sounded in the past. He knows that he hasn’t lived up to expectations so far. As baseball’s top prospect, Crews went from talking about “I view every day as pressure is a privilege” to “I view every day as an opportunity.” Yes, Crews has to prove himself.

The tone is different in camp. Crews feels like a lock to make the Opening Day roster. But if he doesn’t step up, he might find himself in the cold confines near the Finger Lakes in upstate New York on a Triple-A bus heading to a Holiday Inn in Syracuse for a road game.

Baseball is far from a guarantee. As Nick Castellanos found out, produce or perish. The Phillies couldn’t trade him, so they released him and ate $19,220,000 of his 2026 contract. So you have to wonder if Ruiz’s $37 million is enough for President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, to stick with Ruiz. Remember, Toboni didn’t give him that contract. He might write it off to a mistake of the old regime.

This coaching staff is all new to this team except for Assistant Pitching Coach Sean Doolittle. The other coaches and manager Blake Butera don’t have a long history with any of these players. That makes it easier to cut a player since there is less of those emotional ties. For every NRI who makes the team, someone else has to leave. It is a numbers game, and a results game. Time is counting down.