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With 10 players making their Major League debuts in 2024, the Nationals enhanced their young core that is returning for this coming season. What remains to be seen this winter is the level of experience and length of contracts the new additions will bring to the ’25 roster.

Major League front-office executives gathered this week at the GM Meetings in San Antonio -- at the beginning of free agency and one month ahead of Winter Meetings -- to lay groundwork for the upcoming season. The Nats are looking to improve upon their 71-91 record from each of the last two years.

“I think we've made progress,” general manager Mike Rizzo said of the Nats’ 2024 season. “I saw a step forward from a lot of our good young, core players. But again, when you're competing against Atlanta and Philly and the Mets and Miami and the Dodgers and the Yankees and these other teams, it’s hard to run out seven, eight, nine rookie players and contend for the World Series.

“I think that we’re always cognizant of adding good veteran players to help the core and to take the pressure off them to not only be the primary performers, but also to teach them the ropes of how to win those close games, how to be a championship-caliber club.”

Veterans Jacob Barnes, Patrick Corbin, Joey Gallo, Ildemaro Vargas and Trevor Williams became free agents this offseason. Corbin’s six-year, $140 million contract had been the longest deal on the payroll, while Williams’ two-year, $13 million contract was one of the few multiyear deals in recent years. Washington has had success in flipping one-year contracts for prospects at the Trade Deadline, but the club is going to explore all avenues.

“I think that ownership realizes where we’re at in our process,” Rizzo said. “I think that if there’s a free-agent signing that makes sense for us, I think that we’ll be allowed to do that. That’s ultimately a discussion that we have when we meet with ownership where we have a blueprint in place. These [GM] Meetings kind of guide me into that discussion with ownership.”

The Nationals’ pitching staff improved its ERA from 5.02 in 2023 to 4.30 in ’24. Right-handers Jake Irvin and DJ Herz and left-handers MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker are the healthy arms poised to return to the starting rotation for next season. Righty Cade Cavalli will contend for a spot in his return from Tommy John surgery.

“We're always looking for starting pitching and pitching in general,” Rizzo said. “Every person in this room is, every person in the game is, so it's a position of great importance.”

The Nationals also are encouraged by the pitching prospects they have in the Minor Leagues. Herz and Parker made their debuts earlier in the season than projected, highlighting the importance of Major League-ready arms. MLB Pipeline estimates Top 30 righty pitching prospects Tyler Stuart (No. 19), Marquis Grissom Jr. (No. 26) and Brad Lord (No. 30) to reach the bigs next year.

“We're fairly happy with our starting pitching depth,” Rizzo said. “Our pitching people have done a great job developing these guys, caring for them and bringing them up to the big leagues to perform at the big league level.”

There will be an emphasis on improving production at the plate this winter. The Nats hit the fewest home runs in the NL (135), and they ranked second lowest in runs scored (660) and slugging percentage (.375).

“We would like to attack our offense in the offseason,” said Rizzo. “We'd like to get more offensive efficiency -- we get a little more impactful kind of bats to go to place around our good, young core position players.”

He added, “The [right or left]-handedness is less important to me, but the impact and the productivity is. It doesn't have to be a prototypical home run hitter, but just a good offensive player.”