The Morning Briefing: MLB’s International signing period opens on Saturday

Good Morning Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for Friday, January 14, 2022. Thank you for starting your day with us. 

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Leading today’s Morning Briefing: Players’ reaction to MLB’s bargaining proposal ‘was not positive. After a 42-day break in negotiations, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association held a video conference call to discuss issues. According to reports, the player’s reaction to the proposal was not positive.  While, many doubt that today’s meeting would magically end the lockout, at least it got the two sides talking, right? 

The big question is what will the counter-proposal look like from the players association. 

Either way, time is running out as pitchers and catchers are set to report to Spring Training on February 2, and the first Spring Training games are scheduled to start on February 26. 

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MUST-READ: For over a decade Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs has put together ZiPs projections for all of baseball. Yesterday, he shared what the systems had to say about the Nationals for the 2022 season. Read our summary here.

International Signing Period Kicks off this Weekend. With MLB’s International signing period kicking off tomorrow, don’t forget to check out our profile of Cristian Vaquero who might be one of the players that the Nationals might sign during the signing period. Cristian Vaquero is a top-five international prospect. According to Baseball America, the Washington Nationals are in the $5,179,700 pool, which is a lot of money to spend.

Get to know him here. Make sure that you follow us on Twitter for the latest up-to-date information throughout the day on Saturday.

Meet the Washington Nationals’ 2021 Organizational All-Stars via MiLB.com; Cade Cavalli leading the way. We’ve been waiting for this list for a bit, so it was great to finally see Minor League Baseball.com put out the 2021 Organizational All-stars for the Washington Nationals. Obviously, right-handed pitcher Cade Cavalli was on the list, however, there were a few surprises. We have the full list here.

Featured Fan Shot: Catching up with Nationals prospect TJ White. In our first fan shot, Alex catches up with Washington Nationals prospect TJ White. Read the full article here. 

Jackson Rutledge the Washington Nationals Pitching Prospect to watch in 2022. The 2019 Washington Nationals pitching prospect Jackson Rutledge looks to rebound from an injury season and make significant strides in 2022 and the Washington Nationals need him to do so. Read the full article here.

Friday FUN! So You Think You Know The Washington Nationals: 2019 Washington Nationals Bobblehead Giveaways. In our latest quiz, we test your Washington Nationals bobblehead knowledge. Can you correctly guess all the stadium Washington Nationals bobbleheads that were given out in 2019? Take the quiz today and then share your results with us on Twitter! 

Trending on the Nats Report: We asked the question: Should the Nationals draft right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker? From the article: “After not being able to agree with the New York Mets, Right-Handed Pitcher Kumar Rocker could be an interesting draft choice for the Nationals in 2022. As of now, MLB.com is projecting that the Nationals will draft OF Elijah Green from IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), however, with pitching now being a need for the Nationals things could change and it might be a good idea to draft another stud pitcher that could help the team in the long term, is Kumar Rocker a good fit?” Click here to read the full article. We have also written about another interesting prospect that the Nationals should take a look at shortstop: Jacob Berry.

You are all ready for the day! 

Make sure to follow us on Twitter for all the latest developments during the day from the Washington Nationals and around Major League Baseball. Don’t forget to forward this morning’s briefing to another Washington Nationals fan!