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Byline: Herb Scribner Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still plays video games. It was a big hobby for him when he was a kid, and when he was [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes Even two years ago, the idea of Kumar Nambiar becoming one of the first minor league union representatives in the sport's history seemed almost unimaginable. And the [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes Even two years ago, the idea of Kumar Nambiar becoming one of the first minor league union representatives in the sport's history seemed almost unimaginable. And the [...]

Byline: Barry Svrluga Almost two decades ago, when Chad Kuhl entered middle school in Middletown, Del., his eye immediately fell on a new classmate. 'I spotted a blond girl, blue [...]

Byline: Sydney Page During his first baseball practice with Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Community College Mustangs, Jim Fullan struck out on three pitches. He nearly quit the team. 'What did I [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Kelsie Whitmore always wanted to play in the major leagues. She did not always want to admit it. 'Are you sure?' people would [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty Dancing his way down the third base line on a homer, doing another little something after hitting a double, Josh Palacios isn't asking for forgiveness. He's not [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes CINCINNATI - A week ago, before their disappointing start evolved into a full-blown nightmare, the Cincinnati Reds had an off-day. Joey Votto went to yoga. He attended [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - One morning in March, in the deepest back corner of the Washington Nationals' spring training clubhouse, Juan Soto sat alone, holding a [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Forgive Victor Arano and Jordan Weems if they looked around the spring training clubhouse, did some math, wondered how many more cuts [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - For now, Luis García is back at shortstop, where he played when the Washington Nationals signed him as a teenager out of [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty SURPRISE, Ariz. - Jackson Cluff's goal at the Arizona Fall League, the one above all the others, was to prove his 2021 numbers were not a reflection [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty GLENDALE, Ariz. - For reasons he could not control, Drew Millas was the third catcher acquired by the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline, more than a [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty When Keibert Ruiz was traded to the Washington Nationals, one name kept popping up in texts from friends and family in Venezuela. Not Juan Soto, who would [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty MIAMI - Twelve days before he announced his retirement from baseball, Alex Avila kicked back in the dugout at Truist Park in Atlanta, at ease. He deflected [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty Andrew Stevenson passed second, then third, his long blond hair smacking the back of his neck Friday night. But until he ran 90 more feet, collided with [...]

Byline: Kent Babb DUBUQUE, Iowa - It's Pizza Friday, a Moller family tradition, and after months of FaceTiming in from college, Alexis drove home for the occasion. Tomorrow morning, on [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty In the past few years, whenever Trea Turner was asked about signing a long-term deal with the Washington Nationals, he repeated some combination of the same few [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Five hours before first pitch, in that patch of quiet between a sleeping stadium and wall-to-wall activity, Keibert Ruiz dug into the batter's box, [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty CHICAGO - Trea Turner doesn't want to see patterns in his results. Patterns, he explained, could give teams a blueprint for how to beat him. Like if [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty There was one problem with Josh Bell's visit to the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in mid-April: no kids. It was the kids, after all - or [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty Sean Doolittle was face up and horizontal, about to back into the teeth of an MRI tube, when it all hit him. 'What team do you play [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty Last summer, as baseball readied to return amid the coronavirus pandemic, Ryan Zimmerman chose to stay home. He considered that MLB had never done this; that he [...]

Byline: Jake Russell Personality clashes are about as common in baseball as stolen bases. That's why industry curiosity was raised when 76-year-old Tony La Russa was hired to manage the [...]

Byline: Andrea Sachs During the professional baseball season, Juan Soto's head is in the game, but his heart is in the Dominican Republic. The Washington Nationals left fielder was born [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty Daniel Hudson is used to hard decisions. It was less than nine months ago that, once the Washington Nationals advanced in the playoffs, he strayed from the [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty WASHINGTON - Sean Doolittle had waited all weekend. Come early Sunday afternoon, he still was waiting. 'As I sit here talking to you guys . . . [...]

Byline: Gene Wang Eric Thames happened to be at the supermarket weeks ago, picking up steaks for the grill at his home in Las Vegas, when he spotted the unmistakable [...]

Byline: Fred Bowen Although it's the baseball season, no one is playing baseball ... or any other game. Not the major leaguers or the Little Leaguers. So I was wondering [...]

Byline: Barry Svrluga Ryan Zimmerman last visited Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on the morning of March 14. This is - or was, I suppose - his 15th spring training. [...]

Byline: Scott Allen Five days after Sean Doolittle hosted an impromptu ask-me-anything session, during which his wife, Eireann Dolan, revealed that she finds his plate appearances 'hugely embarrassing,' the Nationals' [...]

Byline: Barry Svrluga Ryan Zimmerman last visited Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on the morning of March 14. This is -- or was, I suppose -- his 15th spring training. [...]

Byline: Thomas Boswell Ten days ago, I ran into Cal Ripken Jr. in a store in Annapolis. We chatted so long, catching up, that the store stayed open late so [...]

Byline: Scott Allen Justin Meekins picked up his phone after the Salisbury University baseball team shut out Immaculata on Wednesday and found dozens of text, Snapchat and Instagram messages waiting [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - If there is one agent who can dictate the Washington Nationals' offseason, it's Scott Boras. He represents most of the league's top free agents, [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty LOS ANGELES - On the eve of the National League Division Series, Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon leaned back as if he were in his living [...]

Byline: Fred Bowen Five years ago, Mo'ne Davis was about as famous as a 13-year-old can get. Davis was only the fifth girl to pitch in the Little League World [...]

Byline: KK Ottesen Juan Soto, 20, plays left field for the Washington Nationals. He debuted in the majors last year as the youngest player in the league at the time [...]

Byline: Matthew Gutierrez One of college baseball's top arms lost his mother to cancer seven years ago. Then, in high school, he blew out his pitching arm. As a college [...]

Byline: Thomas Boswell WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Sitting by his locker, Trea Turner is slowly, meticulously wrapping the handle of his bat with a sticky tape. 'And doing a [...]

Byline: Jesse Dougherty PITTSBURGH -- Max Scherzer had to hold back a bit Thursday, resisting the temptation to give everything he had, realizing there was much more at stake than [...]

Byline: Barry Svrluga Two days before Christmas, Bryce Harper and his wife, Kayla, chartered a private plane. There are no direct flights between the Harpers' hometown of Las Vegas and [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Sean Doolittle and Eireann Dolan almost wore nearly identical shoes to a photo shoot last week. Most major league players don't argue [...]

Byline: Chelsea Janes WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - One Sunday morning a few years ago, in the well-worn clubhouse at Turner Field, Bryce Harper sat on the edge of the [...]

Byline: Joe Heim Trea Turner, 24, is the starting shortstop for the Washington Nationals. One of the fastest players in the major leagues, Turner stole 46 bases last year despite [...]

Byline: Matt Bonesteel In 2009, former MLB slugger Sammy Sosa appeared at a music awards show sporting a much lighter complexion than he had just months earlier. The puzzlement grew [...]

Byline: Barry Svrluga It is the weekend before baseball's All-Star Game, and Bryce Harper knows what that means for him. On Monday in Miami, a gaggle of scribes and television [...]

Byline: Jorge Castillo WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When the Washington Nationals break camp and head north Thursday night to begin their regular season, Tim Collins will stay behind in [...]

Byline: Jorge Castillo Joe Blanton, full-time Washington Nationals pitcher and part-time winemaker, traces his fascination with wine to one bottle: a 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia, a Bordeaux red blend of [...]

Byline: Thomas Boswell WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Ever since Max Scherzer arrived in training camp a month ago, he has been worried. At times, the reigning National League Cy [...]