The Washington Nationals are in a spot where they can glance back and see a less-than-awesome 2015 season and also look forward at a future that could take both of their biggest homegrown stars away.

An enviable spot? Well, no. But if nothing else, it's a spot that should spur the Nationals into some serious action this winter.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred won't lift the lifetime ban for all-time hits leader Pete Rose, informing him both over the phone and in writing, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

This is not going to be the National League West of recent memory.

For the past four seasons, the San Francisco Giants, with two World Series titles (three in the last six years), and the Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of three consecutive West championships, have run the division. Those clubs spent the most and won the most.

The 2015 MLB winter meetings have come and gone, but the hot stove is still burning.

Fortunately for Jason Heyward, the Atlanta Braves thought they had a chance to win in 2010. Unfortunately for Stephen Strasburg, the Washington Nationals knew they didn't.

Both Heyward and Strasburg were young phenoms that spring. The Braves put Heyward on their Opening Day roster. The Nationals had Strasburg make 11 minor league starts before calling him up for a much-hyped major league debut on June 8.

The 2015 MLB offseason has been a major bummer for Chris Davis and Yoenis Cespedes.

The winter meetings are fading into the background and those free-agent mashers are still hunting for that lucrative, and to this point, elusive, payday.

At a time when Major League Baseball is silly with cash to spend on free agents and young talent to swap in trades, the hot-stove season has a dial that skips right past 11 and goes to 12.

It is, however, still possible for teams to be both quiet and productive on the offseason market. And we can prove it!

The news was stunning, unexpected but completely understandable.

The Houston Astros completed their trade with the Philadelphia Phillies to acquire closer Ken Giles, a flamethrower with huge upside and under club control for the next five seasons. The trade happened Wednesday but was not made official until Saturday afternoon.

Finding logical trade destinations for notorious underachievers like Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp is no enviable task.

Once upon a time, Ramirez and Kemp were mashing together in the heart of the order for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, those guys headline the list of potential trade chips playing on bloated superstar contracts.

In a surprise twist to a deal that was reported earlier this week, the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies pulled a sleight of hand with 2013 No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel going to the Phillies as part of the Ken Giles trade.