Step One Is Just the Start

Olsen is an established, durable southpaw who may even be an Opening Day starter. If he continues to improve, as he did last season after adding a change-up, lowering his ERA to 4.20 and pitching more than 200 innings, he is probably part of the team's long-term future. He's also been immature and hot tempered, the worst example a scuffle with police officers when he was charged with driving under the influence in '07. "Every year, you grow up a little more," said Olsen, 24. "It just happens."

"He got a lot of competitive juices," assistant GM Mike Rizzo said. "He won't let you take the ball from him."

Left fielder Willingham, 29, is no prospect. What you see now is what you get -- a steady, productive player who hits for consistent extra base power, draws walks and has a higher career OPS (.833) than any National except Nick Johnson.

How could the Nats grab two real players for three mere prospects, only one of whom (Emilio Bonafacio) elicits much enthusiasm? Because the pair are exactly the kind of players that a poor team like Florida can't keep, a bad team with money, like the Nats, can use to upgrade fast, but that elite clubs, lusting after CC Sabathia, don't want. And the Nats, after upgrading their farm system, put together a good enough prospect package to get them.

Lest the Nats congratulate themselves too soon, much more is still required to lift a 102-loss team back into polite baseball society. In discussions of the Nats at the World Series, respected insiders rolled their eyes. How can you deface the debut of a publicly built park with a low-budget team? You're begging for injuries. The Nats got them.

The rest of the game is most surprised that the Lerners seem not to grasp that Bud Selig guided Kasten, an agent-allergic, fiscal conservative, to Washington because he thought the pairing would be a match of value players. Instead, judged by actions, not words, they're on different pages. Off his Braves track record Kasten by now would be two winters into trying to pull more Terry Pendleton-type signings -- a modest-cost free agent who was MVP.

The Orioles once had Pat Gillick, who'd built two champions in Toronto, as their central architect, but, despite reaching the ALCS, didn't value him. So, sadly, Pat left Camden Yards -- to build a 116-win season in Seattle and, now, a dozen years later, retire after winning a world title in Philadelphia.

After Gillick left the Orioles, no top-tier executive talent would touch Baltimore for a decade until, finally facing his mistakes, Peter Angelos welcomed Andy MacPhail -- Bud's fingerprints all over it -- to try to fix the mess.

If the Nats squander the rest of this winter -- if, for example, they go to spring training with five right-handed hitting outfielders and no new left-handed power bat -- eyebrows will be raised throughout the game.

Getting Olsen and Willingham gives the Nats fresh hope. Just so long as it's a beginning and not an end.