Early (elbow) has begun his offseason program in Arizona without any restrictions, Jessica Camerato of MLB.com reports. "Connelly's great. He's working hard," Nationals president of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni said. "... He finished the year healthy. I think that was important for him to get out there and pitch in a big league game.... I think he's hopefully going to come out of the offseason in a really, really good spot."
Early was the Nationals' haul for trading away Curtis Mead. There are open spots in the rotation behind Cade Cavalli and probably Andrew Alavarez, and Early has a good chance to fill one of those spots.