On November 29, 2012, the Nationals traded minor-leaguer Alex Meyer to the Minnesota Twins for Denard Span.
[1] On January 16, 2013, Washington took part in a three-team trade in which the Oakland Athletics sent A. J. Cole, Blake Treinen, and a player to be named later to the Nationals, the Nationals sent Michael Morse to the Seattle Mariners, and the Mariners sent John Jaso to the Athletics.
[2] The Nationals held their 2013 spring training in Viera, Florida, with home games played at Space Coast Stadium.
The new president, William Howard Taft ("Bill"), joined the original four Racing Presidents – George Washington ("George"), Thomas Jefferson ("Tom"), Abraham Lincoln ("Abe"), and Theodore Roosevelt ("Teddy") – all of whom had raced since 2006.
The addition of Bill honored the real President Taft, who started the tradition of the presidential ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at a Washington Senators game at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., and also is widely credited with having accidentally created the seventh-inning stretch while attending a game.