WASHINGTON — About 15 minutes before the first full-squad practice of season began, and about three months before Wednesday’s 8-4 win over the New York Mets got the Washington Nationals back to .500, first-year manager Blake Butera stood toward the front of an ovular clubhouse in West Palm Beach and brought the outside noise in.As players sank into their chairs and coaches stood off to the side with their arms across their chests, Butera and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni talked through their priorities and their burgeoning identity. They talked about transparency and attention to detail. They urged aggressive baserunning and smarter swing decisions. They talked about pushing players harder than they had been pushed before, and expecting the same in return.Finally, near the end of his speech, Butera addressed the elephant in the room.He knew that many of his players had spent the winter online. He could tell that they had read stories and social media posts, ones that said it could be a rough few years for this club. The Nationals had, after all, flipped their ace and closer for prospects. They had not won more than 71 games in a season since 2019. One of their most expensive offseason additions was a fancy pitching machine.They did, by definition, what rebuilding teams do.Butera, effectively, called the outside noise hogwash. When he found spare time while raising his newborn daughter, he used it by getting on the phone with the 60-something players who now sat before him. Nearly every single one spent the offseason saying they wanted to be pushed harder.In January, he arrived in West Palm Beach expecting an empty facility. He was instead greeted by Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker, among others. The next week, Drew Millas, Keibert Ruiz and Nasim Nuñez arrived. Brady House and Robert Hassell III were close behind. Every single person, as far as he could recollect, arrived before they were supposed to.Outsiders, he said, had underestimated their talent and undercut their buy-in.“These guys were sick of hearing about it,” Butera said last week “A lot of these players, too, are in the same boat. A lot of them … might have been a DFA pick up, waiver pickup, smaller trade pieces, they also feel like they have a chip on their shoulders to prove (something) to the teams where they came from.”Following Wednesday’s win over the $370 million Mets, the $96 million Nationals are 25-25. It is the deepest into a season that the Nationals have had a .500 record since 2021.“We’ve lost a lot of games over the last few years, and honestly, we’re tired of it,” outfielder Jacob Young said recently. “We know how much talent is in this room. If a team does dare to come in and sleep on us during a series, you know, put it to them.”