Every so often during the offseason, a familiar name emerges at the top of the headlines, evoking memories for fans. For those who have followed the Cleveland Guardians for the last few seasons, that recently happened.

Konnor Pilkington, who used to pitch in the organization, signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals for the 2024 season.

Pilkington, or the “Pilk-Man” as he became known, was acquired from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for INF Cesar Hernandez at the 2021 trade deadline.

He made his major league debut on April 4 of the next season and spent the next year alternating between the minor league and big league rosters.

Pilkington appeared in 16 games, starting 11 of those, for the Guardians during his tenure with the team. In those games, he posted a 3.75 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, and an ERA+ of 102.

Cleveland typically called on Pilkington to make spot starts here and there and come into the game as a long reliever in a blowout. Pilkington knew exactly what his job was and executed it to perfection.

However, the Guardians designated him for assignment on April 26, 2023, and traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks a few days later.

The Nationals are still trying to establish their rotation for the 2025 season. If Pilkington impresses during spring training and the minors, he could become an option for the Nats.

He’s still only 27 years old and has shown some promise at the big-league level, even if that is in just an innings-eating role. Perhaps Pilkington will get another major league opportunity with Washington.

A D.C. nonprofit is approaching its goal of providing holiday gifts to 81 children being raised by their grandparents.

The Plaza West apartment building in Mount Vernon Triangle offers affordable housing to “grand families.” All but three of the apartments have a single grandmother raising a minor child, according to the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District.

“We want the children to know that your community really cares about you, and we believe through this toy drive that we’ve done just that,” Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District President and CEO Kenyattah Robinson said.

He said his foundation is well on the way to helping the grand families at Plaza West have a happy holiday.

“The children actually told our staff what gifts they wanted,” Robinson said. “So, the gifts that you see on the Amazon wish list are the gifts that have been picked out by the children.”

Plaza West is unique.

“For grandparents who are raising their grandchildren because the parents are otherwise not involved, it’s the first of its type in Washington, D.C., and one of only maybe 10 in the country,” Robinson said.

“Some of those grandparents, they have more than one child that they’re raising,” he said. “A large number of these grandparents are over the age of 65. The average income is $23,000 a year.” 

The community has really stepped up, but there’s a public push to get everything on that Amazon wish list for all 81 grandchildren at Plaza West.

This is the fifth year they’ve done the gift giveaway, Robinson said.

“It’s our goal to expand this, to raise more funds in the future to support more deserving children in not only our Mount Vernon Triangle community, but the surrounding community so that more children have access to holiday gifts,” he said. 

The children will get their gifts during a holiday party Thursday evening.

Learn more about the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Foundation here.

Washington, D.C.-area restaurants once again will not be free from politics as the Trump team prepares to settle into the nation’s capital for a second term. 

Food workers inside the Beltway are prepared to refuse service and cause other inconveniences for members of the incoming Trump administration, but this is not the first time the administration and allies will have to deal with harassment while sitting down to dinner.

In September 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife were harassed at Fiola, an upscale Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C. Protesters confronted them over Cruz’s support for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation hearings. Videos circulated online showing demonstrators shouting at the couple, chanting, “We believe survivors.” Cruz and his wife eventually left the restaurant due to the altercation.

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This incident was part of a broader wave of confrontations involving Trump administration officials and allies over the summer that year.

As such, in June 2018, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted by protesters at MXDC Cocina Mexicana, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., over the Trump administration’s family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. Protesters chanted, “Shame!” and called her a “villain,” forcing her to leave.

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller, known for his role in shaping immigration policy, recounted an incident when he went to pick up an $80 sushi order from a restaurant near his apartment that same month. As he left, the bartender followed him outside, called out his name and, when Miller turned around, gave him a double middle finger. He threw away the sushi out of fear someone in the restaurant had tampered with the food, the New York Post reported at the time.

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President-elect Donald Trump. (Peter Kramer/NBC via Getty Images)

Also in June 2018, the owner of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, asked then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave, citing opposition to the Trump administration’s tough immigration policies. 

Industry veterans, bartenders and servers in the nation’s capital told the Washingtonian this week that resistance to the Republican figures in the progressive city was inevitable and a matter of conscience. 

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Protesters march in reaction to the upset election of Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for President of the United States on Nov. 12, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

“You expect the masses to just ignore RFK eating at Le Diplomate on a Sunday morning after a few mimosas and not to throw a drink in his face?,” said Zac Hoffman, a Washington, D.C., restaurant veteran who is now a manager at the National Democratic Club.

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Not every liberal hospitality sector worker in the report planned to protest the incoming administration while doing their job, however. 

A bartender named Joseph said while he was disappointed by the election results, he was looking forward to higher tips with more Republicans in Washington.

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.