WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman figures he’ll either find himself back with the World Series champions next season — or out of baseball.

“I think I’ve made my intentions pretty clear,” Zimmerman said Monday night, when he attended the premiere of a documentary about last season’s title. “It’s either play some more here or play more golf.”

The 35-year-old Zimmerman is the only player who has appeared for the Nationals in all 15 of their seasons since the franchise moved to the nation’s capital from Montreal in 2005. He was the team’s first pick in the amateur draft that year.

The club declined its $18 million option for next season on Zimmerman, who received a $2 million buyout and became a free agent. But he expects to return to Washington.

HOUSTON (AP) — Ryan Zimmerman has come full circle, with a trot around the bases for the Washington Nationals.

The first amateur player ever drafted by the Nationals in 2005, and the only person to wear their jersey during all 15 seasons the team has existed, Zimmerman hit their first World Series home run.

With his deep blast to center field with two outs in the second inning Tuesday night — with Houston Astros starter Gerrit Cole immediately throwing his right arm up knowing the ball was long gone — the 35-year-old Zimmerman also scored the team’s first-ever run in the World Series.

Washington trailed when Zimmerman homered but 20-year-old Juan Soto tied the game with an impressive homer of his own leading off the fourth and added a two-run double an inning later and the Nationals held on for a 5-4 victory.

WASHINGTON —  NL MVP candidate Anthony Rendon surveyed his teammates scattered around the Nationals Park diamond, whoopin’ it up after clinching a World Series berth.

There were starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Aníbal Sánchez, each 35 — and each responsible for taking a no-hit bid into at least the seventh inning as Washington won Games 1 and 2 of the NL Championship Series. So was Howie Kendrick, 36, the second baseman who earned NLCS MVP honors with four doubles and four RBIs in the sweep. And Ryan Zimmerman, 35, the first baseman slugging .484 this postseason.

“A lot of old guys on the team,” Rendon observed. “They call themselves ‘Viejos.’”

Indeed, they do, and “Los Viejos” — Spanish for “The Old Guys” — are a big part of why the Nationals are getting ready to face the Astros in the Fall Classic, which opens Tuesday night in Houston.