UPDATE: News Item. The Nats just signed a free agent (!). Unfortunately they were fishing at the bottom of the pond. They signed a guy names Paul DeJong, who has hit barely above the Mendosa Line for the past 3 years. He has hit home runs but .227 makes him a liability in even the 8 spot. Almost a guaranteed out, is DeJong. The team spent $1 million for the 2025 season.

That compares with the $120M, 3 year contract the Red Sox just gave a possibly past it 2nd baseman. Or the $787 Million contract the Mets gave Juan Soto, (15 years). The Nats are not even pretending to try.

The El Jefe of the Nats, Mark Lerner, had an interview with a Washington Post sports writer in which he claimed that the team is building through the draft and expects to compete, “somewhere over the rainbow.” OKAY made that quote up. I get that the Soto contract is stupid. But the guy they got, DeJong, will be paid less than a 3 round draft choices’ signing bonus. Its ludicrous to pretend they will be remotely competitive.

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For those you fellow unfortunates who follow the Washington National baseball team, I know how you feel. Its pretty clear that they are stuck in last place with virtually NO HOPE, in the near term.

How am I so sure? Don’t I remember the Miracle Mets? The Houston Astros, who rose from the Texas mesquite dust to the top of the MLB? Countless other improbable success stories? In a word, I remember them. But I do not expect similar miracles from the Nats.

The Nats are in a unique bind. The Lerner family owns the team, for which they doubtless will get billions in profit when they finally sell. To their credit, they bought the team and moved it to DC from Montreal (where fans were confused because the players did not wear skates). The family made their money in real estate, and earned a reputation as shrewd investors and tough negotiators. Not ones to leave a nickel on the table.

The Lerners want to sell the Nats. People want to buy the team. The problem is, a longstanding dispute over TV rights. That dispute is tied up in the courts, and is dragging on endlessley. The dispute is worth hundreds of millions in past and future rights fees. The Lerners can’t get the last box of cracker jacks in the sale until this dispute is resolved.

After winning the World Series in 2019 (the first time for a Washington MLB team) they team has been in last or 2nd to last. Success in baseball requires huge losses each year, until you sell the team. The Lerners have not been noted for tolerating such sacrifices.

Accordingly, he Lerners have slashed expenses and not bothered to upgrade the team much. Most teams with last place finishes fire the coach and general manager, in hopes that may improve results, (despite how often it does not). And pay zillions for star free agents. The Nats have done neither.

Washington Nationals (Gnats?). Five Years of Misery.

Year League W-L% Finish
2024 NL East 44% 4th of 5
2023 NL East 44% 5th of 5
2022 NL East 34% 5th of 5
2021 NL East 40% 5th of 5
2020 NL East 43% 5th of 5

Why, you ask? No manager or GM with any brains would go to a team that refuses to spend much on decent players. Plus the current schmoes, Dave Martinez and Mike Rizzo, aren’t paid all that much. So the incumbents, whom likely are not good candidates for any other jobs, are consigned to stay with a club with no hopes of winning anytime soon. And the Lerners stick with them. Must be a joyful place to work!

Take heart, Gnats fans. Some day, possibly before the end of this century, the Lerners will get their TV rights dispute settled. And they will sell the team, hopefully to a hedge fund billionaire who has no hesitation to lose billions in pursuit of impressing his fellow oligarchs as to the size of his pecker. Then maybe the team will buy some competitive players, and make them worth watching again.

Which as of today, they are not.