No. 29: Washington Nationals

How the heck did the Nationals get here?

Let’s begin by looking at a glorious six-year span for the Washington Nationals.

2009: Took Stephen Strasburg with the first pick. He finished top five in the Cy Young voting twice, and he was named 2019 World Series MVP.
2010: Took Bryce Harper with the first pick. He has won two MVP awards. They also took Robbie Ray in the 12th round. He has won a Cy Young award.
2011: Took Anthony Rendon with the sixth pick. He has finished top six in the MVP voting three times.
2012: Took Lucas Giolito with the 16th pick. He has finished top seven in the Cy Young voting twice.
2015: Traded for Trea Turner one year after they failed to draft him because the Padres got there first. He has won a batting title, twice led the league in stolen bases and finished top seven in the MVP balloting twice. They also signed Max Scherzer, perhaps the greatest free-agent signing of the century. In six full seasons—not counting the COVID year—Scherzer won two Cy Young awards and finished top five in the voting every year.
2015: Signed Juan Soto as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic for $1.5 million. He has won a batting title, led the league in OPS and finished top six in the MVP balloting three times.

That’s a stupefying haul of talent. I’m sure there are six-year periods to match it… but certainly not many. It reminds me a lot of the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers’ haul when they took Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster all in the same draft.

The Steelers obviously made the most of their haul; all four players are in the Hall of Fame and Pittsburgh won four Super Bowls.

Did the Nationals make the most of their haul? Obviously not. But they did make the playoffs five times in an eight-year span, and they had an October to remember in 2019, winning the franchise’s first World Series without winning a single home World Series game.

And then, they collapsed as no World Series champion has EVER collapsed. The Nationals have finished in last place four straight years immediately after winning that World Series, the first time that has happened since… ever.

In a not-unrelated fact, the Nationals are also the first team in 80 years to finish last four straight seasons and not replace either the manager (Dave Martinez) or general manager (Mike Rizzo). The last team to do that? The World War II-era Athletics. And that was because the team’s owner, Connie Mack, wasn’t about to fire the team’s manager Connie Mack or the team’s general manager Connie Mack no matter how many times they finished last.

How did it get so bad so fast?