The two year search is over.
On Monday, an announcement came from the current majority owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team, Mark Lerner, in Palm Beach, FL; the Nationals are staying in the Lerner family’s possession.
The Lerner family had been searching for a buyer for the Nationals since 2021, when then-assistant owner Mark Lerner and late majority owner Ted Lerner announced that the family was “exploring options” to sell the Nationals to a possible buyer. The asking price was north of a billion dollars. There was rumored interest from Kennedy Center Co-Founder David Rubenstein, but the offer went sour. Another possible suitor was Monument Sports owner Ted Leonsis, but he opted to seek funding for moving the Wizards and Capitals to Arlington.
Rubenstein would go on to sell his share in the Kennedy Center to buy the team on the other side of I-95, the Baltimore Orioles, for the price of around 1.75 billion dollars.
The reasons that the Lerners could have chosen to take the Nats off the market are wide. One possibility is that the Orioles still own the Nationals TV rights. This deal was made to coax the team to move from Montreal to D.C. The rights to the TV deal are still being discussed in New York court.
Another reason could have been that Ted Lerner died in February of 2023. This resulted in Mark Lerner having the keys to the team, and he could be wanting to keep it for himself after his father has passed.
Last year, the Nationals went 71-91, finishing last in the NL East. After the retraction of a possible sale, fans hope that Mark Lerner could open his pocketbooks and give General Manager Mike Rizzo the ability to sign big name free agents.
Since their World Series win in 2019, the Nationals have been notorious for signing the stars of yesteryear. They frequently target old free agents at the end of their career. Examples of these include Nelson Cruz in 2022 (age 41, retired in 2023), SP Jon Lester in 2021 (age 38, retired later that year).
Continuing this practice, the Nats signed with former Reds and Brewers OF Jesse Winker this year. A Brewers fan page wrote an article about Winkers’ signing, with the title calling Winker a “former Brewers disappointment.”
The other signing from this year is 30 year old OF Joey Gallo. Gallo is a known power hitter who can launch 30 homers per year. That’s just about the end of Gallo’s upside. His ability to get on base outside of hitting the ball far is next to none. Gallo sports a career batting average of 0.197 while consistently finishing in the top percentile of strikeouts every year.
In 2023, Gallo had the third most strikeouts of his career (177), finishing behind his 2017 (196) and 2018 (207) totals. With his playing time gradually decreasing every year before signing with a declining Minnesota team last year, he will look to fight for an everyday job in an already stacked outfield core.
If the Lerner family continues being cheap when signing free agents, while letting star players roam elsewhere, the team will be in a continuous lapse of rebuild. The fans, however, are already fed up with the owners. If any time was most pivotal for them to show their dedication to this team, it is now.
