The Washington Nationals Trade Daniel Murphy & Matt Adams Giving Up on 2018 & Beyond

Having won four NL East titles between 2012 and 2017, the Washington Nationals were widely expected to cruise to another NL East title in 2018 after winning back to back titles under Dusty Baker. But they could not get past the NLDS. I was skeptical about this when they fired Dusty Baker and replaced him with Dave Martinez. In fact, I said they would regret this decision.

I'm not sure when they finally came to this regret. Perhaps it was last night when they lost 12-1 to the last place Miami Marlins and fell to 62-63 and 7 games back of the Atlanta Braves. Because they put Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams on waivers and now they are members of the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. (The NL Central just got much more interesting.) The Nats even put Bryce Harper on waivers and the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed him. But he isn't leaving D.C. - for now.

Make no mistake. The Nats will dismantle the team in the off-season. They will say goodbye to Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Anthony Rendon not to mention Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg and start anew. The only thing Nats fan will look forward to in the next 3 to 5 years will be the races between the Presidents between innings.