And the next thought is "does he end up on the Phillies or the Mets?"
Keep in mind, they're like the 4th or 5th richest owners in baseball. Payrolls in the top 3rd of the league should be expected.
The big concern now though is it's not the same ownership group that it was back then. They got Ted his World Series in DC, and now he's dead. Even before Ted died, they cut payroll by 20M immediately after the WS instead of trying to reinvest and keep things going, and then when that diminished team struggled in the weird, short COVID season they cut payroll by another 25M, and then they blew the team up halfway through the next season. My worry is they opened their pocket books because Ted wanted that one WS before he died, but the next generation doesn't really care about winning. One piece of evidence for this is how they allowing the Nats scouting and development program to languish until they were publicly called out by the Washington Post for having the
smallest and most archaic system in the majors. Who needs scouting and development when none of those kids will make it to the big leagues before Ted's in the grave?
Maybe Mark cares, but he's now part of a triumvirate that
according to Svrluga doesn't see eye-to-eye:
This should've been the winter to start adding in free agency, but they're doing nothing. Only guy they're even rumored to be interested in is Gleyber Torres, who'd just be another "buy low to flip at the deadline" move. Personally, I've got no faith they see the Nats as anything more than an investment property.
Prospect Info: [2024 - 102nd] Owen Protz (LD) - Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
