The Lerner household is now not pursuing a sale of the Nationals, Mark Lerner tells Andrew Golden of The Washington Submit. “Now we have decided, our household has decided, that we’re not going to promote the staff,” Lerner stated, including that the choice was made “some time in the past.”
It was virtually two years in the past, in April of 2022, that Lerner first revealed that the membership can be exploring the potential for a sale. “Nothing has actually modified,” Lerner stated right this moment. “We’ve simply determined that it’s not the time or the place for it. We’re very completely happy proudly owning the staff and bringing us again a hoop sooner or later.”
Within the interim, it appeared like little progress was made in the direction of the membership altering arms. In late 2022, it was reported that their dispute with the Orioles over the Mid-Atlantic Sports activities Community was one thing of an impediment. When the Montreal Expos have been moved to Washington and into the territory of the O’s, the previous membership’s TV rights got to the latter membership. The 2 golf equipment collectively personal MASN however the O’s having a bigger share.
TV income is a major issue within the funds for a baseball membership, as has been fairly clear this winter. The continuing chapter of Diamond Sports activities Group has put a dent within the spending capability of varied golf equipment all through this offseason. The Nats are at an obstacle in that division as they don’t have management over their very own rights and have been battling the O’s over MASN income for years.
As of a couple of yr in the past, the reporting nonetheless indicated that little progress was being made by way of promoting the Nats. The probably purchaser, Ted Leonsis, owns NBC Sports activities Washington and sure needed to place the membership on that channel. However the aforementioned issues would make that tough and appeared to stall the potential for something getting performed.
It not too long ago appeared attainable there was some gentle on the finish of the tunnel with the developments surrounding the Orioles. The Angelos household, who’ve owned the O’s since 1993, not too long ago agreed to promote the membership to a gaggle led by David Rubenstein. That group goes to additionally purchase the Orioles’ share of MASN if the deal is finally accredited by Main League Baseball. Some observers speculated that Rubenstein may promote MASN to Leonsis. It was additionally reported that the league might make the O’s hand over the Nationals’ TV rights as a part of approving the sale, although it’s unclear if they’d any intent to take action. That arguably opened a path for a sale of the Nats to grow to be unclogged however evidently received’t be coming to fruition, with the Lerner household deciding to carry on.
Now that the Lerners are sticking round, questions shall be raised in regards to the membership’s path ahead. Regardless of profitable the World Sequence in 2019, the membership’s fortunes turned after that they usually have been in a deep rebuild for some time now. They traded Max Scherzer and Trea Turner on the 2021 deadline after which Juan Soto one yr after that. That’s naturally led to modest exercise in latest offseasons however they’ve been pretty quiet even by the requirements of a rebuilding membership.
Final yr, they largely gave out one-year pacts to bounceback candidates like Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith, although they did give a two-year pact to Trevor Williams. This winter, the exercise has been much more muted, with their $5MM deal for Joey Gallo the most important expenditure of the winter. Basic supervisor Mike Rizzo not too long ago acknowledged that the membership was unlikely to make any extra strikes of significance.
It had been assumed by some observers that the shortage of exercise was a mirrored image of the truth that the membership was on the market. The Lerner household might have used the pretty clear payroll outlook as a pretty function to market to potential consumers, providing events an opportunity to place their very own stamp on the way forward for the franchise. Now that the sale isn’t occurring, the focus will flip again on the Lerner household and the way they plan to get the Nats out of their latest slide. They’ve completed under .500 previously 4 seasons and most projection methods calculate them as more likely to be one of many worst golf equipment within the league in 2024.