Why would young players want their team to sign free agents? Free Agents take roster spots, maybe even their roster spot. If I were a young player, I'd see the Nats as an opportunity for playing time, lots of playing time. And they seemed to be a pretty tight knit group that has been improving the last two years.
I think the only thing that players care about on a day to day basis is how much they get to play, it's what I hear them talk about all the time.
Other than Ryan, who has Free Agency on the horizon, why would a player who is under team control for 5 more years (or whatever) care about anything other than playing time?