I was there. I found it interesting. Kilgore, Janes and Svrluga from WaPo were there. Takeaways:
Lerners are weird baseball owners. They have a business plan with deferred money and the reporters don't think that MASN money will affect that much
Werth is a jerk and high maintenance, but was likely responsible for bringing the nationals to a competitor franchise
The Lerners have a "special" relationship with Boras and for the most part it's been beneficial, but sometimes money has been spent on Boras clients that would be better spent elsewhere.
All three of them did not think that the "window" was only the next 2 years. There is hope for what they have in the pipeline. Svrluga did say that winning a WS is hard though, and if you have a team that you think is capable you should take advantage. And that given a choice between a WS now and one in 2020, most fans would prefer winning with the current set of players.
Chelsea Janes thinks Nats only have a 10 percent chance of re-signing Harper. But the others thought is was the order of 40-50%, saying that Bryce likes the idea of his career being only in one place and emphasizing Boras connection, using Strasburg as example.
They all believe that MAT will be given significant leash in CF before pulling trigger on trade.
They all expressed some regret about stories in 2015 about failed season early. But they just said they explained it to the guys on the team and that while it made it awkward for them, the reporters didn't think it caused significant damage to their relationship with he players.
When asked why Rizzo couldn't find a closer, the consensus among all three reporters is that closers are volatile, hard to find, Storen was one pitch a way from Rizzo having a completely different reputation regarding closers. But in the end, they don't know.
There was some general discussion about baseball reporting, that wasn't specific to Nats.
Overall I though it was interesting. Nothing earth shattering. Glad I went. But I live 3 metro stops away and ate dinner beforehand.
