Message #2287636

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This will certainly generate some conversation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/06/28/nationals-soto-scherzer-turner-rendon/

Be glad that Juan Soto, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon and Max Scherzer are not Nationals.

Be happy that, right now, Lane Thomas, CJ Abrams, Jeimer Candelario and Josiah Gray are replacing them — producing just as much value this season at one-fifteenth the cost.

The biggest edge the Nats have as they try to rebuild a contender may be the vast fortune that they did not spend to keep all the heroes of the 2019 World Series in town.

The message of the moment, from Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Arizona, is that spending smart beats the dollar dumpster fires set by the Mets, Angels and Padres.

These days, your best deals are often the ones that didn’t get made. Washington illustrates the double-edged point. The Nats are burdened by a $245 million deal with Stephen Strasburg through 2026 at $35 million a year. Patrick Corbin, essential to the title but a horrid 21-51 since, is off the books after 2024. Then, free at last.

What’s easy to forget is that the Nats’ predicament could have been so much worse.