According to Rizzo they are not already over, but I agree that this is the year for the Nats to make a run, we've got a very good returning team and a lot of big market clubs are dropping payroll to prepare for the FA group next off-season.
The fact that Rizzo contradicted the AP reports is a major story that the Nats media has completely missed.
The Nats media probably wants to overlook that he denied the luxury tax thing. I mean, the Nats probably won't win an appeal at how to calculate AAV on certain salaries, and it is public knowledge what most of the players are making by AAV. Rizzo isn't wrong that they haven't gone over yet because arbitration salaries have not been awarded. Still, an estimate of arbitration salaries plus NOT signing Kintzler and Adams would have had around 7 Million of wiggle room below the Luxury tax threshold. Unless the Nats expect to have most of the arb guys just take HUGE pay cuts (which won't work in the arbitration process), that puts the Nats over. It might be Rizzo just playing his cards close to his vest because they are being cautious with the FA and trade markets. The Nats also know that they have an anchor in Wieters for the coming season, and it won't be easy to offload Wieters AND get back a quality catcher that would help the team for a few years.
