It's actually kind of fun to look back at the first period of lousy Nats for the desperate sort of reshuffling the deck chairs kind of deals Bowden and early Rizzo did. Perpetual motion of swapping filler for filler with the hope of coming up with a gem. Langerhans had been acquired for Chris Snelling in 2007 (as pointed out up thread), who turned into Michael Morse. The Guzman deal turned into Tanner Roark. Blake Treinen was another deal. Really, through about 2015, the deals built much of the complementary players beyond Stras, Harper, and Rendon.