Zim identifies moment the Nats turned their franchise around originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Nationals have spent the last nine years contending for the playoffs, fielding teams with World Series aspirations and regularly sending slews of players to the All-Star Game. However, it hasn’t always been this way.
During its early years in the District, Washington was one of the worst franchises in the sport. Before packing up and moving to the nation’s capital, the Montreal Expos sold off most of their on-field talent before MLB took ownership of the team and gutted everything from its front office to the marketing department. After an 81-81 inaugural season in 2005, the Nationals endured six straight seasons with a losing record including two (2008-09) that resulted in over 100 defeats.
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No one understands what the Nationals went through quite like Ryan Zimmerman, who was the team’s first draft pick. He reached the majors by September 2005 and never left, quickly becoming one of the few reasons for fans to tune into games. It was with Zimmerman as the face of the franchise when the Nationals began building a contender.
When exactly did the plan start to come together? Zimmerman sat down with Mark Zuckerman and Al Galdi on Thursday’s episode of the Nats Chat podcast and pinpointed when he started feeling more optimistic about Washington’s future.
“To have the draft picks that we got when we had those picks to get [Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon], those [are] three pretty good guys to build your team around,” Zimmerman said. “Once we had a real ownership group here that was ready to get the new stadium…it seemed a little bit more legitimate once the Lerner family took over.
“When MLB is running your team and there’s not really much you can do, so when they bought the team, when we got the new stadium, when we had some of those young prospects drafted [and] turn into legit, big-league players and then you started signing some veteran guys that — they’re not the huge, big-name free agents but guys that can still play but can teach the young guys how to become professionals, how to do things the right way.”
Ted Lerner purchased the Nationals in 2006 and made Mike Rizzo general manager three years later — though not until after Jim Bowden resigned amid allegations of skimming signing bonuses for Latin American players. Yet Washington’s ineptitude under Bowden helped produce consecutive No. 1 overall picks that the team used to select Strasburg and Harper. Rendon was taken with the sixth pick in 2011.
The first real signal from the Nationals that they were ready to start contending came in the 2010-11 offseason, when they signed outfielder Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126 million deal. Werth immediately became the team’s clubhouse leader, instilling a new culture and providing a much-needed veteran presence on a team filled with young prospects.
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A year later, the Nationals finally did it. With Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann anchoring their rotation and Harper joining a lineup that included Zimmerman, Werth, Ian Desmond and Adam LaRoche, Washington put together a 98-win season that culminated with a Game 5 loss in the National League Division Series.
There would be four more early postseason exits for the Nationals before they ultimately broke through and won the World Series in 2019. But that 2012 team stands out in Zimmerman’s mind, not just because it was the first time he made the playoffs, but because of how the team came together.
“Everyone talks about that 2012 year where it was supposed to be a year or two later that we were supposed to turn the corner, and that group of guys just had something special and we just kinda gelled,” Zimmerman said. “That’s one of the funnest years I think I’ve had. Obviously, nothing will top ’19 but 2012 was a pretty cool year.”
