THE LEAD
The Nationals are betting big on these deals to bolster their financial standing.

There was no game yesterday, but that didn’t stop Monday from being the most significant day in Nationals history, at least since the Juan Soto trade, if not the World Series parade in 2019. Yesterday, MLB announced that the Nationals and Orioles had jointly resolved the MASN rights/payments dispute that had hung over the franchise since it moved to DC from Montreal. MASN will continue to televise Nats games in 2025 on a one-year contract, and then the Nats will be free to seek their own carrier. The Nats will receive most of the $320 million in rights fees that they have claimed for the 2022-2026 time frame, and in return, will give up their 30% stake in MASN. All other disputes have been settled, and all pending litigation has been dismissed. At long last, the only team in Major League Baseball that did not control its television rights can do so (and hopefully provide better content and in-game experience than the not-even-a-shoestring-budget MASN has provided - although this writer is a fan of Mark Zuckerman and Bobby Blanco).

If that weren’t enough, the Nationals also announced that they are selling stadium naming rights and a jersey patch sponsorship and will no longer be the only MLB team without either of those revenue streams. Altogether, that should bring in tens of millions of extra revenue annually, which hopefully the team will use to continue building their roster. (We hope you read our Special Evening Edition last night, which goes into depth on these two important stories that broke yesterday.]

Up next:

The Nationals will be hosting the St. Louis Cardinals today at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, with first pitch at 1:05 p.m. EDT. RHP Jake Irvin is scheduled to take the mound for the Nationals, and RHP Andre Pallante is scheduled to take the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Don’t forget to visit our live Spring Training blog as we provide live updates from West Palm Beach, analysis, and much more throughout the day.

SPRING TRAINING COVERAGE 2025

Player of the Day

I cannot believe I’m saying this. Still, the player of the day for Monday has to be Rob Manfred for finding a way to help the Lerners and David Rubenstein resolve this massive issue that had been hanging over the Nationals for twenty years. As the saying goes, every dog has his day.

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 ANALYSIS

SO WHAT NOW?

With the television rights issue settled, the obvious question is whether the Lerners are more or less likely to sell the team. We know that Ted Leonsis offered $2 billion for them a couple of years ago, and we know that he still would love to add 162 Nationals games to Monumental programming to give him a deep stable of year-round live sports. Does Leonsis make another offer to buy the whole team, knowing he can now broadcast games on Monumental as soon as 2026? Does he broker a deal for just the television rights? Does he buy the television rights and a minority stake in the team that adds cash flow for a team whose highest-paid active player in 2025 will make $10.3 million? There are a lot of potential avenues here.

As for the Lerners, there are now no more excuses for them to cosplay like the Nuttings of Pittsburgh, Fishers of Oakland, or Castellinis of Cincinnati the way that they have been since the pandemic. Even though their commercial real estate empire took a massive hit in 2020, they are still in the top five for net worth among all MLB owners, but in 2025 will be running a 22nd-ranked payroll of a little over $125 million that is barely over halfway to the Competitive Balance Tax threshold of $241 million. If you only consider active players (and thus, not Stephen Strasburg), their payroll tumbles to $90 million, above only the Rays, A’s, White Sox, and Marlins. That’s two teams that will play in minor league stadiums this year, a franchise that just put together the worst season since the foundation of the American League in 1901, and the perennially cheap and rebuilding Marlins, who draw tens of fans to Opening Day. Regardless of whether or not the Lerners sell some of their shares, it is time for them to invest more money in the product (and in the stadium experience, which has been significantly worse since the pandemic).

SPEED READS
What we think the Washington Nationals front office is reading

📌 MASN provided cover for the Lerners, but no more (Washington Post)

📌 How about the MLB Trade Rumors take? (MLB Trade Rumors)

📌 Or perhaps The Athletic, if you subscribe? (The Athletic)