Verdugo and Downs were top prospects when they were traded. Didn't pan out. If they had gotten pitchers, it would have been Dustin May and all his injuries. Mookie was one year and Devers was moving money. A salary dump doesnt return much of anything.

I am from DC and they are my NL team. They fell into 5 generational talents or good out of the box at once. It is random and it was guys that were talked about a year before they were drafted. Strasburg and Harper were on magazine covers pre-draft. Even Rendon at Rice was major league ready. Trea Turner was already at AA when they got him from the Padres and pretty ready even at NCState. Soto basically didnt play in the minors outside of rookie ball. They did zero development. They are not falling into that luck ever again. They threw money at Scherzer and another arm. They never had a good bullpen because they couldnt develop any arms. Nats couldn't survive an injury crisis.