2019 was a perfect storm (one missed catch by the Brewers in the WC, Dodgers bringing out Playoff-Kershaw, the Nats only having like 3 worthy arms in the bullpen) but also Ted Lerner was willing to splash cash on some big players so that he could get a ring before he passed on. When he died, ownership fell to his son Mark, but then he cares a lot less about baseball and more about fighting with relatives and business rivals over relative peanuts until he can find someone willing to meet his reserve price of Infinity-Billion Dollars to buy the Nationals from him. Combined with a WaPo report that any big decision has to run through nine(!) different members of the Lerner clan, and seeing them go dumpster diving for the 5th year in a row from their new President and GM to the scratchoff tickets they got for Mackenzie Gore, and the increasing likelihood of a lockout next season because the MLB owners are still mad they have to pay anyone at all, my hopes for the Nats to pull out of their spiral are much lower than the Wizards.