Heading into the 2014 season, few shortstops in baseball were trending up like Ian Desmond. Back-to-back Silver Slugger seasons for a Nationals franchise that was beginning to establish itself as a perennial contender catapulted one of the last remaining Expos draft picks into the national spotlight. And that meant Desmond was due to be paid big money in the near future. The Nats recognized this, and in the kind of move they hadn't really been in position to make with many homegrown players...

What are the two biggest free agent signings in Nationals history? Max Scherzer and Jayson Werth, obviously. (We're talking about guys who were signed after playing for other clubs, not the re-signing of homegrown players like Stephen Strasburg or Ryan Zimmerman.) Both of those moves sent major shockwaves throughout the baseball world. The Scherzer signing (for seven years and $210 million) added one of the game's best starting pitchers to a rotation that already looked loaded before his...

Last week, we opened our "What If?" series wondering what might have been had Jordan Zimmermann accepted the Nationals' long-term extension offer after the 2014 season, a decision that had long-lasting ramifications on the organization. This week, we look at a big decision the organization made the following summer that absolutely had immediate consequences for the club, and probably had long-lasting ones as well: The trade for Jonathan Papelbon. Prepare to cringe. As the 2015 trade deadline...

Baseball organizations and baseball players make countless decisions that impact their short-term and long-term success. Many have no real significant bearing on a franchise's ultimate fortunes, but some really do wind up having major implications that affect not only the player involved but several others either already on the roster or perhaps arriving in the future. You never know which of these decisions are going to have lasting repercussions and which ones won't. It often takes years to...

All this time off has given us plenty of opportunity to look back and fondly remember events of the past 15 years. Great games that were won. Great players that made an impact. Big decisions that had long-lasting ramifications for the future of the organization. But what if some of those big moments didn't happen? What if one of those decisions wasn't made the same way? What impact would that have had on the Nationals in the long term? I've thought of several possible moves that could've...