Mark Lerner Says He Won't Sell Washington Nationals Despite Exploring Options

The Washington Nationals are in another year of their rebuild.

After winning the World Series in 2019, they weren't able to defend their title in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign and begun to sell off their pieces in subsequent seasons which resulted in them owning the worst record in Major League Baseball for a five-year stretch.

There is optimism they could be coming out of it.

The Nationals have tons of young talent on their roster and even more in their pipeline, potentially setting themselves up for long-term success if the majority of those players reach their ceiling.

However, a financial commitment is also needed from ownership to keep their stars in place and bring other high-profile pieces into the mix when that time comes, and right now, neither ownership nor the front office is ready to make that a reality.

For where Washington sits in their rebuilding stage at the moment, that makes sense.

But there was also some uncertainty about the future leadership when the Lerner family, led by patriarch Mark, was "exploring their options" when it came to a potential sale of the team.

That news broke back in 2022, and while there has been no movement on that front almost three years later, it takes a while for prospective buyers to put together a group that can purchase a franchise in the $1 billion range.

The idea of a sale also added some fuel to the fire regarding speculation that the Lerners weren't investing money into the team because they wanted to sell, opting to maximize their profits when that time came.

It doesn't sound like selling the Nationals is something Mark Lerner is interested in doing, though.

"Our commitment is to continue to go forward," he said per Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post, also adding that a sale is "not on the list of things we worry about. We're excited about the team. We worked too hard to get it, and we love what we're doing with it. And so, unless something different happens along the way, we're in it for the long haul."

If that's the case, then why look into options when it came to potentially selling the franchise?

Lerner explained that as well.

"I think it got blown up a little bit. We were just seeing what's out there, seeing if there was anything that would work for us — not in selling, necessarily. You could sell pieces of [the team], too," he told Svrluga.

This year, Washington is celebrating the 20th season that this team has been in the nation's capital.

Winning in 2019 was a pretty extraordinary feat when considering how many professional sports teams in the United States don't have a championship or how long their drought currently is. So for the Nationals to do that in their infancy following the move to Washington D.C. after leaving Montreal highlights just how committed the Lerner family was to creating winning baseball in the city immediately.

How long he truly holds onto the franchise will be seen, but at least for now, he's not looking to sell.

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