This story appears in the Sept. 10, 2018, issue of Sports Illustrated. For more great storytelling and in-depth analysis, subscribe to the magazine—and get up to 94% off the cover price. Click here for more.
Is there a pro sports franchise weirder than the Washington Nationals? Before you answer, let’s define weird. We don’t mean forever hapless like the Mets, or doomed to irrelevancy like the NBA’s Kings, or multitudinously mismanaged like Washington’s burgundy-and-gold entry in the NFL. We don’t mean star-crossed, or even epically underachieving, though that last label seems destined to be the one slapped upon the Nats’ 2018 season.