The Nats have conquered the NL East three times in the past five years, but have never have made it beyond the Division Series. Perhaps there are still questions about whether the Nats did enough during an uneventful offseason to separate themselves from the other contenders in the NL.
Still, they are coming off 95 victories last season and held a 2-1 series lead over the Dodgers in the NLDS before falling short of making the NL Championship Series. They only lost two everyday players from that team -- Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa -- and replaced them with Adam Eaton, who has been one of the best outfielders in baseball recently, and Derek Norris.