The beloved D.C. baseball team the Washington Nationals was founded in 1969 but was not under the current name “Nationals”, the team was actually started in Montreal and they were called the “Expos”. They also were not as good as they are currently, through its first decade the team would be found at the bottom of the National League rankings. This all turned around when hall of fame manager Dick Williams came to take the helm.
Under Dick Williams the Expos posted their first winning season and almost took the division title. In 1981 the Expos won their first ever playoff series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They would sadly fall to the World Series Champion Dodgers that year, but it was still great improvement for the organization. Throughout the rest of the 80s and most of the 90s the Expos would finish in the middle of the pack and have pretty average records. The Expos did have the league-best record at 74-40 in 1994, but their season got cut short due to a labor dispute.
In 2002, the Montreal Expos was sold to the MLB in an effort to raise more revenue. But, a Minnesota court order was put into effect that eliminated the threat of contraction causing the MLB to relocate the Expos. While the Expos were looking for a new suitor city in North America they played most of their home games in 2003-2004 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After 3 years of not having a suitor city the Expos moved to Washington D.C. and would become know as the Nationals.
In the Nationals early years they were one of the worst teams in the National Division posing two 100 loss seasons in 2008 and 2009. Since, the Nationals were one of the worst teams they were able to acquire the first overall pick in the MLB draft two consecutive years in a row, with these picks they would draft one of the best pitchers in the organizations history Stephan Strasburg and one of their best overall players they have ever had in Bryce Harper. From 20014-2018 the Nationals would have tremendous regular season success but would not reciprocate that success in the post season. But, that would change in 2019 when the Nationals would go on to beat the Houston Astros in the World Series. The past 2020 and 2021 season have been very disappointing and the Nationals have missed the playoffs by a mile both years.