Washington Nationals no longer up for sale

Washington Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner said on Monday that the team is no longer for sale.

The team was on the market for two years, but it appears a buyer didn’t emerge.

“We have determined, our family has determined, that we are not going to sell the team,” Lerner told The Washington Post.

In April of 2022, Lerner announced that he and his family would look into selling the team, with no specific times or dates on when that would happen.

“Nothing has really changed,” Lerner said. “We’ve just decided that it’s not the time or the place for it. We’re very happy owning the team and bringing us back a ring one day.”

The Lerner family has owned the Nationals since 2006. Mark Lerner assumed control of the franchise from his father Ted in 2018. Ted died in February of last year.

The Nationals have won a single World Series, back in 2019. Since then, the team has gone through a pretty serious rebuild, as only four players on the team are from that winning roster — Patrick Corbin, Tanner Rainey, Victor Robles and Stephen Strasburg, who announced his retirement back in August. Washington has finished last in the NL East in the four years since their championship.

The Baltimore Orioles were just bought by David Rubenstein from the Angelos family for $1.725 billion, assuming the rest of the MLB owners vote in favor of the sale. Rubenstein was also interested in buying the Nationals when they were for sale, but decided to go for his hometown team instead.