Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Nationals Park, located on South Capitol Street in the Navy Yard neighborhood of the Southeast quadrant of D.C. along the Anacostia River.

The Nationals are the eighth major league franchise to be based in Washington, D.C., and the first since 1971. The current franchise was founded in 1969 as the Montreal Expos as part of a four-team expansion. After a failed contraction plan, MLB bought the Expos, seeking to move the team to a new city. MLB owners chose Washington, D.C., in 2004 and established the Nationals the next year, in the first MLB franchise move since 1971 when the third Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, to become the Texas Rangers. No other MLB team would move until the 2025 season, when the Oakland Athletics relocated to West Sacramento in advance of their ultimately planned move to the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

While the team initially struggled after moving to Washington, the Nationals enjoyed considerable success throughout the 2010s. The team had back-to-back first overall picks in the MLB draft in 2009 and 2010, selecting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. The team secured their first playoff berth and first division title in 2012 and won the National League East again in 2014, 2016, and 2017, but failed to advance past the NLDS each time. In 2019, the team advanced to the World Series as a Wild Card team and defeated the Houston Astros in seven games to earn their first championship.

As of the end of the 2025 season, the franchise's overall win–loss record is 4,331–4,665–4 (.481). Since moving to Washington, D.C., their overall win–loss record is 1,576–1,722 (.478)

Background

Early baseball in Washington, D.C.

Multiple short-lived baseball franchises, including two named the Nationals, played in Washington with the National Association in the 1870s. The first Washington Nationals team in a major league played in the American Association in 1884. Another Washington Nationals team also played in the Union Association during its only season in 1884. The first Washington Nationals of the National League played from 1886 to 1889.

Washington Senators / Statesmen / Nationals

The Washington Statesmen played in the American Association in 1891, before jumping to the National League as the Senators the following season. The Washington Senators, who were often referred to as the Nationals, played in the National League from 1892 to 1899. They were followed in 1901 by another Washington Senators franchise — a charter member of the new American League — who were officially named the Washington Nationals from 1905 to 1955. In 1912, another Washington Senators team formed as one of eight teams of the United States Baseball League. But the league and the team folded after just over a month of play in 1912.

The first American League Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins. MLB awarded Washington an expansion team, the second American League Senators franchise, which began play in 1961 but moved to Arlington, Texas after the 1971 season to become the Texas Rangers.

Montreal Expos

The Montreal Expos were part of the 1969 Major League Baseball expansion, which included the Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers), Kansas City Royals, and San Diego Padres. Based in Montreal, the Expos were the first Major League team in Canada and were named after the Expo 67 World's Fair. The majority-share owner was Charles Bronfman, a major shareholder in Seagram.

The Expos saw poor on-field results through their lifetime leading into the 1990s, never winning their division except in the second half of the strike-split 1981 season. Bronfman sold the team to a consortium of owners in 1991, with Claude Brochu as the managing general partner. In 1994, the Expos, led by a talented group of players including Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martínez, had the best record in the major leagues until the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike forced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. After the disappointment of 1994, Expos management began shedding its key players and the team's fan support dwindled. Brochu sold control of the team to Jeffrey Loria in 1999, but Loria failed to secure funding to build a new downtown ballpark and did not reach an agreement on television or English radio broadcast contracts for the 2000 season, reducing the team's media coverage.

Proposed 2001 contraction

After the 2001 season, MLB considered revoking the team's franchise, along with that of either the Minnesota Twins or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In November 2001, Major League Baseball's owners voted 28–2 to contract the league by two teams — according to various sources, the Expos and the Minnesota Twins, both of which reportedly voted against contraction. Subsequently, the Boston Red Sox were sold to a partnership led by John W. Henry, owner of the Florida Marlins. In order to clear the way for Henry's group to assume Red Sox ownership, Henry sold the Marlins to Loria who in turn sold the Expos to MLB. However, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, the Metrodome's operator, won an injunction requiring the Twins to play there in 2002. MLB's inability to revoke the Twins franchise compelled it to keep both the Twins and Expos as part of the regular season schedule. The collective bargaining agreement signed with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in August 2002 prohibited contraction until the end of the contract in 2006. By that time, the Expos had become the Washington Nationals and the Twins had made sufficient progress towards the eventual building of a new baseball-specific stadium that contraction was no longer on the agenda.

History

Move to DC (2004–2005)

With contraction no longer an option in the immediate term, MLB began looking for a new site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Oklahoma City; Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia (such as Arlington or Dulles); Norfolk, Virginia; Las Vegas; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Washington, D.C., and both Virginia locations emerged as the front-runners.

On September 29, 2004, MLB announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C., for the 2005 season, returning professional baseball to the United States's capital. On November 15, arbitrators struck down a lawsuit former team owners brought against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria, bringing to an end all legal actions that could have impeded a move. The other MLB team owners approved the move to Washington, D.C., in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote).

Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators when the Expos moved to Washington in 2005, legal and political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the first American League franchise's official name used from 1901 to 1956. Politicians and others in the District of Columbia objected to the name Senators because the District of Columbia does not have voting representation in Congress. In addition, the Rangers still owned the rights to the Senators name.

Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony A. Williams supported the name "Washington Grays" in honor of the Negro-league team Homestead Grays (1929–1950), which had been based in Pittsburgh but played most of their home games in Washington's Griffith Stadium during much of the 1940s. On November 21, 2004, the team's management chose the name "Washington Nationals", revealing the club's official colors of red, white, and blue the next day. The team would begin their tenure in DC at RFK Stadium, while planning a move to a new, purpose built stadium which was under construction.

The Nationals played their first game on April 4, 2005, at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies 8–4. The Nationals finished their inaugural season at .500 with an 81–81 record. Its first draft pick as the Nationals was Virginia native and University of Virginia graduate Ryan Zimmerman in the first round of the 2005 draft. Zimmerman made his MLB debut in 2005 and became one of the team's best players and the face of the franchise, playing his entire career with the Nationals.