There’s news on the Washington Nationals ownership front, with D.C. media mogul Ted Leonsis emerging as a suitor to purchase the franchise from the Lerner family.
Leonsis already owns Washington’s NBA, WNBA and NHL teams, and has an agreement in principle to buy NBC Sports Washington, which owns broadcast rights to the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards.
The Washington Post reported this week that five potential bidders have met with Nationals officials, and that it is hoped that a sale could be completed in time for the MLB owners meetings in November.
Forbes has placed a $2 billion valuation on the franchise, ranking 12th among the 30 teams in MLB.
There is speculation that Leonsis, were he to land the team, would try to buy the Nationals out of its unfriendly broadcast agreement with MASN, which is owned by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, giving the franchise a suitable broadcast revenue stream.
The Nats currently get $60 million a year from its MASN agreement, on the low end among MLB local deals in the marketplace.
This has been a key reason why the Nationals have been unable to secure long-term deals with homegrown stars like Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner.
Harper and Rendon left as free agents, and Soto and Turner were packaged in trades by GM Mike Rizzo to obtain minor-league prospects.
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Chris Graham
