After 16 years of ownership, the Lerner family has reportedly begun exploring the possibility of making “changes in the club’s ownership structure,” which include a potential sale of the team, according to Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post.
Mark Lerner, the son of real estate magnate Ted Lerner, who originally bought the team in 2006, has hired New York investment bank Allen & Company to research potential investors and buyers, though called the move “exploratory” in a statement to the Post.
“This is an exploratory process, so there is no set timetable or expectation of a specific outcome,” Lerner said. “The organization is as committed as ever to their employees, players, fans, sponsors and partners and to putting a competitive product on the field.”
The Nationals have undergone hard times since winning the 2019 World Series, failing to post a winning record in the two years since. Many of the key figures from that team have since been traded away or let go in free agency, and the team is not expected to contend for a playoff spot in ’22.
Ted Lerner, now 96, transferred control of the club’s day-to-day operations to Mark in 2018, at which point the younger Lerner made a bold declaration that the family would never give up ownership of the team.
“We will never sell the Nationals,” Mark Lerner said in 2018 after he took on his current role. “That’s what we’ve worked to get all those years. We think we do a pretty good job of it. There’s no intention of this family—certainly while I’m alive and my sisters and brothers-in-law are alive—nobody’s going to sell this team.”
The Lerners bought the Nationals in 2006 for $450 million, one year after the team relocated to the nation’s capital from Montreal. Forbes valued the franchise at $2 billion in ’22, making it the 12th-most valuable team in MLB.
