Trea Turner is looking like an elite player on the Nats for the next 5 years. Adam Eaton is a good player with a very friendly contract. Scherzer and Strasburg are locked in for a while and if they're healthy, a very competitive 1-2. A healthy Rendon is top 10 at his position. They got a couple top 50 guys in the pipeline. Werth's $21 million coming off the books. Gio's $12 million coming off the books. Even if Harper and Murphy walk after 2018, they're still looking like an 85 win team with just some minor upkeep. And Rizzo has been pretty good about making upgrades and having back-up plans.

A Nats contender in 2019 probably looks different the 2017 version, but that happens. Look at 2012 when I guess the window opened to 2017:

-Bryce Harper is Bryce Harper
-Werth, Gio, Zimmerman are still here but mostly bloat at this point
-Rendon was a dice roll of a draft pick
-Murphy, Eaton, Scherzer were somewhere between role players and upside guys on other teams
-Tanner Roark was a footnote in Cristian Guzman's career
-Joe Ross and Trea Turner were prospects in somebody else's system

Of concern though is that the Phillies may have figured out how to stop sucking and the Braves are a year away from looking scary.