Winning the World Series for the first time in fourteen years is no easy feat. Now throw in a hundred million dollar superstar leaving your team, and a bunch of young unorganized players with limited playing time. Finally, you have three other potential playoff teams in your division, all fighting for the same spot. The Nationals and manager Dave Martinez did not care. Nationals closer, Daniel Hudson, closed out game seven with two big, top-of-the-order players on the Astros. Many Nationals players helped, but perhaps the most important factor in the playoffs was the presence of Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon. Rendon hit many clutch, late inning home runs, and hit an overall .327. Soto hit five total playoff home runs and batted in fourteen runs. Perhaps the most surprising player of the whole season, Howie Kendricks, the thirty-six year old veteren, hit extremely well all of October, hitting big, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings of important games. Sophomore Joe Shanahan said, “The Nationals have great pitching and young and talented hitters. They should be contenders for many years in the future.” All in all, the Nationals saved ten million dollars a year by not signing Bryce Harper and still managed to win the World Series. They have youth in Patrick Corbin, Juan Soto, and Victor Robles. They are ranked right now as the eighth team for next year standings. That is way too low for such a good manager, pitching squad, and top sixth part of the lineup.

  Aside from the Nationals, many major league teams had crazy seasons this year. The Yankees were a huge story this year. They had great players such as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Masahiro Tanaka, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, and so many more people get injured all season. Somehow they managed to win an impressive 103 games. The Boston Red Sox, however, had an extremely disappointing season. Starting off slow, the Red Sox season never got much better. After firing their general manager, the Sox are hoping to resign all-star Mookie Betts and many more future free agents. In the National League, the Dodgers once again could not secure the bag, losing in the Divisional Series to the Nationals. Cody Bellinger is set to win the MVP award after Christian Yelich missed the last couple weeks due to injury. Bellinger started off hot and never slowed down. He hit .305 with almost fifty home-runs. Yelich also had an impressive season for the second time in a row, following up his MVP year. 

  Vladmir Guerro Jr., Fernando Tatis, and Pete Alonso; three insane rookies all looking forward to the Rookie of the year award. Alonso absolutely blew away all the competition and set the Mets home runs in a year record, then beat the all time rookie home run record. Tatis, on the other hand, lit up the field with his electric baserunning, bombs off of opposing pitchers, and great defensive stops. Bryce Harper and Manny Machado were both expected to be great this year, and neither of them succeeded in coming close to that. Manny Machado became one of the league’s more despised players after multiple incidents of dirty playing styles, from injuring Dustin Pedroia to stepping on Jose Aguilar’s ankle running to first base. Neither player succeeded in bringing their team to the playoffs. 

 From massive extensions, to underdog stories, from injuries, to record breakers, and electric playing, the MLB is ready for the future. All together, the 2019 MLB season was very entertaining, and all baseball fans should be excited for the upcoming seasons.