CHICAGO -- It is not easy to evaluate the Nationals' 2016 season, in a year when they won 95 games and their third National League East title in the past five seasons and then lost in the NL Division Series for the third time.
Two weeks after that Game 5 loss to the Dodgers ended Washington's season, general manager Mike Rizzo said he viewed this year as "a successful season that ended poorly."
"We played a good, steady brand of baseball all year," Rizzo said. "We had the second-best record in all of baseball. We won the division for the third time in five years.