Wire Taps: Nationals post-mortems; Juan Soto wins Rookie of the Month; Statistical infamy...

On the bright side, it seems like the Rockies *were* beatable after all.

Here’s the scoop from South Capitol:

Nats failed to get over the hump; what happens with Harper? (Yahoo!)
''It's not something you want to go through,'' Bryce Harper said. ''You have all the hopes and aspirations to be one of the best teams in baseball in spring training. We did what we could to possibly get there, but we didn't do enough.''

Nationals' Juan Soto wins NL rookie of the month (WaPo)
Soto is the first Nats player to win the award three times in a season.

What’s to blame for the Nationals’ lost season? Part I: Injuries (WaPo)
It was going to be so simple — and then everyone got hurt. It started with Daniel Murphy and Matt Wieters — then it spread to Adam Eaton, Anthony Rendon, and Ryan Zimmerman. Then it spread to the rotation and the bullpen, and by then, the season was already gone thanks to significantly fewer games played by their starters by the time the team decided to sell off some assets.

Statistically, the Nationals really should have won a World Series by now (WaPo)
Every single team that has accomplished around what the Nats accomplished in the last seven seasons won at least an LDS. The Nationals... did not.

Juan Soto again named NL Rookie of the Month (MASN)
Soto reached the numbers of the likes of Ott and Mantle — which is good enough for Rookie of the Month in most cases.

Mike Rizzo expects Dave Martinez and his coaching staff to return for the 2019 season (WaPo)
“We think he’s got a firm grasp on the clubhouse and he’s doing a good job in the dugout. We think he’s getting better each and every day, each and every game,” Rizzo said. “I really like the way the team has responded to him, and I think they’re playing extremely hard for him.”

After 82-80 season, Nationals admit there's work to be done (MASN)
"We’ve played 162 games,” Rizzo said. “It’s a marathon, and it shows you who you are. I think this season has shown us who we are. We’ve earned the record that we have.”

Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto win Rookies of Month (MLB.com)
Soto hit .283/.383/.525 in September with six homers and 20 RBI.