Is this Bryce Harper's last run with the Nationals?

In 2009, the Nationals selected right-hander Stephen Strasburg with the first overall draft choice. A year later, Washington picked up Harper at the same spot.

Harper joined Strasburg in the majors at age 19 in 2012. The Nats seemingly were set for a long championship run.

Harper met expectations. He won the Rookie of the Year award, took the Most Valuable Player trophy in 2015 and has made five All-Star teams.

The Nats have fallen short.

They are 0 for 4 in playoff series during Harper's tenure. Three of the series went the full five games. Last year's loss in five games to the Chicago Cubs cost manager Dusty Baker his job.

The franchise has not won a playoff series since 1981, when it was based in Montreal.

Harper can become a free agent after this season and likely will receive a staggering contract. New manager Dave Martinez clutches to the possibility of Harper remaining with the club beyond this season.

"I hope we get to work together for a lot of years," Martinez said. "He's a tremendous player. Anybody would want him on their team. But as of now, he's a Washington National, and I'm looking forward to working together."

With no challenger on the horizon, the Nats should take the East by a healthy margin again. They have won the division by a total of 28 games over the last two seasons combined.

Martinez gets an advantage few first-time managers have ever had: two No. 1 starters in the rotation with Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner, and Strasburg. The Nats were 43-16 in their starts last season and 54-49 in all other games.

"We've got a chance to do something very special," Martinez said. "But we've got to focus on the here and the now. They get that."

THE FORECAST

1. WASHINGTON NATIONALS — Left-hander Sean Doolittle, throwing almost all fastballs, had 21 saves in 22 chances after being obtained from Oakland in July. General manager Mike Rizzo fixed a huge deficiency by also adding right-handers Ryan Madson and Brandon Kintzler to the bullpen.

2. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — The rebuilding Phillies have come up with a legitimate front-end starter in Aaron Nola, who has excellent command, and a slugger in Rhys Hoskins, who had 18 homers in 170 at-bats as a rookie. The Phils made a dubious decision in signing free-agent first baseman Carlos Santana. His arrival forces Hoskins to left field, where he is a bad fit.

3. NEW YORK METS — The injury-ridden pitching staff collapsed last season, and the Mets had the NL's second-highest ERA at 5.01. To have any chance at competing for a wild card, the Mets need right-handers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard to be at full strength. The importance of pitching showed in the selection of former Cleveland pitching coach Mickey Callaway as manager.

4. ATLANTA BRAVES — The Braves are cornering the market on young talent. They have the consensus choice as the top overall prospect in 20-year-old left fielder Ronald Acuna. The next step is for young pitchers such as left-handers Luiz Gohara and Sean Newcomb to break through to the majors.

5. MIAMI MARLINS — The new ownership group, which includes New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter as the chief executive officer, is headed toward a 100-loss season. Lacking the financial wherewithal to handle the debt it took on, the group slashed the payroll to the bone by trading front-line players such as outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich.

NL CENTRAL

The St. Louis Cardinals are undergoing a subtle shift toward become a pitching-oriented club.

The Cardinals have more young pitchers than young position players. Right-hander Carlos Martinez, at 26, may be a bit too old to fall under the heading of young, but he will combine with three other right-handers in Jack Flaherty (22), Alex Reyes (23) and Luke Weaver (24) to form a staff nucleus.

St. Louis has an ideal teaching arrangement in place for the young arms. Mike Maddux, who had significant success with the Rangers, joined the Cardinals in the offseason as the pitching coach. Right-hander Adam Wainwright, at 36, is the on-staff guru who can show the way to youngsters just as veterans Chris Carpenter and Mark Mulder did for him.

"He's a guy who's developed some Cy Young-style pitchers," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of Maddux. "For us, it's going to be a great voice to some of these talented young players.

"When you have a pitching coach and a very successful veteran pitcher that can be voices to these young players, it's a very fertile ground for them to capitalize on and maximize the potential that they have."

Matheny said Martinez, who had a 3.64 ERA for a career-high 205 innings last season, has room to grow. The Cardinals will go slowly with Reyes, who had Tommy John surgery last February. Before the surgery, Reyes showed a 100-mph fastball with movement and a wipe-out curveball.

Weaver features an effective fastball-changeup combination. Flaherty probably needs more developmental time but could be an option by midseason.

The Cardinals will be in a three-team race with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers. There is pressure on Matheny. The Cardinals have missed the playoffs in the last two seasons. They last went three consecutive seasons without a playoff spot in 1997-99.

THE FORECAST

1. CHICAGO CUBS — The Cubs have reached the National League Championship Series in three consecutive seasons and could be weary. The rotation will have a new look. Jake Arrieta and John Lackey, who combined for 60 starts last season, are gone. Former Ranger Yu Darvish joined the rotation. Darvish pitched 1862/3 innings last season, his most since 2013.

2. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — The addition of left fielder Marcell Ozuna to go with center fielder Tommy Pham and right fielder Dexter Fowler gives the Cardinals one of the best outfields in the majors. Few balls will drop. All three have center-field experience. Ozuna had 37 homers and 124 RBIs last season with Miami, which plays in a park that dramatically favors pitchers.

3. MILWAUKEE BREWERS — The Brewers surprisingly missed the playoffs by one game last season. They upgraded the outfield by obtaining center fielder Lorenzo Cain and left fielder Christian Yelich. The newcomers should bolster a lineup that ranked 10th in the National League with 4.52 runs per game last season.

4. CINCINNATI REDS — The Reds should avoid a fourth consecutive last-place finish. It's a small, but telling, step. The Reds are rising. They have a collection of promising young arms. Luis Castillo, a 25-year-old right-hander, led NL rookies in ERA (3.12) and opponents batting average (.202) last season. Any lineup with first baseman Joey Votto, who had a league-high 1.032 OPS last season, is a challenging lineup.

5. PITTSBURGH PIRATES — The window has closed for the Pirates. A playoff team in 2013-15, they have had a losing record in each of the last two seasons and are in full-scale tanking mode. In January, the Pirates traded away two core players: outfielder Andrew McCutchen and right-hander Gerrit Cole. The Pirates are in a bad spot because they have not drafted well.

NL WEST

Throughout their history, the Colorado Rockies have struggled to develop pitchers who could handle the challenges of pitching in Denver's mile-high altitude.

They struck the mother lode in 2017. The Rockies got 93 starts from rookies: left-hander Kyle Freeland and right-handers Jeff Hoffman, German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela. All are 25 or younger.

The rookies helped the Rockies survive injuries to veteran starters and get into the playoffs as a wild-card entrant. The Rockies were a winning team in the rookies' starts (53-40) and a losing team in all other games (34-35).

"Probably where we exceeded expectations was in our pitching, especially the younger group of starting pitchers we ran out there," manager Bud Black said. "They started a lot of games for us and performed.

"We probably exceeded the national expectations, but I don't know whether we exceeded our own. Once I saw these guys in spring training, I thought we should pitch well."

The rookies followed a trail blazed by Jon Gray, a 26-year-old right-hander. Gray was 10-4 with a 3.67 ERA last season but was limited to 20 starts because of a foot injury. For his three-year career, Gray is 12-4 with a 4.49 ERA at Coors Field.

For Colorado to remain competitive, the young pitchers must continue to grow. The National League West could be the most demanding division in the game.

The Los Angeles Dodgers went to the World Series, and Arizona beat the Rockies in a playoff game. San Francisco remade its club after a rare poor season. San Diego has appealing prospects on the way.

"It's always been a very tough division," said Black, who has managed in the West for 10 years. "If you look at the pitching in our division, it's really solid."

THE FORECAST

1. COLORADO ROCKIES — The Rockies firmed up the bullpen by adding a closer in right-hander Wade Davis, a durable set-up man in Bryan Shaw and left-hander in Jake McGee. Davis had 32 saves in 33 chances with the Cubs last season but also had a career-high walks rate of 4.3 per nine innings. It's tough to allow walks and be effective at Coors.

2. LOS ANGELES DODGERS — If left-hander Clayton Kershaw's back holds up for a full season, the Dodgers are in better shape to win their sixth consecutive division title. Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet, has made 30 starts only once in the last four years because of the back. The infield has top-shelf talents in first baseman Cody Bellinger and shortstop Corey Seager.

3. ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS — The Diamondbacks were 45-31 in the division last year and won the season series against the Dodgers. Right-hander Zack Greinke, at age 34, is making the adjustment to pitching with less power. Arizona is a better team if it can keep center fielder A.J. Pollock on the field. Pollock, a well above average defender, has appeared in only 124 games over the last two seasons.

4. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — The Giants tried to upgrade the worst defensive outfield in the majors last season by adding center fielder Austin Jackson and right fielder Andrew McCutchen. The Giants need more muscle. They were next-to-last in the NL for scoring with 3.94 runs per game and last in homers and slugging percentage.

5. SAN DIEGO PADRES — The trend of losing seasons — seven in a row and nine of the last 10 — will continue. General manager A.J. Preller, the former Rangers executive, has survived stormy times and convinced ownership to be patient while the system develops talent. Center fielder Manuel Margot and right-hander Dinelson Lamet arrived last season. Shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. is close.