Esteban to Oakland

But a Nats franchise with an owner would have had the option of making an aggressive bid. In reality, they didn't. Washington's final offer to Loaiza ($8 million for two years) was somewhere between a joke and an insult. So, the team's third-best pitcher of '05 is gone. Here's hoping everybody enjoyed last summer's pennant race at RFK Stadium. Don't bet on another one anytime soon, not the way baseball has bound and gagged the Nats from head to toe and left them marooned as 29 other teams wheel, deal, sign and trade around the clock.