

(By Ray Stubblebine /Reuters)

Washington’s complicated relationship with the Expos has befuddled fans and executives for a decade. The latest curious development came this week, when MLB released candidates for the the top four players in franchise history for every MLB franchise.

Seven of the eight candidates for best player in Nats history were Montreal Expos. And since the four winners for each franchise will be honored at the All-Star Game in Cincinnati, that means at least three Expos will be celebrated as Nats heroes. Which is weird. And probably wrong.

Meanwhile, Frank Howard is a candidate for the best players in Texas Rangers history, while Walter Johnson is a candidate for the best player in Minnesota Twins history. Which is weird. And definitely wrong.

Howard and Johnson are both honored with statues outside Nats Park. Rusty Staub, for better or worse, is not. And any Nats fans in Cincinnati would be inclined to cheer far more for the Big Train — perhaps the best pro athlete in D.C. professional history — than for Steve Rogers.

(The other “Nats” candidates include Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Vladimir Guerrero, Dennis Martinez and Tim Raines.)

And yes, the Nats have grappled with this dilemma before. Dave Sheinin took a crack at the issue in 2010, when the Nats honored Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, the second player inducted in an Expos hat. The quotes then — from Washington executives, Washington fans and from Dawson himself — made it clear that there’s no easy way to navigate this.

“We have a much bigger connection [to Dawson] than to just any Hall of Famer,” then-president Stan Kasten said. “Obviously, he played for this franchise in another city. As you know, in Washington we made the decision to recognize Washington’s baseball history more than this franchise’s history. We’re trying to do a little of both. We don’t know where the line is drawn. But when you have a player this great, both on and off the field, and he has this connection to our franchise, we felt it was particularly appropriate to recognize him.”

“I think it’s nice, baseball-wise” to honor Dawson, said Phil Wood, the voice of old-timey Washington baseball, “because it probably makes more sense for the Nationals to do it than for anyone else to do it, since he spent so many years with franchise. But I really don’t think D.C. fans have any feel at all for guys who played for the Expos.”

“A lot of my old teammates are still baffled by the fact the team doesn’t exist in Montreal anymore,” Dawson said then. “And any way or form that you are embraced by the [city] that has taken over the franchise, that’s a meaningful thing.”

This issue won’t go away, either. When Pedro Martinez is inducted into the Hall of Fame, will the Nats take note? Carter and Dawson have their names in the team’s Ring of Honor; will other Expos join them? Will there be throwback bobbleheads of “Nats” greats like Raines, or throwback bobbleheads of “Twins” greats like Johnson?

“At least recognize and embrace the fact that they were in Montreal for 36 years,” Carter told the New York Times, before his name was added to Nats Park.

Moving forward, there really isn’t a perfect solution. If baseball decides that geography is all-important, what happens to the Expos greats (to say nothing of anyone who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers?) But if baseball decides that franchise lineage is key, then Washingtonians will be stuck with Montreal stars for the rest of time. Neither choice is palatable.

“No matter where they have wound up over the years, there’s this bloodline that follows them from the time the franchise was awarded. It runs through all those years,” former Expos play-by-play man Dave Van Horne once told me. “You still stand on your own as the Washington Nationals, but I don’t see anything that enhances or helps the franchise by cutting their ties from the past.”

So how will Nats fans vote for the greatest players in franchise history? The obvious answer is to choose Zimmerman and leave the rest of the slots blank. (While mentally checking off boxes for Livo Hernandez, Chad Cordero, Ian Desmond, Stephen Strasburg, or Robert Fick.)

At least there’s one thing we can agree upon: The best mascot in Nats franchise history was definitely Youppi!