WASHINGTON — This is nothing new for the Washington Nationals: Enjoy the euphoria of an NL East title, then the disappointment of an early playoff exit – usually with a narrow Game 5 loss, usually at home.

So once again, this time by virtue of a wild 9-8 defeat in the deciding game against the visiting Chicago Cubs, the Nationals head into the offseason knowing they’ve still never won a playoff series. As always, there are questions to ask and answer, the biggest being whether Manager Dusty Baker will be back.

“That decision is made from up top,” 2015 NL MVP Bryce Harper said when asked about Baker in the wee hours of Friday. “I don’t want to comment on that, really.”

Harper himself can become a free agent after the 2018 season, which will undoubtedly be a major topic of serious conversation and speculation from now until either the Nationals sign him or he heads to the open market.

But more likely to get resolved, one way or the other, in the near term is Baker’s situation. His contract expires at the conclusion of this season, his second in Washington and 22nd as a skipper in the big leagues.

Dating to spring training, he has made clear his desire for a new deal, but the Nationals refused to negotiate at all until season’s end.

“We’re both confident that he’ll be back with us,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said before the NLDS, “but we haven’t had any conversations about it.”

Baker’s teams in Washington have won two division titles and finished with two one-run Game 5 setbacks at Nationals Park.

“It really hurts,” Baker said, “to lose like that.”

There are pressing matters other than his future, of course.

For one, the not-so-small matter of how to go from being such a consistently good regular-season team to one that finally manages to get over the hurdle of collecting a single postseason series victory.

Here are other issues:

D.C. FANDOM

Can’t be easy being a sports fan in the nation’s capital. Over and over, when the local teams in the four major professional sports leagues get to the playoffs, their runs are brief: None has reached a league semifinal stage in 19 years, a combined drought of 69 seasons.

WERTH’S FUTURE

Every Nationals playoff appearance has come since outfielder Jayson Werth arrived from the Philadelphia Phillies on a stunning-at-the-time $126 million, seven-year contract. That’s up now, and the expectation is that the 38-year-old Werth has played his last game for Washington. He hit .226 this season, then .167 in the NLDS, and whiffed on an attempted catch in left field in Game 5, leading to a run for the Cubs.

SCHERZER AND STRASBURG

The brightest spot for the Nationals is their 1-2 punch: Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Scherzer’s one-inning disaster of a relief appearance in Game 5 notwithstanding, he is under contract for four more years. Strasburg’s 12-strikeout masterpiece in Game 4 backed up a great season. The Nats have him for another six years.