As 4 p.m. approached and the Nationals clubhouse had cleared out aside from a few players, left fielder Willie Harris counted down along with the clock on the clubhouse television.

"Twenty seconds!" he said.

Adam Dunn's name was in the lineup.

"Fifteen seconds!"

Left fielder Josh Willingham stood by, smiling and watching the television. Weeks of speculation, days packed with swirling rumors, were about to unravel into the status quo.

"Ten seconds!"

The price for the first baseman, general manager Mike Rizzo had said the day before, would remain high and not come down a bit at the deadline. The Chicago White Sox had offered pitcher Edwin Jackson after prying him from the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to a source, and Rizzo had turned them down.

"Three!"

The Yankees had also made a run at Dunn days before. Rizzo turned them down.

"Two!"

The Nationals, it had become clear, had not gotten what they wanted for Dunn.

"One!"

When 4 p.m. struck, on the nose, the baseball world experienced an anti-climax. Dunn was still a National.

"The reason we didn't trade Adam Dunn is we never got a deal we thought was equal or greater value to Adam Dunn," Rizzo said. "We were on the receiving end of the calls. We weren't making the calls. We got a lot of interest in Adam. We just didn't see an equal return to what Adam Dunn brings to the ball club on and off the field."

By keeping Dunn without signing him to an extension, the Nationals may have take the first step in what equates to a $6 million gamble.

They owe Dunn roughly $4.3 million of his salary in the final 58 games of the season. His production, while considerable, will not lead to any meaningful games.

If the Nationals allow Dunn to walk in free agency after offering him arbitration, they will receive two compensatory draft picks, like when Alfonso Soriano's departure following the 2006 season led to the drafting of potential rotation cornerstone Jordan Zimmermann. But the Nationals will have to pay bonuses to their draft picks, and the recommend "slot" price for each of those picks is about $800,000 — a total of $1.6 million.

Add it up, and the Nationals could end up paying about $6 million for two months of Dunn — on a team miles from contention — and two draft choices. Those prospects could turn into players as valuable as Zimmermann. Or the $6 million that could have been used to acquire a veteran bat or pitcher could turn into failed projects, into dust.

"They're rolling the dice," one baseball source said.