The Nationals sparked some backlash today with the surprising decision not to retain manager Dusty Baker. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was particularly incensed, slamming the organization not only for the substance of the move, but also for leaving Baker dangling in the wind for the past week-and-a-half. Baker tells Nightengale that he’s “surprised and disappointed” after leading the team to two-straight NL East titles but also failing to advance past the NLDS. It’s worth keeping some perspective here: after all, Baker is a highly-compensated professional and this is a results-oriented business. But the move does seem somewhat confusing from the outside and certainly fits the ever-growing record of questionable interactions between ownership and managers in D.C. Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post also examined the risk the club is taking with the switch.
More from the National League:
- Nationals reliever Shawn Kelley has received a stem-cell injection in his troublesome right elbow, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets. The hope is that the treatment, combined with a full offseason of rest, will allow Kelley to return at full health next year. He is not expected to require any surgery at this time. Kelley, who is slated to earn another $5.5MM in the final season of his contract, somehow allowed a dozen home runs in just 26 innings in 2017 while also maintaining a 13.5% swinging-strike rate. Given his history of quality relief work, perhaps there’s still hope that he can contribute once again in 2018.
- Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tackled a host of interesting Cardinals questions in his latest chat, some highlights of which are available here. Of particular note, he says it’s no secret that righty Lance Lynn is going to seek a big contract — something on the order of Jordan Zimmermann’s $110MM guarantee — in free agency. While St. Louis has interest in retaining Lynn, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of it entering that stratosphere to do so. (Whether any other teams will do so seems questionable, too.)
- Meanwhile, the Cardinals have lost bench coach David Bell to the Giants, where he’ll serve as the VP of player development. That could kick off some other changes for these two organizations, both of which are looking to bounce back from postseason misses in 2017 (and a much more serious collapse in the case of San Francisco). Bell had worked in the St. Louis dugout since 2014. The twelve-year MLB veteran spent time with both organizations during his playing career.
Oquendo as the new bench coach??
I think Matheny is difficult to work for. I would wager he and Oquendo would lock horns quite frequently.
You’re right!!!
Based upon what?
I’m not surprised Baker was let go. I thought that was a given if the Nationals didn’t make it past the NLDS. I thought Baker made some bad decisions with his pitchers in the series. Baker doesn’t win in the post season & the Nationals want to get past the first round. The failures aren’t all on him, but some of it falls on his lap
Wait dusty makes poor pitching decisions …. never !
Just ask Mark Prior.
The Nationals can fire a manager that wins, and blows out bullpen arms in the process let’s hope STL can pull the trigger on Matheny too!
Heaven forbid they fire a manager that has the worst postseason track record in history. Both the cubs and dodgers series were winnable with a competent manager. The nats are allowed to fire someone
worse the ron gardenhires?
Good to see David Bell back in the Giants organization. Was a very memorable Giant on the ‘02 team.
Baker is a players manager. It truly is a great trait. He’ll definitely go to bat for you (no pun intended), and he definitely knows the game.
With that said, the guy is far from a tactician, and he just isn’t very good at reading the tea leaves, or knowing how to manage the emotional/psychological side of the game.
As a Cubs fan, I saw it first-hand. He isn’t a playoff type of manager. The playoffs are a whole different beast. The crowd is into it from the first pitch to the last pitch. Dusty has never managed games like these, well.
I would love to see someone bring in Dusty as a bench coach, or just give him a role in which he can be around players. He definitely seems to get the best out of them.
He would be a great bench coach. Good call!
Yea. He has the perfect personality for a bench coach. Just needs to leave the strategizing to the manager.
The Cardinals are going to lose their best consistent pitcher by not signing Lynn. Other teams will value his Innings, and Winning percentages year after year. Lynn is hurt that the Cardinals haven’t reached out with serious contract talks, at all, this season. He’ll sign elsewhere and the Change in scenery will benefit him and his new team that appreciates him. I don’t blame him at all for getting away from The Mozeliak Thumb. Bad for the Cardinals, but great for Lance!!! Thanks for your bulldog attitude and spirit. We wish you well.
It’s not because they don’t want bring Lynn back but that’s the least of the Cards many concerns with needing new, coaches, bullpen arms, and a bat or two this offseason. I will say though this will be good for Lance but I figured his time in STL wouldn’t last past 17, if he wants a Zimmerman contract the Cards aren’t the team to do it.
My problem with the Baker situation is not so much that he was fired (I never loved him as a strategist from what I saw, and the impact of managers is overstated by most fans regardless), but the way in which the organization continues to handle these sorts of things. From the forced press release that felt like a politician from one party begrudgingly congratulating one from the other party to Rizzo’s statement afterwards about division titles not being enough with no attempt, as far as I could tell, to apply that same standard to the front office, I think it sends a really poor message to its employees.
only worse way to handle it was how Coach Tom Landry fond out he wasnt needed anymore…still dispise the Cowboys for that…..and Im a life long Vikings fan….no class, is no class, Dusty should have been told before, now
Why didn’t the firing of John Farrell draw this much ire from the media?
cause he sucks….=)
Farrell=World Series Champ
Baker=World Series Chump
The players win the World Series in almost all cases. John Farrell was an awful manager
Because the media loves dusty
I wonder where the Nats would be right now if they hadn’t lowballed their first choice, Bud Black, two years ago.
Lynn will be lucky to get 68m