You’re amply familiar by now with the narratives surrounding the Nationals’ managerial situation. Four skippers have presided over the past eight seasons, dating back to the team’s breakout 2012 campaign. The drama goes back further, but it’s most remarkable that the Nats have managed not to stick with a single manager for very long even as they’ve churned out winning campaigns.
For all the disappointing seasons and heartbreaking postseason showings, the Nats have arguably never faced a situation as dire as the present one since they began their winning ways. After barely topping .500 last year, the first under manager Dave Martinez, the team has limped to a 14-22 start in 2019.
It wasn’t long ago that the Nationals sat at an uninspiring 11-11 record — just 1.5 games out of first place in a packed division and hardly cause for concern in and of itself. The bullpen was a mess, but otherwise the club was getting along well enough. The vibe has changed since, as the Nats have managed only two wins out of their past 13 contests while injury issues mount. Martinez’s charges have a negative-34 run differential in that brief span. Pitching coach Derek Lilliquist was canned a week ago.
There are many different ways to interpret these results. It’d be foolish to lay all the blame on Martinez; veteran Ryan Zimmerman said as much today in support of the sophomore-year skipper. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo has been unequivocal in his support, saying that Martinez is “doing a great job” in the wake of the Lilliquist firing.
At the same time, it’s hard to deny that the results have fallen well short of expectations since Martinez came aboard. He was hired only after the club parted with Dusty Baker over the failure to advance in the postseason. The premise was that the talented outfit would thrive all the more under new leadership. For whatever reason, Martinez’s efforts haven’t translated to this point. There are complaints over his bullpen management and strategic decisionmaking, though that’s a common refrain for many managers. Even if Martinez isn’t truly doing a poor job, it’s arguably time for the club to receive a real jolt.
So, readers, where do you come down on the matter? (Link to poll for app users; response order randomized.)
Well look at that roster… Yikes.
Are their current results that surprising ? Harper was swapped out for Corbin and Zimmerman emptied out the tank last season. They didn’t improve at all when you look at things objectively
hate to have to say it, but this team hasnt played up the sum of its parts so far, which leaves one person to blame.
I would blame ownership and the players before the manager.
outside of the bullpen most individual performance has been fine. if you want to blame the GM for not getting more arms, fine, but they had little to work with, and even 2 pretty good arms still make this group a tire fire. a bad BP doesnt make your team this bad overall though.
I think we’re on the same page that Davey has to go, but I’m not so sure “most individual performance has been fine.” Soto, Rendon, and Kurt Suzuki are really the only guys hitting at all. I’d say the team isn’t winning because individuals aren’t performing, but I’d also say that’s still on Davey.
Everything outside of the top end starting pitching is broken. This core is not working out and the team needs more than just a new manager, though. Trade Rendon, Scherz, and Stras if you can and try to rebuild for 2022 around Soto and Turner.
Victor Robles is hitting just fine.
Mike Rizzo!
But will anyone they bring in correct this “mess” or will the results be the same?
Nats ownership seems very noncommittal towards their managers. I wonder if that would have any impact on people wanting to play/coach/work for them in the future.
An organization can’t have a revolving door of managers and expect to be successful. If you believe that you have hired a quality person, you have to give them a bit of time. If you don’t believe that the you have hired a quality person, then you are the idiot who shouldn’t have hired them and there are actually two problems…
They are going to play a very strong Dodger team this week which won’t do the Nats any good
How about a poll on whether or not Aaron Boone deserves credit for the way the Yankees have played despite their injuries.
Yes !
Calm down…..
No, no, … calm UP !!!!
OK.
Give Manager Martinez the resources and better results will come…
That is an assertion for which you have no evidence whatsoever. He took the Nationals record down by about 20 games last year with more than Dusty Baker had the year before.
Dusty is sitting by the phone. You can’t fire the players so the manager will have to go.
Tell that to Jeremy Hellickson who got pulled at 80 pitches in the sixth inning against the Phillies a week ago.
As a Phillies fan watching that game I was very happy about that bad decision.
Or two days later…. he has Matt Grace warming up in the FIRST inning. Then sits him back down, brings him in for the 5th, and he gets shelled.
He’s gonna ruin Grace like he ruined Solis last year. The absurd number of appearances Solis made was only half the story. He was up in the bullpen many more times than that, just not entering the game.
Change Rizzo – no good bullpen for years & not brought in a farm system on pitchers. Since Adam Eaton trade & got rid of pitchers been a bust GM
Agreed
Martinez is destroying the bullpen.
Destroyed Solis last year. Now he’s in the process of ruining Grace and Doolittle.
Changing managers to an experienced manager is the best way to help the bullpen.
From a outside Point of View Baseball Fan,Yes!if you want no stability!one of these days they need to look at the Top or something else besides the Scapegoat Managers
Fire Rizzo first !
This
To answer the question in the headline? No, it’s not 2018. Martinez couldn’t even live up to being the second coming of Matt Williams. At least Williams didn’t drive the team off the rails in year one.
Time to tear it down in Washington. They should have started last year with Harper. Trade Rendon, Eaton, Scherzer, and Strasburg for some mlb ready or near ready talent to pair with Soto, Turner, Robles and Kieboom. Short rebuild and your back in it in a year or two.
This is the worst take in internet history.
I agree it would be wise to trade Scherzer to Boston for Chavis, Lin and JBJ. That would give the Nats the hottest hitter in MLB who at a very young age already plays 1B, 2B and 3B and they would also get the ALCS MVP and best defensive outfielder in MLB. Seriously, did you see the catch he made yesterday? Think of all the games he’d save just with his glove, not to mention his bat when he goes on his typical hot streaks.
It was the right call to let Harper go. If they had just spent the $9 million for one season of Brian Dozier instead on $9 million per year (for 3 years) on Adam Ottovino, I would have endorsed their off-season. I thought Corbin was an overpay, but he is not why they are struggling. When Trea Turner and Juan Soto come back, along with Victor Robles, they have three of the best young players in the game. Zimmerman and Adams will be back for at least part of the season and Kieboom won’t go ka-bust forever. Not time to tear it down, but made the smart call to let Harper go.
How’s he supposed to make lemonade out of petunias?
Dave was a lost cause the moment he stepped through the door, He’s been making questionable moves and demotivating this team since he arrived in DC. Part of that was due to the incumbent players playing under a real winner in Dusty, then having to endure Dave’s lack of certainty on anything he does. Send him packing so he can go back to being a bench coach under a smarter manager somewhere else. He’s supposed to have had some of Maddon rub off on him along the way but apparently it was the worst parts. He’s got the body language of a guy walking down the aisle to the electric chair. You can tell that the players have no desire to play for him. Rizzo needs to conjure up a winner.
No team should be this bad at defence. Looking at their defence you would assume they’re a team of older, heavy guys like Pujols and Cabrera.
Defense <<<<
Amazing, I’d love to have Martinez back in Chicago, yes, please can him
Before tearing it all down perhaps the Nationals should give Buck Showalter a call and gauge his interest in turning around this still talented group of veterans and young players. He could be the tonic for what ails this franchise.
Showalter resides in Dallas, Texas during the offseason but I haven’t seen any indication that the Rangers are interested in his services. Showalter certainly has familiarity with the D.C. area as a long standing manager in Baltimore. At this point what do the Nats have to lose except more games?
Aaron sounds like you’ve been stalking the guy.
Gotta like a guy who earned his nickname because of his tendency to sit around the clubhouse “buck naked”. lol
Moving on from guys like Doolittle, Rendon, and Eaton should be expected, but are they really gonna trade someone they just signed to a long term deal in the offseason (Corbin), and what about Strasburg and Scherzer??
A. The plan should be to keep DM for a couple more months
B. can him in light of the obvious incoming failure
C. Hire Bruce Bochy who is “retiring “ at the end of the year
D. Have someone else besides Rizzo build a bullpen
E. Profit
Martinez was the hyped candidate for the Blue Jays, Indians, White Sox, Astros, Cubs and Rays and lost out every time. Perhaps those teams saw something lacking in Martinez that the sportswriters and Nationals management failed to see.
Never should have been hired in the first place. The Nationals were a team in decline anyway. I know the roster was good last year, but not as good as it had been. That’s kinda the way these things work, things go in cycles and teams can only have a stranglehold on a division for so long, like a five year period. He blew what I saw as being their last year to get it right last season. As someone who watches him 19 times a year, it’s mind blowing some of the decisions he makes. It does come off like a guy who has never watched baseball before.
Yeah, but he bats the pitcher 8th, so he’s actually really brilliant.
Nats bullpen aside from their closer is a disaster, if they were even 5th or so in the league the Nats would be several games over .500. This is a mets fan who can only get nats on my directv in cent pa, aside form the non blacked out games of the mets…(hint directv cant watch phils either) their BP is a little better but not much – Familia is performing poorly and seemingly lost that great splitter he had plus he cant control the 2 seemer
I say as long as they suck, they should keep their mgmt. just my opinion as an unbiased fan… 😉
Martinez is a good baseball man overall. Maybe just not cut out to be a MLB Manager. From the outside I read that he makes some questionable moves Unfortunately, the hammer needs to fall on someone, usually a manager or coach when a team struggles. Regardless of injuries or player ineffectiveness. A managerial change can have a positive effect sometimes. A change helped the Cardinals last season and appears to be carrying over.
Martinez is probably a good coach, but as a manager he’s Manny Acta 2.0. The team is undisciplined, plays bad defense and much of that is due to mental errors. They still make the same baserunning mistakes they made last year. He gets relievers up without bringing them in an inordinate amount of times (classic Acta move) and does not command the clubhouse like a manager should.
They have the talent to win but ownership simply doesn’t recognize the value of good management (which is incredibly ironic since the Lerner’s made their money managing real estate). They need someone who will bring discipline (like Girardi, whom they could have had, or Showalter) and a master plan, but who won’t make so many inept moves in the playoffs (like Baker did). The only question is this : at what point will the Lerners decide they have suffered long enough to go out and pay for a good manager? Time will tell, but Davey is not that guy..
It’s standard DC sports karma: overpromise, underdeliver, lose all elimination games, especially the ones you play at home. Caps broke it for a year, and went back to business as usual.
Martinez was a hire that made sense at the time that didn’t work out.
As opposed to hiring a guy from, say, Sunday Night Baseball.
How many managers do you need to fire/hire with this team? Clearly, it doesn’t matter who’s managing. The roster is the problem, and that’s the GM’s responsibility. So if Martinez goes, the GM should go to.
6th manager in 10 years
but but but he is a joe maddon guy. that shouldnt happen to joe maddons guy. joe will challenge it lol
The Lerners don’t understand the value of a manager to a baseball team so, for the most part, have been unwilling to pay a good one. They lowballed Bud Black. It’s absurd to have the overall payroll of the Nats and quibble about $1-2 million when it comes to the manager.
The culture and the tone of the organization was set when Rizzo and the rest of the organization backed the idea of sitting Strasburg for the postseason once he reached the innings limit imposed by Rizzo and company. When a team tells every fan, player and employee they’d rather sit their ace then allow him to grow and compete for the ultimate prize says a lot about an organization’s desire to win. The culture was set and the rest is history. The players deserve better.
One of the worst decisions ever made. What made it even worse that it did no good as he still went under the knife the next season.
That team was special that year and Rizzo killed it and has never been the same since.
Yep
Time to clean house.
You could make a decent circumstantial case against Martinez. There were weird vibes on the team before he came along but one certainly does not get the sense that he’s got everything under control. Maybe there’s a reason he wasn’t managing sooner. I think the Nationals have a lot of organizational issues that are entirely unrelated to who the manager happens to be, though.
Time for a GM change.