The Nationals have been a team in transition since winning the 2019 World Series. Their on-field talent has shifted the team into a new strata of contention (which is to say, non-contention), the front office has had to retool itself under GM Mike Rizzo after numerous departures, and most of the stars that represented the Nationals for the last half decade have departed. With all those changes, the Nationals are working to remake their identity.
Externally, Juan Soto will be the face of this club for the next three years, but internally, the organization needs processes, ethos, and a shared vision to return to their status as a perennial contender. That starts with establishing a “Nationals Way,” writes Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. While awaiting participation from the Major League contingent of players, the Nationals are wasting no time in putting their minor league campers to work in building that culture.
In St. Louis, organization wide adherence to the “Cardinal Way” has long been the call-to-arms for the most stable franchise in the the National League. It’s not a bad model to follow. But it’s not easy to duplicate.
The Cardinal Way is more than strategy, more than brand. People, baseball teams, businesses, any complex organization needs a ground truth, to know “true north,” and the Cardinal Way is the religion that keeps St. Louis baseball on task. It’s not an accident that two teams with the strongest organizational identities – the Yankees and Cardinals – have been the most stable contenders over the years. Out of 22 baseball seasons this century, the Cardinals made the postseason 15 times. They put a winning ballclub on the field in 21 of those 22 years, only failing to do so in 2007 when they posted a hardly-disastrous 78-84 record. The Cardinal Way works.
Of course, other franchises have talked the talk about building organizational continuity, but it’s harder than it looks. If there’s hope in the Nationals Way succeeding, it’s in their short history. The Nationals posted a winning record in eight consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2019. They were not, at the time, viewed as a behemoth of contention because it wasn’t until the eighth season – their championship season – that they even won a playoff round. But they had created an engine that routinely churned out winners.
That said, while competence became boilerplate for those Nationals, true contention was balanced on a razor’s edge. Only once did they make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, despite four division titles in the six-year span from 2012 to 2017. From where we sit today, the fact that their run coalesced into a World Series win seems more magical than engineered. But of course, that doesn’t give the Nats’ organization enough credit.
With Major Leaguers locked out, Ryan Zimmerman retired, and a host of new instructors leading the way in Nats camp, whatever system was in place before needs a system reboot in order to get up and running again. De Jon Watson, in his first season as the Nats’ Director of Player Development, is the man tasked with establishing the Nationals Way. De Watson talked to reporters, including Zuckerman, who provides some details about the system they’re trying to implement. Zuckerman passes along De Watson’s plan, but with axioms like “attacking the strike zone” and “doing damage when we have the opportunity to do damage,” the Nationals Way, publicly, is more esoteric than proper outline. In that way, it’s identical to the Cardinal Way. It’ll take time to know if they’re similar in any of the ways that matter most.
Well written, TC. I’m proud of you.
This site has some of the best authors. I can say I learned valuable writing skills from just reading so many articles. Thanks a ton MLBTR
I think one of the ways the Cardinals stay competitive year in and out is by rarely ever taking the plunge on massive contracts. They did trade for Arenado but outside that Goldschmidt is the biggest contract on the team. Pouring so much money into one player can really screw a team when that player declines. The best way to compete is try to do it every single year. The best way to do that is to avoid ever having a contract that might end up overpaying the player at any point. You might not win the offseason with sexy huge contracts but you can always plug and play and give yourself a chance of winning every year instead of banking it all on having huge names on your roster. Arenado and Goldschmidt are the exceptions but that’s totally different than having Pujols, Upton, Rendon and Trout all on the same team. A cohesive roster with lesser know players can easily outperform a roster with several expensive superstars on it. Try your best to avoid those massive superstar contracts is one of the best ways to be successful.
Before Goldschmidt, their biggest contract was to Matt Holliday, and that was one of the more successful $100M+ free agent contracts in large part due to the deal only lasting until his age 36 season.
Although, in that regard, most other teams have been getting a lot smarter in recent years.
It is about time he writes something where I don’t see any typos. Maybe I will find something if I read it again. However, he didn’t mention the fact that Mike Rizzo has an abysmal record in hiring managers. Johnson, Williams and Baker all should have done more with their teams. How do you offer your first choice (Bud Black) one year and then after he turns it down, offer your second choice (Johnnie Baker) two years? Keith Law wrote a book entitled Smart Baseball. He mentioned that the Nationals were inexplicably hiring Johnnie as their manager.
I don’t know – heck I don’t know who knows outside of Rizzo and ownership – but it sure seemed like going cheap on managers was the Lerners Way. Bud Black being announced and then declining because of the lowball offer is not Mike Rizzo MO. He knows baseball protocol, and that’s not how you go about doing business.
He did start a sentence with the word “But.” That’s pretty good for him though. No spelling errors I could find.
While you shouldn’t make it a habit, it’s perfectly fine to start a sentence with a conjunction.
You can also split the infinitive. Usage trumps the grammarian every time.
I am also going to champion the use of a preposition to end a sentence. “That’s the direction I am going in” simply sounds better than “That is the direction in which I am going”. It is easier to write the former, since that is how most people talk, and the latter contributes nothing to the sentence.
Next to go will be the “who”/”whom” distinction. Functionally speaking, there is no difference between “to whom am I speaking” or “who am I speaking to”. All it does is to make people think slightly harder, and waste a few seconds of their day.
Mike Rizzo does not hire the Nationals’ managers. The Lerners do.
There used to be an ‘Orioles Way’ of doing baseball. They drifted away from that a long time ago…
There’s ebb & flow to everything. Eventually, even Baltimore will be back on top.
The Cardinals Way refers to a system and approach that leads to winning seasons. Fourteen straight winning seasons, and only one losing season this century. Referring to winning this century carries meaning now as we are 22 years in. For the past 100 years, there are few organizations that put up winning seasons as consistently as the Cardinals.
The Orioles? If they have a Way, it’s losing. They had a period where they were a fine organization, but they’ve had all of five winnings seasons dating back to 1998. Those five years were in succession. Any team can do that. Lose enough, get enough draft picks, and you’ll have a winning stretch. They’ve done nothing around that winning stretch. The Cardinals are the opposite.
There is definitely a Cardinals Way and an Orioles Way, but one is a winner, and the other is not.
No they won’t. Losing management team. Can’t win with idiots
Zuck is one of the worst writers in the business.
Who? Mark Zuckerberg??
Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com, though you may be onto something.
Yes
They are just going back to what worked in the first place. Suck terribly, get back to back first overall picks, get multiple other first rounders, then be good for a while until it’s time to suck again.
“The Cardinal Way is more than strategy, more than brand. People, baseball teams, businesses, any complex organization needs a ground truth, to know “true north,” and the Cardinal Way is the religion that keeps St. Louis baseball on task.”
As a super-avid Cardinals fan for 40 years, the use of the word “religion” in the context of a sports team is pretty tone deaf and just an overall poor choice of words by the author in trying to make his point. The word “philosophy” would fit much more appropriately, and less offensively.
tone deaf? that’s a little harsh in regards to a meer matter of word choice.
DarkSide830 – I don’t agree. Words matter.
Certain words carry more weight and meaning to different people. Your sensitivity level is higher than others. You’ll have to live with that.
and this folks, this right here is a big reason why no one with a brain takes religion seriously.
keep up the good work at getting folks to realize how foolish religion is, since you proved bigtime that the religious are the biggest snowflakes ever created by random chance.
mfm4200 – Your condescending hateful, irreverent, and ignorant response says much more about you than those who wisely recognize all the obvious signs that we and the world we inhabit were created by an Intelligent Designer rather than the statistically impossible results of millions of random chance events, my friend. You mock “religion”, but you yourself worship a god and that god is yourself.
Religion:
1. the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
2. a particular system of faith and worship.
3. a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
Perhaps he meant the third definition. Of course, then there’s a debate about “supreme.”
Supreme:
1. superior to all others.
If it’s the organizational philosophy in pursuit of the superior way to run a baseball team, “religion” could fit.
Also:
“Baseball? It’s just a game. As simple as a ball and a bat, yet as complex as the American spirit, it symbolizes. It’s a sport, business – and sometimes (almost) even religion.”
– Ernie Harwell
Some sites had the “almost,” some did not.
I highly doubt TC or Ernie Harwell meant any offense.
This isn’t a CNN discussion board
I was beginning to think I accidentally stumbled into a Crossfire interview. I don’t think he meant “religion” in any kind of offensive way. I brush my teeth every morning religiously. I hope that didn’t offend anyone.
I don’t know about the Cardinal Way, but humorless, smug, and condescending describes the fans pretty well.
agree 100%. self proclaimed “best fans in baseball” is a joke. Arrogant and full of BS is more accurate. I respect the players on the team, except the catcher, but the fans are without a doubt the worst. Funny how they always forget to mention stealing info from another organization as part of their precious “way”, or the blatant cheating by the POS catcher.
“Philosophy” is better, but as a religious person, I have no objection to folks using the word “religion” generically. Religion has been around for all 6,000 years that humans have been around. And most people adhere to a ‘religion’. even if they don’t believe in a god.
I think the first reference to a “Way” was Branch Rickey’s “Dodger Way” back in the neolithic times.. And most successful companies, from hamburgers to tampons, attribute their sucess to a “Way”.
But there’s something to be learned from the Cardinal way of doing things, especially in a mid-market situation. Most importantly, they kept the brand alive, which teams like the Marlins, Rays, Orioles and Pirates haven’t been able to do. There’s sucess in determining an adequate payroll to compete, and making the hard choices on a yearly basis to control costs and achieve results AND maintain fan loyalty.
I dont know of do damage when we have the change is really game changing stuff….isn’t that essentially saying, let’s score more runs then the other team.
There aren’t any team “ways”.
If you are a big market team, you develop what you can and buy what you need.
If you are a small market team, you cycle into contention, as your high picks make the pros, and then you rebuild when they play out their option.
There are no magical “ways”.
Well, there may be no “way’ Joe, but as I noted above, just look at a team like the Cardinals and the Orioles. One team’s way is better than the other’s way. One is consistently better run than the other. That’s the way.
LordD99
Well, there may be no “way’ Joe, but as I noted above, just look at a team like the Cardinals and the Orioles.
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They hired DD, who hadn’t been a GM in almost 10 years, and had been pretty mediocre ten years earlier. McPhail did the heavy lifting. DD basically lived off McPhail drafts for 5 years or so, and moved on.
That said, as I mentioned, that’s the life of small market teams. They averaged 89 wins for five years, and then had to rebuild.
High priced pitching, old infielders , and the ghost of M.A.T never getting to roam the OF
The Nationals will not be a Class Organization as long as the Lerners own the team.
– no respect for Managers
– lapdog of Scott Boras
– mediocre relationship w their Fans
All others should be envious of teams with a successful “way”. A good solid cultural foundation is an awesome thing to build from. Without one, you can find yourself bouncing from one failed idea to the next. They don’t just happen with a media release. Time and discipline are required. Much respect to the Cards. Here’s hoping the “way” the Giants are developing is just as solid.
What good is a” way “ if you never win the world series? Cardinals haven’t won one since 2006. That’s one and a half decades ago. The Yankees last win in 2009. What’s there “way”? Buying free agents? Teams win when they draft well and get lucky with their picks. More importantly these days, it’s how they do in the international signings. That’s where the talent is coming from. Not the United States.
With regards to drafting and IFA signings (I’m going to assume player development). The “way”, as I read it, is a process defined within an infrastructure for maximizing player potential. A lot of teams have strength and conditioning, mental health, and nutritional departments within the organization to realize that potential.
If the Yankees have the top organizational culture in the AL, why haven’t they won the division in a decade? Are they lacking resources? If the author’s assertion is true, and there is any correlation between culture and on field success, then there must be a serious deficiency in another area. Is that resources? Is it management? Or is the author’s assertion false?
Just for the record, how many “ways” are there?
Red Sox 4 WSC since 2004.
NYY >.500 for maybe 29 years?
LAD Averaged 99 wins over the past 9 years.
SFG 3 WSC in 12 years
TB averaged 91 wins over the past 12 years, despite one-quarter of the above-mentioned spending.
And StL
So I count 6 “ways”. And since only one of those six “ways” is a small market team, could we simply assume that “way” = ‘large market team”?