The Nationals have made an in-season shake-up of their organization, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez have both been fired. The Nats have confirmed the news, and announced that assistant GM Mike DeBartolo will be the team’s interim general manager for the remainder of the season. An interim manager to replace Martinez will be determined tomorrow.
“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city. Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C.” managing principal owner Mark Lerner said in an official statement from the team. “While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our Club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”
The news comes on the heels of Washington’s 6-4 loss to the Red Sox today, which dropped the Nats to a dismal 37-53 for the season. Only the White Sox and Rockies have won fewer games than the Nationals, who are on pace for their sixth straight losing season since winning the 2019 World Series. James Wood and MacKenzie Gore are enjoying breakout seasons and CJ Abrams is delivering big for the second straight year, but virtually the entire rest of the Nationals roster has underachieved in what was supposed more of a step-forward season in the club’s rebuild.
Given this backdrop, it isn’t surprising that Nationals ownership has chosen to make a fresh start, even if the specific timing is a little surprising. Some contractual language was also likely at play, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that the middle of July loomed as a deadline for the organization to decide whether or not to exercise club options on Rizzo and Martinez for the 2026 season. It was known that Martinez’s last extension contained a club option for 2026, and while the specific terms of Rizzo’s last extension weren’t publicly revealed, it makes sense that his deal would line up timeline-wise with Martinez’s contract.
DeBartolo has been with the Nationals organization since starting as an intern with the team in 2012, and he worked his way up the management ladder to the AGM position prior to the 2019 season. While most teams promote from within for interim positions, keeping some continuity in place is particularly important in this case given how the Nationals hold the first overall pick in next weekend’s MLB Draft, plus the club has plenty of important decisions to make on the selling front for the July 31 trade deadline.
Rizzo’s tenure with the Nationals ends just short of 19 years, as he was hired as an assistant GM in July 2006. Rizzo himself was named to an interim GM role when Jim Bowden resigned as general manager just prior to the start of the 2009 season, and Rizzo was promoted to the full-time GM job that August. Washington lost 103 games in 2009 in the low point of another rebuild, yet Rizzo overall a successful rebuild and franchise overhaul that turned the Nationals into consistent contenders for much of the next decade.
Bottoming out helped the Nationals land the first overall pick in both the 2009 (Stephen Strasburg) and 2010 (Bryce Harper) drafts, so there’s some irony in Rizzo being fired so close to Washington getting to make another top selection. Taking Anthony Rendon sixth overall in 2011 added to this new core of talent, though Rizzo and the Nationals already announced their intention to compete a little earlier when Jayson Werth was signed to a seven-year, $126MM free agent deal during the 2010-11 offseason.
This bold move from a last-place team was one of many headline-grabbing transactions Rizzo swung over the years, as the Nationals made more big free agent investments in such players as Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin. Trea Turner was a major trade acquisition as a prospect who developed into a star infielder, and Juan Soto’s emergence from international prospect to immediate superstar added to the all-around roster creation that culminated in the 2019 World Series title. That championship capped off a run of eight straight winning seasons for Washington from 2012-19, and four NL East crowns (though the Nats made it into the 2019 playoffs as a wild card team).
Martinez’s hiring was also a key element in finally getting the Nationals over the top. The longtime former player and coach was a first-time skipper when he was hired following the 2017 season, and Martinez had big shoes to fill in taking over from Dusty Baker. It took a while for things to fully click for Martinez, as the Nats were only 82-80 in 2018, and then got off to a 19-31 start in 2019 before turning things around in historic fashion.
Since the 2019 championship, of course, the Nationals have fallen into disrepair. While the club was willing to let such notables as Harper and Rendon walk, the decision to re-sign Strasburg to a seven-year, $245MM contract proved disastrous, as arm injuries limited Strasburg to only 31 1/3 big league innings over the course of the deal, and forced the right-hander into premature retirement. Strasburg’s issues proved symbolic for the Nationals’ struggles as a whole, and the club turned into another rebuild period.
Trading Scherzer and Turner to the Dodgers at the 2021 deadline brought Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz to Washington, but the 2022 deadline blockbuster deal that sent Soto to the Padres may well have built the foundation of the Nationals’ next era of winning baseball, even if Rizzo and Martinez won’t be present to see it. The Soto deal brought Wood, Gore, Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana, all in one fell swoop, which already stands as an incredible haul even with Hassell or Susana yet to show anything at the MLB level.
That single trade aside, however, papered over some of the flaws in the Nationals’ rebuild plan. The amount of talent coming through the draft and international signing market slowed to a crawl, and Rizzo overhauled his scouting and player developments a few years ago in an attempt to address the problem. Ruiz was signed to an eight-year, $50MM extension prior to the 2023, yet the catcher hasn’t become the building block the front office had hoped. Injuries to Gray and Cade Cavalli also hampered the club’s ability to re-establish its rotation depth, as Gore stands as the only clear-cut success story on the pitching front.
It should be noted that this year’s Nationals entered June with a respectable 28-30 record, so it seemed like some hope was the horizon for a potential return to at least the .500 mark, if not wild card contention. However, an 11-game losing streak led to a 7-19 record in June, and Martinez reportedly upset the clubhouse when he seemingly put the blame for the losing streak on the players rather than the coaching staff. Martinez now moves on with a 500-622 record to show for his eight-year run as Washington’s skipper.
As noted in my recent Nationals-centric Trade Deadline Outlook piece (for MLBTR Front Office subscribers), it seemed like Washington was likely going to play it safe at this year’s deadline, with a focus just on moving impending veteran free agents. Today’s news may keep that speculative plan in place, if DeBartolo doesn’t want to rock the boat too much, or if ownership perhaps wants to save any bigger-picture decisions for the next president of baseball ops — whether DeBaroto himself in a promotion, or perhaps a new voice from outside the organization.
Whomever takes over the Nationals’ front office will inherit some tremendous young talents, since some of the heavy lifting has already been done with Wood, Abrams, and Gore in place for at least the next two seasons (Gore is a free agent after the 2027 campaign). It could be that the hiring of a new top executive may extend the rebuild a little further if a new PBO wants to again shuffle the front office staff around and bring in some fresh blood, which may not be what Washington fans want to hear after six years of losing baseball. There is also the lingering question of when the Lerner family is willing to start increasing the Nats’ payroll, or perhaps if the Lerners may still be considering a sale of the team after spending almost two years exploring the market.
Dang, that’s sudden.
Sudden? It’s a couple years overdue and that’s from a Nats fan.
Well the front office aka Owners has 0.0 WAR guys at several positions for several years and wonders why they can’t win. Twins are the same. Why can’t we win? Oh right we care about people buying $12 beers more than putting a decent product on the field. Let’s blame the GM and manager. They can’t make steak out of hamburger meat.
More People buy more $12 beers when there is a decent product on the field. Yes, they care. Its just not as easy as you make it seem.
The GM usually has a good bit to do with all those 0.0 WAR players.
That’s true. I just paid $19.38 for a couple of Friar Ales to watch a team that needs a LF & C and a reasonable priced parking spot
Stymee – Soda in the Giants park is $12.99
Why do people pay these ridiculous prices? The prices keep going up because people keep paying them, it’s crazy.
damn you’re only paying $12 for a beer down there???
Because players are getting 600 million dollar contracts
Parking at a Metro garage is only $5
or maybe it’s because the owners are trying squeeze the fans as much as possible.
A good GM could care less about WAR and actually get players that perform.
thefaithfulfriar: Buying and drinking beer is optional, not required.
If you don’t like the price, stay sober. The game is just as enjoyable.
acell10: Ya think? What else is new?
Not when you lose 100 games.
Blue – Depends on which team you’re rooting for.
Most of the errors Sox fans have had to witness, like Duran’s blunder today, would have been a lot less painful with alcohol.
You drive to games? Why? Trolley drops you off right in front and parking at trolley stops is free.
I think you mean a good gm couldn’t care less about WAR. If someone could care less, it means that person cares. Don’t understand why it is such a common mistake.
Blaming the players for the money you choose to spend at a ballpark is rich. Not a single player, or even a team of players, makes more than a single owner.
In the last two months, I’ve walked from my hotel to Busch Stadium in St Louis, taken the CTA train to Wrigley Field in Chicago, and taken Ubers to American Family Field in Milwaukee and Citizens Bank Park in Philly.
Not driving is wonderful. I have no idea why so many people do it when attending games.
WAR is a measurement of performance. Also, if a GM could care less, then that means they do care, at least a little.
Always remember that no one ever has to buy $12 beers at a stadium.
@blue
When I go to cards games I park at the big metro station by the airport and take that into Busch. It’s about the same amount of time to drive there or metro and with the metro I don’t have to deal with the idiots trying to get out of downtown
$12 beers are like a dream! Where’s that at again? Lol. Yeah waters at Yankee Stadium are $8 alone.
How many are getting 600 million?
The players could cut salaries in half today and the owners would keep the prices just the same.
Blue – It depends on the situation. If I drive my own car several hours to get to a baseball city, I’m not going to then take an Uber from the hotel to the park when all I need to do is pay for parking. Uber is getting crazy expensive these days.
If my hotel is within a 30 minute walk to the park, then I’d walk …. but I don’t typically get hotels that close for various reasons.
The smartest thing to do is avoid the “official” lots, because those are indeed ripoffs and after the game the cars exiting are at a standstill for an hour.
Next Tuesday I’ll be in Atlanta, official parking is $74-$84 for the game.
I’m paying $12 parking for only a 15-minute walk.
BTW – Tailgating is another benefit of parking.
I know we’re supposed to pretend like baseball players are fighting for the little man coal miner “labor” here but if you take off your red color glasses you surely could see that the current state of things is unsustainable. There is absolutely a correlation between the insane cost of attending a game and the absurd amount of money even mediocre guys are getting paid to play baseball.
Great if you’re a Yankee or Dodger fan, not so much for the rest of us. And even those fans have to be tired of the prices.
Obviously owners have played their part in this nonsense, not everything has to be black or white, us vs them.
Baseball is broken. Pray for a salary cap, no matter what it takes.
Smart. My wife and I stayed at a hotel six blocks away, so it was an easy walk.
Where you getting $12 beers at?
When your team stinks, you have to buy more $12 beer. How else are you going to get through the game?
That can’t be true, especially in CA where they’re addicted to taxing bad foods
My point was the owner’s won’t let tye GMs spend money which leads to a crappy team, which leads to the owner blaming tge manager and GM for putting a bad team on the field. Some teams, like my hometown Twins care only if you buy as much concessions as you can and rarely put money into an average, 0.0 WAR team.
Because people are parrots, don’t really think much about what they say, and, I’m guessing, that’s the way they always heard it said. I’m with you, though, it is a silly mistake.
Yep, I took a train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central and then the 7 train to Citi Field yesterday. It was wonderful not having to drive afterwards. I’ve also taken Metro North to Yankee Stadium, which is even easier.
I think you mean old ball players don’t speak good English, even if we did go to college.
Just messing with you.
Bobby smac9: There are other options.
You can either choose not to go or, if you go, be less dependent on alcohol to “get you through” something.
If people drank less, there would be less fighting and other idiotic behavior.
In Short the power of the purse always belongs to the individual
What about the teams filled with players who aren’t getting a $600-500-400M contract? Beers aren’t any cheaper…
FPG: I live in NYC, so I don’t need to own a car.
I save insane amounts of money from ownership, insurance, repairs, and maintenance, so I can rent cars and take a lot of Ubers, cabs, train trips, and airplane trips and still come out ahead.
Not when you have to watch the Nats’ bullpen melt down every game.
Blue – I don’t blame you, I’ve heard it’s very expensive in NYC and that also includes monthly parking where you live – correct?. I wouldn’t want to drive around in NYC either. Heck the last time I did it took 2 hours to get from LaGuardia to the Garden State Pkwy.
I’m not a city guy, when I attend games I always stay in the outskirts …. Edgewood for Baltimore, Clearwater for Tampa, Marietta for Atlanta, etc.
For some reason I always thought you were a Dodgers fan living in LA.
FPG: One of the worst parts is that when you travel by car, on a weekend trip for example, it can take an hour or more just to get out of the city before you can drive at highway speeds.
WAR is a performance based stat…..
IHLgulls, it amazes me how people like you are this obsessed with how much professional athletes make, why even watch professional sports… Oh wait, the “IHLGulls” are a minor league hockey team. Go stick to that.
IHLgulls: And owners are offering those contracts of their own volition. Nobody’s holding guns to their heads.
Lon – No, WAR is not a statistic. It’s a concept for estimating a player’s overall value.
It’s an estimated value derived from various calculations, and at least three different entities have their own unique formulas used for calculating.
I was being a smart a$$.
If the owners don’t want to spend the money then it’s the GM’s job to find another way to build a good roster.
How many are?
Some of us live in the middle of ”no-where”..
Pdow – Agreed! They looked horrific this weekend. Making the decision to promote and start Ogasawara today was probably the last straw.
I would say signing Ogasawara was the last straw.
It was a minor league signing, and other players were signed afterwards, so how could it be the last straw?
They did go through a rebuild and did well with that though
Dark – The front office directory was removed from the Nats website over a month ago.
x.com/TalkNats/status/1925955189455909308
I can’t say that it’s not deserved, especially with Martinez. Winning is still the name of the game, and the Nats have been really bad the last month.
Beyou – Agreed! My team played them at just the right time.
Agreed. On some level I feel like ownership got what they paid for, but mostly a change was needed. This tandem refused to let go of 2019. It was time for forward facing leadership.
Don;
Winning baseball is about pitching and the defense to support it.
The people running the Nationals don’t seem to understand anything about how to work wit pitchers (the same as their neighbors: The Orioles). And they constantly prioritize position player offense over defense….as well as not stealing bases or knowing how to run the bases.
In short, it’s been years since the Nationals have known how to play baseball. Being swept by a dysfunctional Red Sox team was probably the last straw for ownership….LOL
P.S. And how about all the glowing articles in MLBTR the past few years about all the young Nationals talent…..while I was only person pointing out that it takers pitching and defense to win.
Sam…False you were not the only person pointing that out..ive notified the others you tried to take credit for that common sense and were caught
Oh, BS.
I’ve been writing that for years here, and saw no one else agreeing with me.
I’ve been “caught”? How juvenile.
lighten up and take a joke bro ..my comment wasn’t meant to incite anger haha
.maybe it was “juvenile” im pretty old and being called “juvenile ” is fun
.do it again
Can we get a downvote option? You are such a pompous hack, Samuel. I can’t believe I bothered to read your comment, much less respond to it. It’s for the last time anyway. Bleh.
Sam, thank you for pointing out that it takes pitching and defense to win. You’ve been the lone voice in the wilderness all these years!
I like sarcasm.
Umm, Samuel – “pitching and defense win championships” is an aphorism. Hard to claim credit for that… ; )
lol!
Yet no Champions are crowned unless they score more than the opponents
Yes, and now ownership can hire a couple of other stooges who will be saddled with trying to jumpstart a wounded franchise without the benefit of an owner who will back their need to make trades and sign free agents who want to be paid legit $$$.
The Nats advertise the crap out of 2019. With Corbin, Rainey, and now Davey and Mike gone, it’ll be nice to start fresh. Although, I can definitely see them getting a lot worse before getting better.
I disagree that Rizzo wouldn’t let go of 2019. if that were the case he would have over paid for both Turner and for Soto. The talent he brought back is just now blooming. Players like Brady House we expected to be up a year or two ago were better served with a less time oriented development. Crews came up at the right time but hit the injury bug Wood’s development has been right on time. On Gore has been a the bloomer since hes was with the Padres which is why he was available The Bull pen is always the last to be built and the rotation is never complete.
AS for ownership signing people we are clearly still better off signing the 1 or two year reclamation projects and harvesting draft picks than committing money needed for next offseason which looks to be a humdinger.
Bring back JIM BOWDEN!!!
You get worst take of the day. Congrats.
Bowden is an idiot as he still proves every day in his writing.
There is a reason he hasn’t been a GM for many years.
I remember he was talking about arenado to the dodgers when he was in Colorado. Did he not realize that trades within the same division are rare?
Rizzo’s greatest move was to let Anthony Rendon walk and ultimately rot on the Angels roster.
At the same time, his worst was extending Stephen Strasburg when he had a history of injuries.
That may have been driven by Ted Lerner.
OK. It was his money.
Yeah but the fact is they were just coming off a World Series victory. Fans would have revolted if the Nats let both Rendon and Strasburg walk
It looks like Davey gave up in recent months as he realized there was no cavalry coming over the hill to save him. Generational Talent (wood, Crews, Gore) all because of Rizzo but spend more than $1Million on a few more relievers, hell no. And now Wood will have to be traded beccaus
The Owners bait and switched us…. “we can’t spend because of our TV contract….. well that got resolved and less spending on our team…” The commercial real estate went downhill in DC and that is Lerner’s money. But rather than sell the team they are living off the team. We are a few years from the renewal of the Major League script of them tanking. So frustrating to see Nats just identify or draft great talent only for other teams to take them.
Martinez doesn’t play the games. The Nationals’ pitching staff has been in the bottom 3 in baseball the last two months. The lack of talent on that staff won’t change with a change in manager. That is on Rizzo and the ownership.
Agreed. This is not ultimately about Rizzo or Martinez. It’s about a crap owner who refuses to spend what is necessary to field a winning team. The Lerners should sell the team, but they won’t because it is their cash cow and they couldn’t care less where the team finishes in the standings.
At least you said that they couldn’t care less. It’s both accurate and grammatically correct. Congrats. However, Mike Rizzo hired three managers who were crappy when the team was much better. Not much success in the draft either. Saw this dud Jon morosi. He was saying Mike Rizzo had very good success with drafting. He mentioned Strasburg and harper. I would have also drafted them. Not a great accomplishment.
Maybe they could spend more, but don’t forget that the payroll has over $40M in dead money on it between the over $32M going to Strasburg and around $8M more going to guys who have already been released or outrighted this year.
Been bad since 2019 – only the Rockies have lost more games since then. I’ve thought Rizzo was smart, but if you look at his draft record over the past few years, it’s unimpressive. He trades better, although I understand from the local press here in DC that DeBartolo had a lot to do with putting together the Soto trade with the Padres.
As far as Cairo is concerned, he is Martinez’ best buddy and I’m not expecting a lot of change from him. He even said they “battled” in his post-game press conference after last night’s loss. That’s a Davey-ism we heard way too much.
It’s just time for a change. Of course a change in ownership is what is REALLY needed.
If i were the owner of the Pirates, it would take me about 2 seconds to make Rizzo an offer
If you were the owner of the Pirates I assure you, spending some money would be the absolute last thing on your mind.
Ya Rizzo wasn’t afraid to sign free agents
Second-tier free-agents whose best years are behind them. And then he trades them away mid-season if they show promise. His problem was that Mark Lerner won’t spend money on the top-tier guys.
If he was NUTTING, then spending money would be the last thing on his mind. If he was an owner interested in winning, not just pocketing money, he would have spending on his mind.
Pittsburgh is an historically bad market for baseball that did not adequately support the team even when it was one of the best in baseball..
That is why the team always has a low payroll.
Ohhhhh you were revved and rearin’ to go with that one, ehhh Richard!
Are you under the impression they have no money to spend? Because they are pocketing the profits and laughing at you.
It has already been demonstrated over and over again that you are lying Dickie. Give it up.
Which is very surprising. I hear they have one of the best parks in baseball. Plus the city does a great job of supporting the Steelers and Penguins.
I have Jarjarbinks or whatever his name was muted. He must have a document full of pre-written comments that he can spam the board with any time someone mentions the Pirates. Truly sad that he continues after he has been shown to be wrong so many times. No life I guess. Aloha.
He relies on that one disproven dk report like it’s gospel lol
I posted this somewhere,(below?), in this thread. Pretty much kills his argument.
The revenue numbers come from Forbes and Statista. The player costs numbers come from Cots Baseball Contracts or are noted.
The Pirates had $326 million in revenue in 2024 and total player related costs including everyone on their 40 man roster of $123 million. We know from the financial reports that the Braves and Blue Jays have to disclose because they are owned by publicly traded corporations that both have a total of less than $135 million in non-player related expenses plus another $4.7 million on MILB player costs including salaries, insurance, housing, meals, and other benefits. You have to believe that the Pirates are not spending more than those two teams on those expenses, especially since the Braves have a brand new ballpark.
So do the math.
Pirates revenue – $326 million
–
40 Man Roster Costs – $123 million (Its much lower this year)
All MILB player costs – $4.7 million
Costs other than player related – $135 million
=
A HUGE amount of profits going in Nutting’s pocket.
If you had any doubt, back on May 11th this came out in USA Today
“The Pittsburgh Pirates, according to information received by the players union and confirmed by several owners, are one of the most profitable teams in all of baseball, stashing a huge chunk of their revenue sharing monies instead of investing in their team year after year.”
The Pirates were 15th in attendance in both 2014 and 2015. While those aren’t great ranks for playoff teams, they still show that the fans in Pittsburgh do in fact adequately support the team when it’s actually good.
Check….and mate!
While I get the frustration from Pirates fans, the issue with the franchise isn’t really the guys making baseball decisions. It’s the guy unwilling to sign the checks.
New management won’t change the budget.
The bad Pittsburgh baseball market does not generate enough revenue to enable the team to have a higher payroll.
Careful Richard I think Sam said that first
They made $309 million in gross revenue in 2023 alone. Seems like they have money to spend if they want.
Gross revenue doesn’t mean anything tell us their actual profit and go from there.
Nobody in MLB other than the Braves is opening their mouth about net revenue though and they bury it in a corporate report. The actual cost of doing business is pretty low due to sweetheart stadium deals and local tax breaks, and then the usual accounting shenanigans. If pro sports teams were truly unprofitable, the price of a team would not keep appreciating. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that all of MLB is profitable.
Problem is that Nutting is a horrific moron. Tampa and Cleveland frequently field good teams despite payroll constrictions, and then you have Robert Nutsucky who makes money and doesnt know how to tie his own shoes.
In Tampa they have a desire to be a winning organization so have spent money on a brain trust and system that allows them to win. While they keep major league payroll, the largest single expenditure on any team, they spend more than most teams on player development personnel, data analysts, and the technology to excel without spending much at the major league level.
A data scientist at $120-150k is much cheaper than even a middle reliever. In fact you can have a whole team of data scientists, specialists in bio mechanics, and the technology to help them help your players be the best they can for less than the cost of one veteran middle reliever.
Nutting, like Fisher of the A’s, has one goal. Sucking money out of the Pirates to fund his lifestyle.
The Pirates had $326 million in revenue in 2024 and total player related costs including everyone on their 40 man roster of $123 million. We know from the financial reports that the Braves and Blue Jays have to disclose because they are owned by publicly traded corporations that both have a total of less than $135 million in non-player related expenses plus another $4.7 million on MILB player costs including salaries, insurance, housing, meals, and other benefits. You have to believe that the Pirates are not spending more than those two teams on those expenses, especially since the Braves have a brand new ballpark.
So do the math.
Pirates revenue – $326 million
–
40 Man Roster Costs – $123 million (Its much lower this year)
All MILB player costs – $4.7 million
Costs other than player related – $135 million
=
A HUGE amount of profits going in Nutting’s pocket.
If you had any doubt, back on May 11th this came out in USA Today
“The Pittsburgh Pirates, according to information received by the players union and confirmed by several owners, are one of the most profitable teams in all of baseball, stashing a huge chunk of their revenue sharing monies instead of investing in their team year after year.”
Yeah because a manager is going to stop them from being ran like a minor league team.
Nats had a great run in 2019
Too bad
If I were owner of the Pirates I would be saying where is Bubba in the rotation?!
Being “not so quietly suppressed until ’26 starts to get that strong chance at an extra pick” Bob, I mean Datashark!
Been waiting on him in my keeper league. Had on my team since last September
Why would you hire the the Nationals gm over the Pirates gm? Pirates have the same record with $25 million less payroll. The goal should be to be better.
22 CIN 46-44 $116,403,125
23 WSH 37-53 $114,396,028
24 MIL 50-40 $105,203,254
25 CLE 40-48 $99,765,360
26 PIT 38-53 $89,942,617
27 Rays TB 49-41 $87,874,313
I’m surprised tbh
Didn’t see that coming…
I watched all 3 games this weekend, and WAS played with no sense of urgency whatsoever. Even one of the BOS announcers commented on that late in today’s game that the Nats have been a very friendly opponent all weekend. Given the solid young core this team has, they are underachieving, so I’m not surprised Lerner pulled the chain today.
I think he was joking… right? I figured the writing was on the wall once Martinez started calling out his players in the media.
Yup. Agree with that.
Wow. Rizzo is the only reason they have been good. Short sighted move on their part.
Name the last good internal player they’ve produced?
Juan Soto. Plus almost every one of the guys that Soto was traded for.
The answer is Soto
James Woods? Are you daft?
James Wood of the 1.050 OPS at 19 in A ball who they traded for.
That trade is the only thing Rizzo has done developmentally in a decade
I feel like the OP is not including Wood, Abrams, Gore, etc. in their point, which I think is a little unfair.
Whoever in the Nats system signed a teenage Juan Soto gets all the credit. He’d arguably have developed in any system. Rizzo has made some shrewd trades but as an organization they’ve been abysmal at drafting and developing.
He built good clubs by signing free agents, wasn’t fancy drafting but it worked. He lived by the Dave Dombrowski method, sign free agents and trade prospects for today. They won a lot of games during his tenure
The org hasn’t had a drafted or internationally signed player become good in a decade.. thre team organization is at the bottom of the sport with that trade… They failed a full rebuild.. enough
They’ve also won… which up until they won the series wasn’t something they were known for, and winning puts them lower in the draft lottery.
Trea Turner, moving on from Ian Desmond.. He’s made more positive moves than negative in a market where his team was constantly fighting for broadcast dollars against the Angelos and their mob hold on the area.
Wood was traded for. Take a look at the Nationals drafts, then answer his question.
Here is the link. baseball-reference.com/draft/index.fcgi?team_ID=WS…
You don’t seem to get it..
JD, none of them were drafted or signed by Rizzo. They were part of the Soto trade.
Wood, yes. Abrams and Gore had already reached the majors with San Diego.
My, how quickly people forgot about Soto
Strasburg, Harper, Rendon were Rizzo draftees. So not totally abysmal in the long view. But recent years have been lean, with top pitching prospects dropping like flies and needing TJS. But I suspect Rizzo was told he could not spend big bucks on free agents. Spend small, achieve small.
Harper, Soto, Stausburg (though he soured with injury) Giolito, who netted them an AS of, they signed and benefitted from the best of Scherzer and then moved on when he was on the back 9..I mean, if you look at GM’s in general, more of his moves have worked than not.
Put it this way, all of us in RSN would have preferred his steady hand over the musical chairs of who we’ve had since Theo.
It’s a mistake, but Rizzo will land find with someone else.
Rendon was also drafted by Rizzo.
“Rendon was also drafted by Rizzo.”
Is that intended as a positive or negative? In Redon’s 7 year Nat’s tenure, his slash line was .290/.369/.490. That’s an OPS of .859, with an OPS+ of 126. Then Rizzo let him walk. Sounds to me like drafting him, and letting him leave when he did, start to finish, was exceptionally well done by Rizzo.
Rizzo to the Rockies as PBO
Rizzo never has said the Lerners forbade him to spend big on free agents, but the fact is that he has done hardly any of that since the championship. It’s been nothing but dumpster diving. If he COULD spend, why wouldn’t he? Answer: Because the Lerners don’t want him spending their money? Oh to know the truth.
Jean, meant as a positive. Rendon was very good for the Nationals. Was adding to the list of Rizzo draftees and signings.
Dylan Crews?
The soto trade was great but apart from that they haven’t done well in player development. They haven’t developed a good home grown pitcher since Strasburg and with hitters they struggled too.
This is no surprise either, the org is really old school in player development and has missed a lot of Trends. One example is that eno Sarris dropped that the nationals are the only org who don’t have a trajekt pitching machine (very expensive pitching machine which shoots a ball out of a video canvas simulating a pitcher while exactly replicating pitch shapes of the opposing pitcher).
They also didn’t draft well apart from the now brainers Harper and Strasburg that everyone would have picked because they liked to draft the tall handsome athlete even if they lacked some skills.
Rizzo isn’t a bad GM and he has done some great things in the past that contributed to their WS title (like signing scherzer and Murphy to great deals) but he has clearly missed some trends and seems to be too stubborn/proud to challenge his World views and adapt.
The question is what a new GM will do. Building a good player dev system will take 2-3 years until everyone is on board and up to speed so I would suggest trying to build around the soto return core while simultaneously building a great player dev system. If that fails that new gm likely would do another rebuild in around 3 years (after 28 season or so) and then hopefully put the prospects into a better development environment.
I don’t think they should give the current core a chance, especially since adding new prospects is kind of a waste until the player dev is fixed. You can just as well use the time where the player dev is fixed trying to compete.
alexmiller6677:
But they haven’t been good. They’re about to have a losing record for six straight seasons. What stupidity are you talking about?
Rizzo is absolutely *not* the reason the Nats were good. In 2019,
they won the WS with one of the oldest rosters in MLB. That urgency wasn’t driven by Rizzo. It was driven by owner Ted Lerner, who knew he didn’t have very lohg to bring a WS title to DC before he died. Agents often went over Rizzo’s head and got a deal done with Ted.
Sometimes Rizzo turned out to be right (Rizzo opposed the Strasburg deal because of his previous injury history) but more often he was wildly incorrect. He was the guy who wanted Patrick Corbin, and attempted to “salvage” something out of the Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers trade by giving C Kiebert Ruiz an 8 year $50 million deal that the team can’t get out of paying until 2031. Ruiz’s defensive metrics have always been below average, and he doesn’t hit well enough to be an everyday 1B/DH.. So they’re either stuck with him behind the plate until 2031, or will have to eat at least a good portion of that deal to trade him.
this article gives Rizzo credit for revamping the front office. That’s incorrect. Because of Rizzo, prior to revamping the front office, the Nats were one of the few teams that hardly invested in analytics at all. He’s an old school scout. The pressure to revamp the front office came from ownership.
Rizzo’s old school scouting approach without the aid of analytics led him to draft complete busts like OF Elijah Green, who was so bad to begin the season in A ball, they sent him back to the FCL in June. He’s in his third year of pro ball after Rizzo took him with the #5 pick in 2022. Then there’s Fedde, who didn’t get better as a pitcher until he got DFA’d and went to the KBL. OF Victor Robles also finally failed got DFA’d, only for the Nats to see him become a better player for Seattle. Ditto Blake Trinen with the Dodgers. TY
Rizzo’s first round picks also include pitchers Jackson Rutledge, Mason Denaberg, Seth Romero and Dane Dunning. The one 1st round pitcher who looked like he might work out was Giolito, who Rizzo quickly flipped to the White Sox for Adam Eaton. I haven’t been pleased with Davey Martinez’s bullpen usage, but Rizzo hasn’t given him anything to work with in that pen for several years. Even when the Nats were good the pen wasn’t great. Now, with most SP not going a 3rd time through the opposing batting order, if your bullpen stinks you’re going to lose.
Hiring Johnnie baker, Davey Johnson and Matt Williams were all mistakes.
Davey Johnson, Matt Williams and Johnnie baker were all bad when the team was much better. What about the draft picks of the last ten years? Maybe Cavalli becomes something or maybe not. Seth Romero was a mental case. Rutledge is a dud. Elijah green can’t even hit .200 in the low minors. Brady house may be good or not. I actually have faith that dylan crews will be good because of his bat speed but I could be wrong. Mason denaburg is either a punter or field goal kicker. I forget which. But he is set for life. I still hope they get Kade anderson. Don’t want Ethan holliday.
Were they expected to be better than they are? I doubt it. Curious move.
Senioreditor:
Yeah and isn’t that the fault of the guy making the baseball decisions? The guy who just got fired?
Doesn’t make sense to terminate them a week before the draft
smrtbusnisman04a:
It does if you don’t want them to be the ones to make the selections.
Yes, they were expected to reach .500 after the 2023 season, when they won 71 games. At least by Nats fans. Not sure these two are more to blame than ownership, but canning them is a start.
Not sure where you got that the Nationals were expected to reach .500 in 2024. My O/U ticket for them says the line was 71.5 wins last year prior to their season opener and a little better at 72.5 this year.
The Nationals were expected to be bad last year and again this year. They are about 4 games under those expectations right now.
Rizzo hasn’t internally produced a good player since Soto.. they were allowed to fail a full rebuild..
About dam time.. we are free!
Exactly right. All their good young players came in Soto deal. Haven’t developed much pitching.
Yeah, but he also completed perhaps the best star for prospects trade of the past decade. Perhaps in the conversation for best of all time one day. It doesn’t matter where players come from if they work out.
And the team is as bad as they were when that trade as made
Maybe you should look into a new hobby, because this one will never make you happy.
They had to trade a HoF in his prime because the organization was in the gutter and 3 years later they haven’t exceeded 71 wins and the yems is worse this year with no end in sight.. Rizzo for life!
He was correct and HE should get a new hobby?
Shocked they let Rizzo go, feel like he’s built a great young core and has proved he can build a champion in Washington.
Name one good player they’ve drafted or selected internationally who’s been good since Soto back in 2016
Point well taken and totally accurate. The jury is still out on Crews and House, to be fair.
Yeah kind of surprised Rizzo was let go right before the draft.
That is an interesting time to let your president go.
It was just the wrong President.
Maybe it should have been one of the racing Presidents?
Agreed Stymee – keep Rizzo but get rid of the other president. Now.
Think it takes 67 votes in the senate. Good luck with that.
The sheer cowardice of the remainder of what used to be a respectable party does not take away the need.
I don’t think the draft had anything to do with it. I mean unless I’m mistaken most teams draft prep is already done and they already know which way they’re going. But I do find the timing curious from the trade deadline coming up and wonder if Rizzo wanted to deal and the owners wanted to stand pat? And maybe Martinez wanted some new blood too so he went with him? More to this story me thinks.
Not the right move to panic just because the draft is coming up. Not much success from the draft.
believe – Wouldn’t the lack of success be justification for not letting Rizzo oversee another draft?
Rizzo had a very good run of stabilized FO leadership. Change is probably for the better after this long while appreciating his body of work. They can replace him with someone that is a new era voice around same age Rizzo was when he got the job.
The firings are the beginning of changes to be made as the Lerner family finalizes the sale of the team. They want the new ownership to hire their own staff
You might be on to something.
Why would the Lerners care about how the new owners go about their hiring?
The new owners might have requested the firings so that they could put in their people. The next GM and field manager might just be interim people and therefore could be released when the ownership change goes into effect. Just a thought.
The Soto trade should have got him a GM for life deal. It’s not like they’ve been trying to compete seriously yet based on how they’ve surrounded their young players yet. If ownership opens their wallets, these will be two very appealing jobs.
Aye, there’s the rub.
This seems like a somewhat questionable move only a week before the draft and just over 3 weeks until the trade deadline…
Maybe. But, on the other hand, why keep them if ownership has already determined Rizzo and Martinez won’t be around beyond this season?
They’ve flopped the draft for a decade
Nailed it.
Watch, the interim clown will do outrageous things at the deadline and get rid of the team’s budding stars. Seriously, does anyone trust the Lerners to know what they are doing where baseball is concerned?
I thought they’d be fired after the season, surprised Rizzo won’t be around for the draft next week.
@ henrys after reading the piece, it should not be a surprise. The options for 2026 had to be decided on by mid-July. If ownership was not going to exercise those options anyway, then why keep Rizzo and DMart around as lame ducks? As for the draft, the scouting reports on which the decisions will be based are already in. The overall strategy has already been laid out. All of the people contributing to the decision are still around. All thats changed is the final decision maker, and he already has the plan outlined for him.
Nationals out here doing what the Yankees should have done today
Cashman holds a lifetime position. He’ll go when he retires.
Only other way he goes is if the Yankees stop making money, but that’s not happening.
Boone might get canned at some point, but not Cashman.
Let me vent (and dream)
Cashman must have compromising photos of the Steinbrenner kids. George would have fired Cashman LONG ago.
It’s obviously going to take a managerial blunder against Cleveland in the playoffs for the Yankees to hire a new manager.
Torre not asking the umps for a delay/or taking his players off the field during the infamous midges game in 2007 (poor Joba). He doesn’t return in 2008.
The Chisenhall HBP that Girardi never challenged that loaded the bases and resulted in a Lindor GS in 2017. He doesn’t return in 2018.
Maybe in 2027 (if there’s not a strike) Boone will conjur up 1 of his many postseason brainfarts and make a poor decision that helps lose a game in Cleveland. Seems like the ongoing theme every 10 years.
Cashman’s a friend of Rudy Guiliani. He has at least one godfather to protect him for being fired.
George would have fired the whole front office staff LONG ago.
Why would you wish for a managerial blunder?
On to Atlanta chopping block!
Cool, now move to a different city.
Solid advice. Probably aren’t many other teams in DC looking to hire Rizzo or Martinez.
What do you think about Montreal?
If by Nationals you mean Rays then yes
That is hilarious. The draft is coming up and now they have no one to oversee it. Now a bad team gets to show their true colors and compete with the White Sox and Rockies for the next few years. Will the new POBO trade away all the pieces they got from the Padres in the upcoming rebuild?
Nats haven’t had anyone from the draft develop
In over a decade big loss
Soto was a international FA signing, so you are right about the draft. Last good player out of the draft that the Nationals developed instead of trading them away was Rendon?
@ Pads Fans Overreaction. Questionable? Maybe. Hilarious? No. The scouting has been done. The analysts have made their rankings. The draft day strategy is already in place. Its not as if the POBO makes the decision on his own. All of the advisors, scouts, and analysts who contribute to and consult on the decision are still there.
100%
@Pads Fans Remember when you said James Wood was 100% going to be a bust because he had a 28% K rate in the minors and the only player to strike out that much in the minors and then go on to be an everyday player in the majors was Joey Gallo and that CJ Abrams was only a token All Star last year even though Kyle Finnegan made it so the Nationals didn’t *need* CJ to make it as a token All Star?
Scouting is done, but in the draft room the POBO (or GM if the team has no POBO) is the man making the calls. The picks never go according to the analysis unless you are drafting 1-1. After that it’s a crapshoot with someone having to make a call among many options. Now there is no one person making the calls and that will get ugly as guys lobby for their favorites.
Tbh they could throw a dart at a list of the 10 best players available and probably do a better job than Mike Rizzo has done the last 10 years.
It isn’t complicated just take Kade Anderson and be done with it.
@ websoulsurfer. Yes, everything you’re saying is true. But its not as if they are going into the draft headless. They’ve installed a decision maker, and he’s someone who’s been with the org for 13 years. He’s familiar with the organization’s process and objectives, and he’s equipped with all of the requisite reports, analysis, and pre-draft planning. So let’s not overreact. As I said up front…. questionable timing? Yes. Hilarious, no.
To me its hilarious. The draft sets the tone for your organization. The tone for the Nationals just got upended in a slapstick comedy type of manner. .
If you think that “draft day strategy” is anything more than the GM/POBO making educated guesses as the day goes along, you have not paid attention to how drafts play out. How often do teams get the guy that they are predicted to get or were connected to after the 1st handful of guys in the draft? If you answered almost never, you are correct.
Also, as several people have pointed out, the Nationals have not had the best drafts the past decade. Now they will be even more disjointed in their draft room. That does not point to a good draft.
So yes, hilarious is the word I would choose to describe the bleepshow that is the Washington Nationals right now.
Do you know the one thing the Nationals could have done to right the ship? Sign pitchers in the offseason. It didn’t have to be Burnes, they just had to sign both a couple of decent starters and several guys for that bullpen. THAT is something that the Lerner’s had to sign off on the spending to accomplish and obviously they didn’t. The result was a pitching staff among the bottom 3 or 4 and a bullpen that is dead last in MLB.
Nothing Martinez could have done would change the outcome this season with that pitching staff.
This is one of those things that falls in the “shocking but not surprising” category.
If you barely follow the Nats it might be confusing…
Rizzo is half a decade past his prime
I’m not exactly surprised. What is surprising is why right now? Something must have drastically changed like recently. A deadline disagreement? Philosophy change not taken? Anyway it is what it is I guess.
The Lerners should have just agreed to sell the team
With all the money they gave to Strasburg they should ask him for permission first
Mike Rizzo will find a special assistant job somewhere else.
Dodgers. Heard they are working on the deferrals right now.
Knee-jerk reaction to getting swept by the Sox at home, or something that’s been brewing for awhile. Either way the only thing I’m surprised at is that Martinez lasted this long
Thinking this is knee jerk is hilarious.. they’ve been abysmal all decade and are still hopeless 4 years into a rebuild
The Nationals were absolutely lost and uninspired this weekend, like a team lost at sea without any desire to find their way back to land. I’m not sure if that’s how it’s been all year, but it was quite evident watching their team this weekend.
This team has lost 3 of 4 to Rockies, 3 of 4 to the Pirates and 5 of 6 to the Marlins. That pretty much sums up the season.
Aaaa+++++ post.
spot on!
Old baseball adage: When your pitching sucks really bad, you can’t win.
Martinez’ firing is a year late. Hopefully this shakes things up for them.
Do you really think anyone could have done better with a pitching staff that bad?
Definitely not. In all the years I’ve been following them, the bullpen has been garbage. Every year, Rizzo simply ignores doing what it takes to have decent relievers. There were a few guys in 2019, but even then, during the WS, they used Corbin and Scherzer in key relief situations. (Shout out to Daniel Hudson!)
I believe Rizzo was just extended a few months ago after a very long negotiation. I like getting rid of martinez and I’m assuming they do not want Rizzo picking the next manager.
Martinez’s one successful season was when he lucked into a scratch team of old pro journeyman veterans who didn’t need any managing and who all had career seasons at the same time. He turned that that five unearned years of employment. While he wasn’t given competitive enough pitching staffs that in-game moves mattered, he also hasn’t developed good fundamentals in young players, and the team is even less than the very low sum of its parts.
Anyone who watches this team every night see a lack of emotion, poor defense, poor base running, too many AAAA players. There have no depth and little quality pitching. That being said, the largest blame is on ownership for a small budget for players and infrastructure.
Hope new voices make a difference, but I am not optimistic 🤷♂️
Trade Gore for an absolute haul, then build from there.
Why would you trade your only legit ace? Will you get a legit ace in return + plus other legit talent?
Do the Nationals have another Ace in waiting? Sykora maybe in a couple of years? Anyone else?
Rizzo will land on his feet
I think the Nationals were expecting to be a fringe contender at the very least, and they have fallen hard. The comments from Dave probably didn’t sit well with the players and ownership, so it’s just best to clean house altogether.
If they were anything like me and other Nats fans, they thought Gore, Irvin, Parker and Soroka were going to blossom and/or rebound into a very good starting foursome. Guess not.
“Our on-field performance has not been where we expect it to be”
It’s always the teams with badly-constructed and under-invested rosters that say this, and it’s hilarious every time. But of course no owner is going to fire themselves, so they have to find some (at least partially) undeserving schmuck(s) to take the fall while the organizational problems that have been and will continue to be there never get solved.
Hopefully Boone and Cashman will be next with the Yankees
Martinez really hasn;t had alot to work with in recent years. I get wanting to change things up, but maybe that should’ve been done last offseason instead of now.
*crow on Twitter that you fleeced another organization in a trade*
*fire the guy who orchestrated the trade*
Lol. Ok.
Is Mike DeBartolo related to Eddie DeBartolo of 49ers fame?
Next, Preller,,,,Please
Is there some sort of weird cult being led by Mike Rizzo? A lot of people seem to think he’s done some kind of amazing job with the Nationals. Yeah he won one World Series being in charge of a team for a lot of years. The team has had a losing record for now, six years in a row. Is there some sort of weird brainwashing going on?
Not anymore.
Don’t forget that Davey Johnson brought Drew stores in to pitch when the nationals were down by 8 runs. That doesn’t make much sense. What makes even less sense is that there was a game each of the next two days. Drew storen couldn’t get the last out against the cardinals in the clincher. Incompetent managing. Did he know that there wasn’t an off day? The nationals won one world series but with better managers could have had a much better chance of one or two more. That was also the Strasburg innings limit year.
It’s been suspected by Nats fans for years that when old Mr. Lerner died, the desire to spend to improve the team died with him. Now Lerner the Younger is in charge and it’s unknown whether he put the kibosh on Rizzo spending on quality free agents. They spent on bargain-basement players instead, and Martinez had to play the cards he was dealt. I think Martinez is a good baseball guy who deserved better on his rosters.
GooseGoslinGuy:
I’m sure what you’re saying is true. But how has the drafting and player development been? That can’t be ignored.
Any organization that rates Robles as better OF prospect than Soto clearly is clueless. No team wins when only one RP has ERA under 5.00.
username checks out
Far be it from me to defend this wretched bullpen, but, fwiw, they have at least 4 RPs with ERA under 4.00.
You made one very good point but were way off with the other. Henry, lord, Finnegan and chafin all have an Era under 4.
The Nationals bullpen has a 5.79 ERA, dead last in MLB.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&lg…
Hmm, hard to say if its the right time to do this. Inching closer to the deadline, thrusting someone else into both of these positions all of a sudden doesn’t seem like a wise idea at least to me. Unless you have some sort of front office savant or a manager in waiting ready to come in and clean up, the timing is off in my opinion.
It’s called running up the white flag.
Oh I get that part, but no one put into the situation gains anything at this point. You may be familiar with players as say an interim manager or have a generic idea of some baseball operations as a front office type in the system currently but making this move right now means lesser experienced hands are in charge of decisions while there is still another half of a season to be played. A change was certainly in the pipeline, but doing so right now I think does everyone involved a disservice. Whoever takes command, I hope it works out for them. No way is it easy to just pop in mid season and say “hey guys I’m in charge now” and be able to comport yourself and have the full support of an organization and its players.
I have always been a fan of the Nats and Rizzo but seems like this rebuild wasn’t going as planned and has been a major bust. Sure, you can say ownership should have let them be more active in free agency, but that’s just one factor. Pretty much all their young talent just came in that Soto trade, which is a one in a million type of move. The bullpen sucks hard and they have two very good starters I guess you can say with Gore and Parker and then just a bunch of guys who are just good enough to be there but nothing special. You don’t win awards for acquiring prospects, on field is what matters.
And Dylan Crews has sucked, for a guy who at one point was honestly considered to be picked over Skenes. ML ready but not producing a thing.
Irvin is better than Parker.
Neither one is particularly great. Maybe not even good. At least not with any consistency. Parker is the worst fielding pitcher I have ever seen. Even worse than Gio Gonzalez, and that’s saying something.
Yeah the problem is they are all mediocre innings eaters who never really progressed.
4.71 ERA/5.16 FIP/6.4 SO/9
4.72 ERA/4.57 FIP/6.1 SO/9
You are arguing which seat is better on the Titanic.
Crews has been hurt for over a month, so it’s hard to judge his progress. Admittedly, the early returns at the plate were not good. The defense, at least, was there.
I know things have been bad in Washington since 2019, but I just don’t think it’s right to fire a manager mid-season who won your organizations only Championship.
jesseglaubitz:
What? That was six years ago. They don’t owe him anything other than the paycheck they’ve been giving him. He’s done a terrible job since that time.
Maybe you’re right. I’m not a Nats fan. I just don’t know what difference it makes waiting to the off season unless you’re auditioning the interim manager.
jesseglaubitz:
I’m not a Nats fan either. However, it tells me the owners did not want these guys involved in the draft or the trade deadline. That’s why I think they got rid of them now.
That’s a solid point.
They should have had more post season success. He hired crappy managers.
Didn’t think the Nats were supposed to contend, and why fire Martinez now and not at the end of last year or the year before? Something seems off here. They could have given Martinez the Tom Kelly treatment of keeping him as the Nats attempt to get back into contention.
Nothing fishy.
They’ve been keeping these guys around through a rebuild from which they were supposed to begin emerging this year. Instead they regress.
Therefore, the architect and skipper were fired.
Everyone paying attention understands this.
Yes. But not everyone is paying attention.
They could’ve fired them last year. Stop it.
You can read or reread the article and my comment.
People who have been paying attention also know that Martinez’s contract had an option to be decided on this month and that contractual decisions about Rizzo also loomed.
It’s true that the terms of Rizzo’s aren’t known, but it’s not true that firing these guys last year would have been the same as firing them this year. As people who were paying attention long enough to get through even this article were aware.
What were they supposed to do? Add another year and then fire them both before the next season? Use some common sense, man.
Common sense, huh? Ok believeit here’s common sense:
2021 record 65-97
2022 record 55-108
2023 record 71-91
2024 record 71-91
Why now and not last year or the year before or the year before? You’ve stuck it out for 4 bad years plus a bad 2020, implying your Nats were willing to stick it out until they made it to contention. It was clear contention was not in the cards for 2025 but if you disagree I’d say you need serious common sense.
The statement, “You’ve stuck it out for 4 bad years plus a bad 2020, implying your Nats were willing to stick it out until they made it to contention.” is nothing more than your personal conjecture. Yes, ownership knew they were in a rebuild. But at some point, there is an expectation of seeing some incremental improvement. But every once in a while there is an off year. There was improvement two years ago. Last year’s stagnation was written off as the off year.
And organizations seldom extend a PBO or manager for only one year. The decision was looming on keeping these guys around for a few more years or letting them go. The org decided to let them go.
IT’S ABOUT FREAKING TIME.
Jeesh.
We here in the MLB trade rumors community predicted this
I’m not sure why anyone here is shocked lol – this was overdue
If I’m a kick you in the a** manager and rebuild GM I’m thinking this would be a great job. The pieces are there to build …either to trade some prospects for younger vets or work on their game. And you have a few young players to build around
Finally! I think a new direction for the Nats would help them. The Rizzo-Martinez era needed to end at some point.
Actually, it’s the Lerners-as-owners era that needs to end. Martinez/Rizzo are scapegoats for cheapskate ownership.
Underachieving ballclub with a need for individual accountability.
How many Managers can make “chicken salad” outta of chicken dreck?
A few come to mind..
One has been “in the game”, but not on the field for awhile. Owner Mark Lerner is looking ( and may have) an individual who may rival the Senators signing Ted Williams in ‘69.
I say… “Look West..”
( If I came across with the name that I think it is.. Well, many would come up with all the Wrong reasons not to hire him. And, fail to mention all the Right reasons ( fundamental Baseball KSA) to hire him.
Stay Tuned..
Maybe it’s just me, but you lost me, brother.
For the latest.. I hear a “sabermetrics” type with a developmental background ( that nobody has heard of) vs. Ozzie Guillen ( he’s Mark Lerner’s Choice..)
“Go West” as far as Chicago…
Thanks for the explanation.
If things continue to spiral in St. Louis, Oli Marmol is going to be free to follow his puppet master out of town as well.
My first reaction to this unexpected move was: “See Hal, you actually can fire the GM and manager!”
George would have fired half of New York three years ago.
Firing Rizzo might have made sense if the Nats spent this offseason. Unless it was Rizzo who said, nah, we don’t need to get better.
The Red Sox are rolling now, crushing entire organizations.
Surprised he wasn’t fired years ago.
Only thing that saved his job this long was because he completely hosed AJ Preller and the Padres
in the Juan Soso deal.
Surprised AJ Preller still has his job after
surrendering most of the Padres young building blocks for their future for a one dimensional RF with a weak arm
who, allegedly, goofed off at the beach and didn’t produce for the
first 1/2 year after the trade deadline
and cost San Diego
from advancing to the World Series that year?!
Everyone who follows the Padres knew that they would never get into a bidding war and pay Soso over 500M to stay in a Padres uni.
Once, Soso/Boras rejected the 400M+ Nationals extension offer, then AJ Preller should have done themselves a huge favor and scratched Soso off their trade list.
Imagine a Padres team with Wood in LF, CJ Abrams @ SS, Mackenzie Gore in the rotation
and Xander Bogaerts playing somewhere else
with the money saved used for the starting rotation?!
And, Hassell and Susanna would still be getting ready on the farm or traded for more rotation help!
Soso to the Padres will go down as one of the worst MLB trades ever by the Padres. And, that list of bad Padres trades is a long one.
Preller traded an old, washed-up pitcher for Tatis. Some trades are good, some are bad. At least the Padres have the pieces to trade.
The Rizzo/Martinez regime will always have two things they can hang their hat on, winning the 2019 WS…and not re-signing Anthony Rendon. Congratulations and good luck, fellas.
The Strasburg contract was just as bad as the Rendon contract. The only difference was that Strasburg’s body quit on him, rather than Rendon quitting on the sport altogether.
Say what you will… Early results of the Soto trade indicate Rizzo knows talent evaluation. Rare that a superstar gets traded and the team trading him away comes out ahead.
That’s why he was fired.
The Lerners will sell. This makes it easier.
While not this one thing specifically, Elijah Green perfectly captures encapsulates why Rizzo is gone.
Scratch the word captures.
My two cents is Dave Martinez will not be only manager to be fired before season ends some others teams who are sellers should move on from there manager
Boone?
Atlanta, the day after the All Star Game!
This team got some legit young talent. I would keep an eye on them.
Dave Martinez is one of the nicest guys I ever met. I wish him well.
Bob Nutting time to say goodbye to Ben Cherington.
We need to get rid of every coach too because they can’t develop hitters to save their lives.
Though I hope they keep Dom Kelly. The Pirates are managing to play significantly better with him than with Shelton
can’t wait to see which in house or multiple time retread they hire to ruin the foundation rizzo gifted them .. fleeced San Diego
3 years later the Nationals are in last place still, 26th in WAR by position players and 27th in ERA among pitchers.
San Diego has a couple of playoffs under their belts and another looking like it will happen this season.
Padres got a deep run in the playoffs that earned them $115 million after trading for Soto and Bell and then moved Soto for Cease, King, Vazquez, and more. Pretty sure every GM in baseball makes that trade from the Padres side.
As always, you can’t say good move or bad move on either until you see who you are getting.
A lot of times, it ends up worse. But keep hoping they make the right move this time.
Braves should fire Snitker tomorrow. Gonzalez was stellar in comparison
I am not so sure Atlanta’s issue is Snitker. At least not ONLY Snitker.
Just an outsider’s observation.
Soto trade is the only reason they aren’t 0-90 right now.
The 2019 champs were built from a combo of smart drafting (Strasburg, Soto, Zimmerman, Rendon), deft trades (Turner, Eaton, Kendrick) and productive free-agent signings (Scherzer, Corbin, Suzuki). IOW, just like every other championship team. When you have bad luck with your drafts, you have to keep trading deftly and be willing to spend on free agents (just like the Yankees, Dodgers and Braves do). The Nats gave up on 2021 too soon — after signing Schwarber, who was having a fantastic year — then dumped him, along with Turner and Scherzer and a few others from the World Series team, at the trade deadline. Rizzo then attempted to spin gold out of straw via trades and dumpster-diving free agent signings. Mediocre moves render mediocre results. The question everyone wants to know: Did Rizzo want to spend money on good talent but the Nats wouldn’t let him? When you look at the roster, and especially at the team’s inability to develop a good bullpen, it’s hard to blame the manager. And if the Lerners wouldn’t let Rizzo spend, it’s hard to blame the GM. That leaves the owners. I hope they sell the team to someone who cares about winning.
You think Rizzo blew up the team without having ownership on board? They paid up for Stras and got stuck with Corbin (both with awful results, but who could have known), so some bad luck was involved. They didn’t pay up for Harper, they weren’t going to pay up for Soto or Turner. Those big ticket moves are decisions made by ownership, no GM gets to make the call on those sorts of things. Dumpster diving moves = no budget, that’s also on ownership.
Now, Rizzo has to take full blame for poor development and drafting though. Most of their highly touted pitching prospects never really made it or survived through the years in the MLB as journeymen [showing drafting was bad, since other teams couldn’t fix these players either]. This goes back over Rizzo’s entire run in DC.
I see the Nationals going after DeRosa for Manager for next season!!
Maybe Rossi.
As a San Diego fan, they’re in a good position to succeed for the future. It’s a cutthroat business.
This is dumb. Rizzo got a great return in the Juan Soto trade.
And the draft is on Saturday and the Nats have the #1. Sorry this is dumb and the Lerners know nothing about Baseball
Rizzo has been subpar when it comes to drafting and developing players, and Martinez (and his coaching staff) has been subpar at teaching his young players how to play fundamentally sound baseball.
Has any team in baseball history won a WS and then crashed and burned this bad? That’s on Rizzo.
All that being said, Mark Lerner needs to sell the team or break out the checkbook.
I think the answer you are looking for is the Marlins
Manager tells the truth about the players and gets in trouble for it. Maybe the players need to man-up and start doing their job that they’re being paid for. Tied of rich guys not performing for the work they’re paid to do. Should be DFA’d.
So….
Do the other GMs get on the phone before the deadline and rake the nub over the coals? Take advantage of him?
Yes. Let’s hope so. Go Tigers!
Jeff Passan – a face and voice MADE for print/on-line media ONLY!!
Now do the Minnesota Twins! Dump Falvey, Zoll & Baldelli!
Dave Martinez is unemployed yet Rocco Baldelli is still managing!!
I dont follow the Nats regularly. But I will say because of that I would of thought they were doing a decent job rebuilding. However after reading g this story one could understand the desire to change.
“the middle of July loomed as a deadline for the organization to decide whether or not to exercise club options on Rizzo and Martinez for the 2026 season”
Still a little weird to me that the org fired the people in the two highest or most visible leadership roles right now. Would declining the options and letting them play out the season undermine the club that much?
Wouldn’t have made much sense to still have Rizzo in place for the upcoming draft and trade decisions if he and everyone else in the organization know he’s leaving. And definitely no reason to keep Martinez in place as a lame duck on a losing team.
Rizzo would have pushed the gnats to sign more Scott Boras clients. The gnats have moved on from that, considering Rendon’s post free agency and Strausburg’s signing. Should have been shown the door two years ago after having to payout an injured player a full contract when he retired before the contract expired and hardly recovered nor pitched.. They weren’t close to competing anyway.
Personal Insight on the Lerners on how they treat their ‘non baseball’ employees.
I was asked to interview with ‘them’ for a position in their executive area. I was told not to report for the interview through the Main Reception area. I was told to report at the Loading Dock area at a specific time. I would be met there to be escorted up to the executive office areas. ( Didn’t think anything of it..had worked in companies that were demanding and different). Great interview.. met both Mark and his (now late) Father. Conversation lasted 3 hours. Upon my leaving, I asked why the secrecy upon entering. I was told that the person that I would replace would see me come in. They were planning on making a change..soon and didn’t want to draw attention to my coming in. Long Story Short, I was offered the job. I didn’t take it. Learned a lot that day.