Nationals Rumors

Jim Riggleman's sudden resignation from his post as Nationals manager continues to elicit some interesting responses across the baseball landscape. Here's a couple items of note:

• Former Royals and Cardinals skipper Whitey Herzog, who was shocked by Riggleman's decision, shared some interesting opinions with Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• Herzog points out that Riggleman carried himself well when he was fired by the Padres and Cubs — the difference now is that Riggleman feels Nationals president Stan Kasten tried to low ball him by paying him less than what most managers are paid.
• As for Riggleman's future, Herzog told Hummel: If there's a team looking for a manager, they would be crazy not to hire him.That sentiment seems to be the exception among industry insiders and pundits, but it's worth noting that Herzog gave Riggleman his first coaching job in the bigs, so it seems like there's a personal relationship there.
• Interim manager John McLaren, who yielded to new manager Davey Johnson after Sunday's game, will become a West Coast scout for the balance of 2011, writes Bill Ladson of MLB.com.
• McLaren considered leaving the Nats when Riggleman resigned, according to Ladson, but he decided to stay at Riggleman's behest and after having productive talks with GM Mike Rizzo.
• McLaren admitted he was hurt that he was not allowed to finish out the season as Nats skipper but harbors no ill will after patching things up with the organization.

SUNDAY, 12:01pm: The Nationals have officially announced that Johnson will manage the team for the rest of the season, according to a press release. Johnson also agreed to a three-year consulting contract, so while he won't necessarily manage the team past 2011, he'll remain in the organization and will play a role in the hiring of his successor.

SATURDAY, 11:50am: MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports that the Nationals will announce the hiring today (Twitter link). Interim manager John McLaren is managing the team today according to Mark Zuckerman of Nats Insider.

FRIDAY, 10:45pm: Johnson's contract runs through 2013, according to Jon Heyman of SI (via Twitter).

9:47pm: The Nationals will name Davey Johnson as their new manager, a source familiar with the situation tells Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com.  The 68-year-old will manage the team for the rest of the season and next season, pending league approval.

Johnson's first game as manager will be Sunday afternoon when the Nats wrap up a three-game series with the White Sox, a source told ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine.  An official announcement could come as soon as tonight.

Johnson, who is a senior adviser with the Nationals, last managed in the majors in 2000 for the Dodgers but served as the skipper for the United States baseball team in 2003.  Johnson won a World Series in 1986 as the manager of the New York Mets and has a career MLB managerial record of 1148-888.

The Nationals named John McLaren as their interim skipper last night, but the former M's skipper was just a temporary hire.  Here's the latest on the Nats as they look for a more permanent solution..

• It would come as a huge surprise if Davey Johnson was not the Nats manager Monday in Anaheim, Kilgore tweets.
• ESPN's Buster Olney (via Twitter) talked to a number of GMs, assistant GMs, and scouts over the last 24 hours and every single person said that Jim Riggleman made a major mistake.
• McLaren will serve as the Nats' interim manager until Sunday, when they wrap up a three game set against the White Sox, tweets Bill Ladson of MLB.com.  McLaren is not a candidate to become the interim manager of the team for the remainder of 2011 (via Twitter).General Manager Mike Rizzo is expected to name another interim manager by Monday.
• Rizzo said that Davey Johnson is a candidate to become the next manager of the Nationals, Ladson tweets.  Johnson currently serves as a senior adviser for the club.
• The GM confirmed that he has spoken to Johnson, tweets Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.  He went on to say that he will name a new interim skipper in "days, not weeks".
• Rizzo believes that Johnson would enjoy the challenge of managing the Nats, otherwise he wouldn't talk about it, Kilgore tweets.  Kilgore adds that there's a great chance that Johnson will be the choice.

Washington's 1-0 victory yesterday did more than just accentuate the shock resulting from Jim Riggleman's decision to resign. It meant that the Nationals were making a managerial change despite a winning record, 38-37. Though not a change of their own volition, it still represents a relative rarity in-season.

Riggleman is the 41st manager to be replaced in-season since the start of the 2001 campaign, and of the previous 40, just four had winning records at the time of the change. For fun, we'll include Jimy Williams as well, whose 2004 Astros were 44-44 when Houston replaced him with Phil Garner.

Considering that Riggleman left over the issue of his 2012 option, it is fair to think he wanted to keep on managing. Does leaving with a winning record augur good future employment prospects for Riggleman? Not necessarily.

The two most recent managers to leave while winning were Mike Hargrove, who resigned as Seattle manager with his 2007 Mariners at 45-33, and Ned Yost, fired with his 2008 Brewers at 83-67. Hargrove's not an ideal comparison, since he decided he didn't want to manage anymore. But Yost landed on his feet, taking over as manager of the Kansas City Royals in May 2010. And unlike Yost, who got his walking papers after getting swept in a four-game set, Riggleman certainly had his team playing well.

The other three managers to lose managerial positions with a .500 record or better are Larry Bowa, Jimy Williams and Jimy Williams. Let's start with the latter two, since it's the same guy. Williams actually knows what it is like to lose a managerial job in-season three times. The first came in 1989 with the Blue Jays, when his team's record then was just 12-24. But in 2001, with his Boston Red Sox at 65-53, Williams got the ax. It certainly didn't help Boston any; the Red Sox stumbled to a 17-26 finish.

Williams then landed a job managing Houston in 2002, leading the Astros to a pair of second-place finishes. But in 2004, with Houstonn at 44-44, Williams got fired again. This time, Houston flourished, making the playoffs under Garner. But this was the last managerial go-around for Williams. He served as Charlie Manuel's bench coach from 2006-2008 in Philadelphia, resigning after the Phillies won the World Series. The multiple stops make Williams a pretty decent comparison for Riggleman.

As for Larry Bowa, he was technically an in-season firing, but at 85-75, his season was essentially over. Bowa's Phillies won at least 80 games in each of the four seasons he was in charge, well over a decade after his failed tenure running the Padres. Bowa never managed again, topping out as a third base coach for Joe Torre with the Dodgers.

What could make for an interesting test regarding Riggleman is how his now-former team fares without him. Charlie Manuel, Bowa's successor, led the Phillies to a ton of postseason success, which reflects poorly on Bowa, player personnel differences aside. In the case of Williams, when his successor in Boston, Joe Kerrigan, faltered, Williams got another managing job. When his successor in Houston, Garner, led the Astros to the playoffs, he didn't.

In other words, it would probably be best for Jim Riggleman to see Washington fade, Marlins-in-June-style, over the remainder of the season. But given the acrimony surrounding his departure, I have a feeling Riggleman wasn't going to root for the Nats anyway.