{"id":46810,"date":"2025-07-07T20:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T20:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46810\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T20:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T20:04:08","slug":"nationals-fire-gm-rizzo-manager-martinez-as-losses-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46810\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals fire GM Rizzo, manager Martinez as losses mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Manager Dave Martinez<\/a> and general manager Mike Rizzo were fired by the Washington Nationals in moves that were surprising for their timing, even if the club is more than halfway through its sixth consecutive losing season since winning the 2019 World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team announced the changes Sunday just hours after Washington\u2019s 6-4 loss at home completed a sweep by the Boston Red Sox<\/a>. The Nationals are 37-53 and last in the NL East; the only National League club with a worse record is the Colorado Rockies.<\/p>\n

But the amateur draft is just a week away, and Washington has the No. 1 overall pick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senior VP and assistant GM Mike DeBartolo is taking over for Rizzo on an interim basis. Bench coach Miguel Cairo was named interim manager Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiguel is well-respected in our organization and around baseball,\u201d DeBartolo said. \u201cA diligent worker and student of the game, he has a proven track record of showing strong leadership in a variety of situations, and I believe that his voice and energy will serve as a catalyst to our team and our fan base in the second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington could have exercised options to extend the contracts of both Martinez and Rizzo beyond this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are appreciative of their past successes,\u201d Nationals owner Mark Lerner said in a statement issued by the team, \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rizzo\u2019s time running the Nationals is over after more than a decade and a half. One of the Lerner family\u2019s first hires when it assumed control of the organization, Rizzo had been GM since 2009 and added the title of president of baseball operations in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played an instrumental role in leading the transformation of our farm system and building a roster that reached an unprecedented level of organizational success,\u201d Lerner said. \u201cMike helped make us who we are as an organization, and we\u2019re so thankful to him for his hard work and dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez is the fourth manager fired since the start of this season \u2014 after Pittsburgh\u2019s Derek Shelton<\/a>, Colorado\u2019s Bud Black<\/a> and Baltimore\u2019s Brandon Hyde<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s full record with the Nationals was 500-622. Last month, he bristled at a reporter\u2019s question about how to split the blame for poor performance among players and his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never on coaching,\u201d Martinez said then. \u201cNever on coaching. Coaches work their (butts) off every single day. We\u2019re not going to finger point here and say it\u2019s coaches. It\u2019s never on the coaches. They work hard. The message is clear. All the work is done prior. So, sometimes, they have to go out there and play the game. It\u2019s always been about the players. Always.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez had never been a manager at any level when Rizzo hired him<\/a> to replace Dusty Baker before the 2018 season. The Nationals went 82-80 in Martinez\u2019s first season and got off to a 19-31 start<\/a> the following year, leading to some calls for him to be replaced.<\/p>\n

But Rizzo stuck with Martinez, and that decision paid off in a big way<\/a>: Led by starting pitchers Stephen Strasburg, who earned World Series MVP honors, and Max Scherzer, rookie outfielder Juan Soto, young shortstop Trea Turner and a string of veterans<\/a> \u2014 including Howie Kendrick, Ryan Zimmerman<\/a> and Anthony Rendon<\/a> \u2014 the Nationals won the franchise\u2019s first title.<\/p>\n

No one from the World Series roster is still playing for the franchise.<\/p>\n

Washington took a step back in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and then Rizzo began tearing apart the roster, making a series of trades that sent Scherzer, Soto, Turner and others elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The reconstruction has continued, without much in the way of concrete progress in the standings to show for it, although the team does have some building blocks that show promise, including starter MacKenzie Gore and outfielder James Wood \u2014 both named NL All-Stars<\/a> on Sunday \u2014 along with shortstop CJ Abrams, who was an All-Star a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationals fans have a lot to be optimistic about, and we see these changes as a difficult, but necessary move in a positive direction,\u201d Lerner said. \u201cAs has been the case since my late father took control of the team almost 20 years ago, our family remains committed to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington finished fourth or fifth in the NL East every year from 2020 through 2024, never putting together a higher winning percentage than the .438 (71-91) each of the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always appreciated and admired Davey\u2019s passion for the game of baseball and the love he has for his players,\u201d Lerner said. \u201cDavey\u2019s ability to connect with our staff, our players, our fans and our community set him apart. While this chapter has come to an end, we know that it doesn\u2019t close the book on what should continue to be a long and successful career in baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Manager Dave Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo were fired by the Washington Nationals in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1891,591,1281,36295,36299,6597,1283,36293,36297,36303,36298,29772,3693,34544,36301,564,5920,8006,36292,36300,36294,1266,1822,36302,62,36296,3695,67,132,68,18321,906,2057,2058,1291],"class_list":{"0":"post-46810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-anthony-rendon","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-brandon-hyde","12":"tag-bud-black","13":"tag-cj-abrams","14":"tag-colorado-rockies","15":"tag-dave-martinez","16":"tag-derek-shelton","17":"tag-dusty-baker","18":"tag-howie-kendrick","19":"tag-james-wood","20":"tag-juan-soto","21":"tag-mackenzie-gore","22":"tag-mark-lerner","23":"tag-maryland","24":"tag-max-scherzer","25":"tag-md-state-wire","26":"tag-miguel-cairo","27":"tag-mike-debartolo","28":"tag-mike-rizzo","29":"tag-mlb","30":"tag-mlb-baseball","31":"tag-ryan-zimmerman","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-stephen-strasburg","34":"tag-trea-turner","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us","38":"tag-va-state-wire","39":"tag-virginia","40":"tag-wa-state-wire","41":"tag-washington","42":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}