By Nikhil
Even though the Washington Nationals are more than halfway through their sixth straight losing season since winning the 2019 World Series, the timing of their Sunday firings of manager Dave Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo was unexpected. The team made the announcement a few hours after the Boston Red Sox had swept Washington with a 6-4 home setback. The Colorado Rockies are the only other National League team with a worse record than the Nationals, who are 37-53 and last in the NL East. Washington, however, owns the first overall pick in the amateur draft, which is in just one week. Rizzo will be replaced temporarily by deputy general manager and senior vice president Mike DeBartolo. Martinez’s replacement was not announced right away. Both Martinez and Rizzo had options to have their contracts extended past this season, which Washington might have done. “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,” Nationals owner Mark Lerner said in the team’s official statement After over ten and a half years, Rizzo’s tenure as the Nationals’ manager has come to an end. Rizzo, who had been general manager since 2009 and was promoted to president of baseball operations in 2013, was one of the first employees the Lerner family hired after taking over the company. “He played an instrumental role in leading the transformation of our farm system and building a roster that reached an unprecedented level of organisational success. Mike helped make us who we are as an organization, and we’re so thankful to him for his hard work and dedication,” Lerner said. After Derek Shelton of Pittsburgh, Bud Black of Colorado, and Brandon Hyde of Baltimore, Martinez is the fourth manager fired since the season began. Martinez has a 500–622 overall record with the Nationals. When a reporter questioned him last month about how to divide the blame for subpar play between his staff and the players, he became irate. “It’s never on coaching. Never on coaching. Coaches work their (butts) off every single day. We’re not going to finger point here and say it’s coaches. It’s 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’s always been about the players. Always,” Martinez said. Before the 2018 season, Rizzo hired Martinez to replace Dusty Baker, despite the fact that Martinez has never managed at any level. There were some calls for Martinez to be dismissed when the Nationals finished 82-80 in his debut season and started 19-31 the next year. However, Rizzo stuck with Martinez, and it paid off handsomely: the Nationals won their first championship under the leadership of Stephen Strasburg, who was named the World Series MVP, Max Scherzer, rookie outfielder Juan Soto, young shortstop Trea Turner, and a number of veterans, including Howie Kendrick, Ryan Zimmerman, and Anthony Rendon. The team no longer has any players from the World Series roster.