As Nationals' losing streak reaches 11 games, Dave Martinez finds his way into the spotlight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It took more than three days for someone front-facing in the Washington Nationals organization to publicly acknowledge manager Dave Martinez's recent comments, in which he absolved his coaches of any blame for the team's abysmal play. By now, the response largely falls on deaf ears.
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'There's onus on the players, there's onus on the coaches, there's onus on the manager and there's great onus on the general manager to do a better job,' general manager Mike Rizzo said Wednesday morning in a paid scheduled weekly radio appearance for 106.7 The Fan. 'We all got to look in the mirror when you lose 10 games in a row.'
The Nationals, who extended that losing streak to 11 after Wednesday's 3-1 loss to the Rockies, have not been ones for self reflection as of late.
Rizzo, who did not reply to text messages from The Athletic on Monday and declined further comment Wednesday, finally accepted a portion of the blame for the team's recent freefall during his radio spot.
Martinez hasn't — and no amount of backtracking or clarifying in subsequent days is as effective as a simple apology would have been in the moment. Martinez, who publicly called out his players as the sole issue in his team's underperformance, practically put himself on the hot seat. And as the Nationals continue to flounder, he might be the least of their problems, if he's a problem at all.
'We're not going to fingerpoint here and say it's on the coaches. It's never on the coaches,' Martinez said after Saturday night's loss to the Marlins.
'Sometimes you've got to put the onus on the players, they've got to go out there and they've got to play the game.'
Martinez followed that up the next day by saying he had talked to his players about his comments and everything was fine.
'It wasn't on them. My comments (were) nothing about them. They know that,' Martinez told reporters Sunday. 'They read through it, and I talked to them about it. They're good.'
'(It) was never about them, right? I never mentioned anything about players,' Martinez said. 'I appreciate those players. I played. I understand how hard this game is, and they know that. It's a difficult game, and these guys are out there trying hard. We've got to do the little things. We start doing the little things, we'll start winning some of these games.'
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The Nationals aren't doing either the little things or winning. They are winless in their past five series. They've averaged fewer than three runs per game (2.62) this month, which is worst in the majors. And they allowed 19 runs in the first three games of the series to a Colorado Rockies team cruising to the worst record in modern baseball history. Rizzo said Wednesday he treats all losses the same, but this is the soft part of the Nats schedule as the team goes west after Thursday's game to play the Dodgers, Padres and Angels.
Martinez — often tasked with speaking for the entire organization — has spent the majority of the past eight seasons appearing heartfelt and polite on the podium. No one in an organization speaks to the media more than the manager. Martinez is typically excellent in that regard, making it even more confounding how he inexplicably lacked feel in the days after his comments caused a stir.
Why, multiple people in the industry surmised, did he not come back Sunday and shoulder at least some of the blame for what has now morphed into a double-digit losing streak? If coaches and managers don't have any impact on the on-field product, why are they there? And why has Martinez had several different iterations of his staff, including an entire new group from the one that won in 2019?
The Nationals season is, like Rizzo said, a byproduct of failures all around, beginning with the general manager and working its way down. No one can say, 'I'm working hard, this isn't on me!,' particularly when the little things that managers and coaches can impact — like baserunning and sound defense — are absent on a near-nightly basis from the Nationals' side of the dugout.
Fans who have sat through what looks to be a sixth consecutive losing season weren't appeased by Monday's promotion of touted third base prospect Brady House — a diversion attempt that would surely make even D.C. politicians proud. Martinez's comments took on a life of their own, filling up talk radio stations and stirring even some of the more apathetic fans into action. During Tuesday's loss — in which the Nationals surrendered seven home runs — there were loud boos and 'Fire Davey!' chants sweeping through Nationals Park. The comments also put the Nationals back on the national consciousness.
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For years, particularly since Rizzo and Martinez engineered the organization's 2019 World Series, the pair have been under-the-radar in the general baseball landscape. When my colleague, Ken Rosenthal, wrote an excellent column last month on the state of the Nationals, he admitted it only came after another team's executive had pointed out that the rebuild appeared to have stalled. Rizzo and some of the fan base questioned the timing. With teams like the Rockies and White Sox — who set the major-league record for losses just last year — and the neverending futility of the Pirates, surely baseball had bigger problems. People outside of the Beltway weren't paying close attention.
They are now.
And the two highest profile members in baseball operations, Martinez and Rizzo, are each under added public scrutiny.
It remains unlikely that any change is coming, particularly mid-season for an ownership group that remains remarkably hands off at best and uninterested at the worst. (The Lerner family, who purchased the team in 2006, briefly contemplated selling but took the team off the market when they didn't like the bids.) Both Martinez and Rizzo have club options that must be decided on later this summer.
Martinez is well liked by ownership — it was his new contract that was agreed to before Rizzo's in the last go-around — and people close to the family believe the Lerners have a lot of respect for Martinez, who led them to their only World Series while dealing with a heart issue. It would be more humane — if the Lerners decide to make a change — to simply not offer Martinez another contract, particularly when there's no clear answer to who on his staff would serve as interim. The same goes for Rizzo, who was promoted from assistant GM to the top spot in 2009, and is the second-longest tenured baseball operations head in the game.
Rizzo threw his support behind Martinez on Wednesday, calling him one of the best player managers he's been around.
'Davey still has the pulse of the clubhouse, he's a great clubhouse presence, a calming presence,' Rizzo told 106.7. 'And once we get through this and win a couple games, which we will, we can right the ship and continue progressing toward winning a championship, whenever that is.'
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As Rizzo pointed out, the pitchforks have been out for Martinez before. In 2019, several media outlets, including the Washington Post, called for a change as the team stumbled out to a 19-31 start.
Even then, Martinez never lashed out. He smiled and kept the receipts, taking the high road all the way to the World Series, using the phrase 'Bumpy roads lead to beautiful places,' to describe the Nationals magnificent run. It was an incredible job by Martinez, Rizzo and a veteran-laden team to bring a championship to D.C., a dream of Lerner family patriarch Ted, who passed away in 2023.
But it's not 2019 anymore. The Lerners must decide, and soon, if this is another bump in the road or if the organization is approaching a dead end.
(Top photo of Dave Martinez:)
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