Nationals fire manager Dave Martinez, GM Mike Rizzo amid another losing season | MLB

Manager Dave Martinez and Managing Director Mike Rizzo were dismissed on Sunday by the Washington Nationals, more than halfway through their sixth consecutive season lost since the 2019 World Series victory.

This decision occurred after nationals were swept by the Boston Red Sox. They have 37-53, and the only other club in the national league with a worst record is the Rockies of Colorado.

“Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their role in the case a World Series trophy in Washington,” the owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. “Although we appreciate their past successes, performance on the field was not where we or our fans are waiting for.

Rizzo’s time directs nationals is over after more than a decade and a half. One of the first hires of the Lerners when she took control of the organization, Rizzo was director general since 2009 and that the president of the baseball operations added as his title in 2013.

“He played an instrumental role in directing the transformation of our agricultural system and building a list that has reached an unprecedented level of organizational success,” said Lerner. “Mike helped make us who are as an organization, and we are very grateful to him for his hard work and his dedication.”

The main and assistant vice-president GM Mike Debartolo takes over for Rizzo on a provisional basis. Washington has the choice n ° 1 in the next draft.

“Mike Debartolo is an intelligent and thoughtful framework, and we are lucky to have it in the context of our organization,” said Lerner. “We have confidence in his ability to direct baseball operations staff in the coming months.”

Martinez has become the fourth manager drawn since the start of the season after Derek Shelton by Pittsburgh, Bud Black from Colorado and Brandon Hyde de Baltimore.

He was not immediately clear who would succeed Martinez, who last month bristled the question of the gap of players and coaches.

“It’s never training,” said Martinez in June. “Never on training. The coaches work on their (butts) every day. We are not going to the finger here and say that they are coaches. It’s never on coaches. They work hard. The message is clear. All the work is done before. So, sometimes, they have to go out there and play the game. It has always been on the players.” Always. “

Martinez had never been manager at any level when Rizzo hired him to replace Dusty Baker before the 2018 season. The nationals went 82-80 in the first season of Martinez and had a start of 19-31 the following year, which led to calls for her replacement.

But Rizzo stayed with Martinez, and this decision paid importantly: led by start -up launchers Stephen Strasburg, who won the honors of the world series, and Max Scherzer, the Voltueur Recruue Juan Soto, the young Trea Turner and a series of veterans – including Howe Kendrick, Ryan Mimmerman and Anthony Rendon – The title title.

They took a step back in the 2020 season at the pandemic, then Rizzo began to tear the list, making a series of professions that sent Scherzer, Soto, Turner and others elsewhere.

The reconstruction continued, without much concrete progress in the standings to show it, although the team has constituent elements which are promising, in particular the starter Mackenzie Gore, the CJ Abrams CJ stop and the James Wood and Dylan Crews field players. Blood and wood are all-stars nl.

“Fans of nationals have a lot to be optimistic, and we consider these changes as a difficult but necessary movement in a positive direction,” said Lerner. “As was the case since my late father took control of the team almost 20 years ago, our family remains determined to win.”

Washington finished fourth or fifth in the NL East each year from 2020 to 2024, without having implemented a percentage of wins higher than the .438 (71-91) each of the last two seasons. The team is again in the last place.

Martinez’s full record with the Nationals was 500-622.

“I always appreciated and admired Davey’s passion for the baseball game and the love he has for his players,” said Lerner. “Davey’s ability to connect with our staff, our players, our fans and our community distinguishes it. Although this chapter has ended, we know that it does not close the book on what should continue to be a long and successful career in baseball.”