The Nationals are working to finalize extensions for manager Dave Martinez and president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Rizzo, report Ken Rosenthal and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. Martinez has already agreed to a two-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season, per the report. Rizzo is close to agreeing to a contract of “similar length.”
Both Martinez and Rizzo had club options exercised for the 2023 season and are in the final seasons of their current contracts. There’s been longstanding speculation regarding the contract status of both, with the ongoing rumblings of a potential sale of the franchise only muddying the waters. Even amid that uncertainty, current Nationals ownership will opt for continuity and give both Martinez and Rizzo the opportunity to see the rebuild that began under their watch through to completion.
Martinez and Rizzo helmed the Nationals’ stunning run, famously shaking off a 19-31 start to surge into postseason contention, seize a Wild Card spot, and ultimately emerge as World Series champions. Things have since taken a turn for the worse. Several stars who keyed that World Series run — most notably Anthony Rendon — have left in free agency. The decision to re-sign World Series hero Stephen Strasburg proved almost immediately regrettable, as Strasburg has been injured for the vast majority of the past four years and is facing questions about whether he’ll ever pitch again.
With the Nationals falling well shy of expectations in 2021, Rizzo made the difficult decision to trade ace Max Scherzer, star shortstop Trea Turner and several other veterans, kickstarting a rebuilding effort originally envisioned to be built around young phenom Juan Soto. However, when Soto rejected a 14-year extension offer, Rizzo & Co. bit the bullet and traded Soto for a franchise-altering package of young talent.
Scherzer, Turner, Soto, Daniel Hudson, Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester and others were all traded in deals netting a combination of Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Lane Thomas and a slew of prospects (James Wood, Jarlin Susana and Robert Hassell III among them). As with most rebuilding clubs, the Nats have also picked near the top of the past several drafts, landing notable prospects like Brady House, Elijah Green and 2023 No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews.
Buoyed by that wave of young talent, the Nats have the look of an organization on the rise. But while the faces taking the field will have turned over almost entirely from the prior core that led the club to a World Series win, ownership clearly has faith in the same decision-makers who previously brought them to the dance.
Martinez is in his sixth season as the team’s manager and is now guaranteed another two years at the helm. The rebuild has taken a toll on his overall managerial record, which sits at 378-455. Rizzo, meanwhile, has been the team’s general manager since 2009 and was bumped to the title of president of baseball operations back. A two-year deal for Rizzo would lock him in for his 16th and 17th years running baseball operations in D.C. — and give him an extended window to see how the fruits of his latest rebuilding efforts will acclimate to the Major League level.
Good deal. The team is showing marked improvement with a low payroll.
It’s good to have continuity with monster prospects on the horizon. The future looks bright!
And when the time comes, Washington will spend on free agents so it’s looking good for that fanbase.
I mean they could be competitive 2 seasons from now. Imagine they re-sign Soto to play with all the prospects he netted them?
They’ll be a fringe WC contender next season.. likely won’t challenge the Braves for a bit but no one will.. they’re a juggernaut… they have 90+ win potential again as soon as 2025.
Dave Martinez and Mike Rizzo might actually see the fruits of their rebuild, which is nice to see, as you mentioned this doesn’t really happen in baseball, example of that a little bit is the Cardinals and Mike Schildt.
I think this is Davey’s best managing job other than ‘19. This team is fun to watch. And they play hard every singe day. They really do. Very deserved Davey and Mike.
I saw Rizzo in Nats Park looking very upset as he headed to the locker room following a Nats walk off win a few weeks ago. I couldn’t figure it out at the time, but he was about to have to tell Corey Dickerson he had been released. It later made sense. It obviously ate at him to have to do that.
I think they’re both good guys.
Go Nats!
Congrats to the Nats, but a huge hill to climb.
Braves, Phils and
Marlins are on mount Everest. You folks are in a 40 ton truck climbing a hill. @ 20 mph Good luck.
Totally agree. They always give the Manager of the Year Award to a guy managing a team that wins 100 games, but it ought to go to a guy who has been handed mediocre or very young talent with little chance of achieving anything and gets them to play above their heads. Martinez preaches pitch selection for hitters and throwing strikes for pitchers, and somehow his motley crew has continued to improve to downright respectability. They won’t get to .500 but they could get very close. The Nats need some more personnel, but they are definitely a surprise team of 2023, and Martinez and Rizzo (best bargain hunter in the game) deserve a ton of credit. No one thought this roster could be this good.
What are you talking about?! The managers for the teams that best play above expectations are usually the ones that DO win Manager of the Year!
They do generally still need to be contending teams, so Martinez still doesn’t have much of a chance, but it will be the managers of teams like the Cubs, Reds, Rangers, and Orioles that will likely be the frontrunners rather than the managers of the Braves or the Rays.
They seem to be rising pretty fast … maybe trading Jeimer was a mistake? But Kieboom looking quite a bit better in his most recent promotion.
Watch the jinx! Injuries seem to be hitting baseball pretty hard!
The Cardinals and Schildt are a completely different situation. They had a few very good years together with winning records every year and multiple playoff appearances, and then Shildt was fired over philosophical differences.
There was no championship nor rebuild involved there nor any real comparison at all to the Nationals’ situation.
Funny thought. The Nats might finish the season with a better record than the Padres and the Mets. Times change.
What’s good for the goose (Nats) may not be good for the gander (Bucs).
Nationals tore the team down to the studs a little over a year ago and already are projected to increase their win total from 55 in 22 to 70+ in 23..
They have money to spend and one of the highest upside groups of young talent in MLB and AA in the league.. Rizzo is doing the same playbook he did in 09-12 that started a 12-19 window that led to a top 3 MLB record over that time and a WS..
They don’t have those guys… but they do have guys like Crews.. Wood and House… a much deeper collection of high upside young MLB/prospect talent this time.
They’ll have to make quality external pitching adds.. but the foundation is almost set up..
I would’ve cashed in a couple more chips at the deadline. Namely Finnegan & probably Lane Thomas but they’ve certainly out performed expectations. Be very hard to fire Dave.
Have to assume they were listening to offers on both Finnegan and Thomas, but didn’t hear anything they considered more valuable than their remaining two years of control.
If anything it signals they’re aiming for continued improvement at the MLB level in 2024. Maybe even starting to look like an attractive destination again for a higher end free agent or two.
The reliever market was pretty hot at the deadline. I would’ve liked to see them move Finnegan there. Lane Thomas should be an extension candidate if they aren’t looking to trade him. You could pair him w/ Crews and Wood. He’s only 28 now with 2 years of control.
Finnegan and Thomas are also fan favorites. That does matter.
Good decision by the Lerners. The Nats are improving and they are playing with baseball smarts. Nice young talent that will improve. Rizzo and Martinez are doing something right.
Ok, so was the Strasburg deal something the owners pressured the office to do?
Only 2 hours. Man. Shocked to see it took that long for the Strassy extension to come up in a MLBTR thread. Attention stick please see dead horse and proceed forthwith.
Just asking a question. You should change your name to Senstiveman100%.
Yep, you asked a question, and ya got a response. Sorry to see you couldnt handle it. As for name changes, looks like you should take your own advice, eh.
They should both be fired after the season
Martinez is already the longest tenured Manager in Nationals history and would need not only for his ’26 option to be picked up but to sign another extension after that to tie/pass Felipe Alou’s Expos/Nationals franchise record for longest tenure and needs 370 wins to be the franchises winningst Manager
In all seriousness Davey should get some consideration for Manager of the Year. The Nats have been an incredibly fun and overachieving bunch in 2023.
I agree with Slider, Martinez does not handle pitchers well.
THE THREE YEAR PLAN: 1. Extensions for manager and GM. 2. Sign albatross contracts. 3. Stars underperform. 4. Fire manager and GM. 5. More years of nuclear winter. When will they learn.
This does not describe the Nationals’ situation at all. In fact, the deferrals they are paying out are completely without interest, which actually translates into a discount when adjusting for inflation.
One poster communicated the idea that it will be difficult for the Nats to get atop the NLE because of the Braves, Phillies and Mets but I don’t see it that way. The Mets had a really good season last year but are a disaster this season. They are to much money deep on unproductive players that Steve Cohen can see isn’t going to be effective. They’re kind of a mess. I’m skeptical that they will be much more prepared to compete by 2025.
The Phillies rebuild has not worked out as well as expected despite a world series championships, this season should at least be third in a row of playing over .500 ball. Not the dumpster fire the White Sox rebuild has become but not impressive either.
The Nationals are a well ran organization. They were the most recent NL East power toward the end of the 20 teens. While I wouldn’t say it was a dynasty, they did own the NL East for a good length of time. I still think of the Nationals as the Braves true rival and even the biggest threat to them. The Nationals might not be in the hunt for 2024 but they will be returning. I won’t be surprised if they are competing for a wild card spot in 2025 and maybe even chasing the Braves in 26.
Smart move to lock up Rizzo and Martinez. Like others have said, Washington should be a fringe WC contender next season thanks to their opportunistic rebuild. They are the only team the NL East with a chance of chasing town Atlanta in the long term (2025 or later).
This article talks about Nationals ownership seeing through a rebuild, but nowhere does it mention the impending sale of the team. Important/revelant context
“Meanwhile” should come at the start of the sentence, not in the middle, separated by commas from the flow of the sentence. Yet another mistake by Adams.
And speaking of rebuilds, Dylan Crews gets promoted to AA. Life is beautiful
Their overall record isn’t good, but they’ve been one of the best teams in the NL since the deadline, which definitely contributed to the timing of the extension.