The Nationals introduced Dusty Baker as the club’s new manager today, bringing a close to a surprising hiring saga. As James Wagner of the Washington Post writes, the veteran baseball man brought plenty of pizzazz to his press conference. The club also announced the hiring of Mike Maddux as its new pitching coach and Davey Lopes as the first base coach.
It was a busy week in D.C., with the Nats also losing an important court battle relating to TV revenue. Here’s more:
- Despite starting a nearly-unthinkable dugout brawl with star Bryce Harper, closer Jonathan Papelbon is nevertheless expected to stay with the club and handle late-inning duties alongside Drew Storen, team sources tell Tom Boswell of the Washington Post. Harper has reached out to Papelbon in an effort to improve their relationship, says Boswell, with the team indicating that they don’t expect any issues regarding the clubhouse interactions of any of the above players. Of course, as he notes, there may be some pre-winter posturing in the expression of those views.
- There were lots of negative reactions to the Nationals’ unconsummated dalliance with Bud Black prior to agreeing with Baker. We’ve already covered that episode in some detail, but here are some more sources to consider if you want to read further: Boswell writes that the club’s ownership (the Lerner family) has yet to fully adapt to conducting business in the world of baseball. Though the organization eventually offered Black three years at a strong annual rate, says Boswell, it had already botched the negotiations (which were, seemingly, largely conducted by ownership). Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com provides a detailed timeline of what went down with Black and Baker. In his account, the maximum offer only “may have gotten up to two guaranteed years at some point.” Talks failed, then were re-started, before Washington finally told Black late Monday night that the club was going in another direction.
- The Post’s Barry Svrluga adds that the botched Black negotiations are not the first time the ownership group has ruffled feathers. “Internal morale … is low,” sources tell him, with one explaining that GM Mike Rizzo is “handcuffed in so many ways” by the organization’s top leadership. And their colleague Adam Kilgore says that Rizzo’s “situation can be considered tenuous.”
- The Nationals, of course, are among the many clubs facing difficult qualifying offer decisions tomorrow at 4pm CST. We’ve yet to hear whether D.C. will make the one-year, $15.8MM offer to outgoing free agents such as Jordan Zimmermann, Ian Desmond, Denard Span, and Doug Fister. Only Span, perhaps, presents a difficult decision, though, as the first two of those names seem like virtual locks to receive the offer while Fister’s rough season makes him an unlikely candidate.
The fact that Harper was the one who had to reach out speaks volumes. Papelbon is the veteran and the one who was in the wrong (Harper ran out the ball just fine). It was 100% Papelbon’s job to try to smooth things over, but it seems like Harper had to “be the bigger person.” That’s a mess waiting to happen. Speaks to Harper’s maturity, at least.
My money is on Dusty trying to make a good impression on baseball and the fan base by insisting Harper reached out. Paps is an expendable piece while Bryce looks like the heart of the team, making him look good is important.
Commenting on a comment without reading the article?
I think Fister would be wise to take the QO if offered. I would think with draft pick compensation attached an incentive laden 2 year deal around 20 mill would be a ceiling this off-season.
Papelbon for Angle Pagan.
That’s acute proposal
Seems a bit obtuse to me.
Well done, all of you.
If you wanted to continue the joke you probably should have said something like “right on, everyone.”
Isoceles.
Unlikely, but this does fall in line with both teams’ pay scalene.
Papelbon is beyond the point of forgiveness. It amazes me how any team would want him in their clubhouse, regardless of whatever he may bring in terms of talent.
Unless the team he is on goes 162-0 he will find a way to be the 4 year old he is deep down.
Why any team would deal with him is beyond comprehension and reeks of desperation within the organization because they are approaching it the same way a high school girl approaches thinking they can change a boyfriend.
If the Nationals cared about improving the club morale they would release him and just call the $11mil he is owed a loss.
Harper may have said he forgave him, but no person forgets and forgives being choked out except professional fighters.
On point and I think it speaks volumes about what the organization is trying to do and promote. After Carlos Zambrono went wackadoodle Theo got him out of there asap, he made sure the team came first, and that every other player mattered. I use to be a big Z apologist but after the last bit I was glad Theo stepped up.
Zambrano was such a hothead, I don’t remember much of his antics except for him being ejected basically once a week and throwing a ball into the outfield after being ejected one time. But yeah, keeping those types of players around really paints a picture of the front office and more so the ownership.
You’d hope they’d write off the 12mil on principles, but after offering Black 1.5 or whatever it really was, have to think the 11mil hurts and they decided to try to patch it up. Wait for spring training quotes to the effect of “we just both wanted to win so badly”.
The word “competitor” is going to be among those quotes. It’s the law!
IMO, we ‘know’ the following:
-The FO was dealing with two managerial candidates at one time.
-A leak to the media (not to the Washington Post) led to a torrent of articles (including WaPo) that Bud Black was the man.
-At some point, the Dodgers offered an interview to Bud Black.
-The Nats’ talks with Bud Black stopped rather suddenly.
-The WaPo sports writers were hours behind the rest of the media in their reporting.
What I ‘know’:
– WaPo sports writers’ lack of ‘scoops’ put them in literary attack mode against the Nats.
Just a random thought, but: With the low-balling of Black and the relatively low (base) salary Baker got, combined with the news that Maddux became the highest-paid pitching coach in the game, I wonder if he actually makes more than the guy he ostensibly works for.