SEPTEMBER 26: Washington officially announced a “multi-year” extension for Martinez.
SEPTEMBER 25: The Nationals have agreed to a contract extension with manager Dave Martinez, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). It’s a three-year, $7.5MM contract that will take effect in 2021, Bob Nightengale of USA Today was among those to tweet. His previous three-year contract was set to expire at season’s end, and the Nats had yet to formally make a call on Martinez’s 2021 club option or on a lengthier deal. The new contract will make quite the birthday present for Martinez, who turns 56 years old tomorrow.
Typically, clubs seek to avoid having a manager or general manager navigate a season with the dreaded “lame duck” status — i.e. no contract in place for the following year — but the Nationals have repeatedly bucked that trend by waiting until the eleventh hour to make decisions one way or another on both their managers and GMs. The Nats didn’t extend general manager Mike Rizzo, whose contract didn’t even have a 2021 option, until three weeks ago.
No club in baseball has had more managerial turnover in recent years than the Nationals, but it appears that last year’s World Series win will bring about the type of continuity this current generation of Nats players has yet to see. Martinez became the sixth man to manage a Nationals game in an eight-year span (2011-18) when he was hired, and since moving to D.C., the Nats have never had a skipper last more than three seasons on the job. The Lerner family opted to replace former skipper Dusty Baker even after Rizzo reportedly fought to keep him in place, and Baker only landed with the Nats after the club alienated Bud Black with a lowball, one-year offer when he had emerged as the favorite following the interview process.
Replacing Baker with Martinez, previously the Cubs’ bench coach, has worked out for the Nationals. Despite losing Bryce Harper to free agency before 2019, the Martinez-led club won 93 games and its first title. On the other hand, this year has been a struggle for the Nationals, who saw star third baseman Anthony Rendon leave in free agency and have gone almost entirely without injured World Series MVP-wining right-hander Stephen Strasburg. At 23-34, the Nationals won’t defend their title in this year’s playoffs, but that championship was understandably enough to convince the club that Martinez is the right person for the job. Along with their World Series win, Martinez has guided the Nats to a 198-183 regular-season record during his tenure in D.C.
Good manager. Solid move
How is he a good manager?
He won a world series his 2nd year for a first time manager.
Thedimitrinia — how is he NOT a good manager ?
seriously? do you not know who Dave Martinez is?
Glad to see some organizations still have class… I feel some would’ve went another direction after going from WS Champ to last in division
Yeah,Now in 2021 we will see who the real Nat’s are. 2019 version or the 2020 one.
Martinez and his team won the World Series almost a year ago. His contract expires in a week. And this is what you call class?
He should have been extended in the offseason before spring training began.
Nothing “classy” about having him managing in late September without a contract for next year.
The owner can exstend a contract when they want. It’s their team and their prerogative.
Duh, That’s fairly obvious. But not sure how it’s relevant.
Negotiations take time, and it takes 2 to tango. The process has probably been going on for some time.
I believe there was a 1.2M club option left. So they could have waited until next year to renew or not. So Martinez will make more money now. This move could be called classy, stupid, or smart depending on how you look at it.
Maybe they were wearing tuxedos
The yankees regardless of how well the manager / gm does usually do not negotiate their contracts until they expire for front office. That seems to be the National protocols which was quoted from the post above. I dont think they have reupped any of their coaches after contract. .
Look at Girardi, he was manager of the year in his rookie season as manager of the marlins and was fired that same season. Cora was in his rookie season when he was hired and won the world series, so why be prudent to pay out when you dont have to. Who knows what can happen. Maybe Martinez needs to be fired or god forbid something happened this season and he can no longer coach.
How do you know they didn’t have trouble coming to terms on a good contract?
You don’t.
The Nats are doing something right, right now. That is stability. A stable FO, and manager. Get some good pickups, plus the young guys on the team like Soto, Garcia, and Kieboom, and I think they could swoop in and make another run. Not to mention the established guys like Turner, Strasburg, Corbin, and maybe Scherzer (if he returns). I like this team.
Good to see. Anytime a manager can get you a WS ring, he is a good manager. This year doesn’t count for so many reasons, Martinez is a good guy.
Guessing this is the first time this has ever happened, but…
Dave Martinez is the only current manager in MLB to win a World Series with his team.
Hinch and Cora cheated and got fired. Maddon moved on. Yost and Bochy retired. Etc.
Looking at the list, only 4 active managers have ever won a ring: Martinez, Maddon, Francona and Girardi.
As a Nats fan, I’m glad to see this, finally.. I don’t always agree with how Martinez manages, especially during the regular season. But he more than earned this extension last year and it should have been in place long before now.
Davey and Rizzo locked.
Strasburg and Corbin locked.
Everyone else is 1 to 2 years remaining or arb deals of various length.
Time to prioritize and work on locking some young guys up.
Scherzer has 2021 than FA. He’s 36 will be 37 after next year. Depends on what he wants. I bet he’s looking 3 to 5 with the tail end as a closer type roll. I’d sure like to see him retire and go into the HOF a National.
Howie Kendrick, Eaton and Adrian Sanchez all have mutual or team options for next year.
Cabrera, Zimmerman, Suzuki and Doolittle are all FAs but I’m guessing there is a possibility of discussion on both sides.
Cabrera is a damned nice plug into any defensive position with a good glove switch hitter. $1.5m
Suzuki is a quality backstop with a nice pop bat. $3.5m
Zimm is serviceable 1b/bench/ph/dh $1.5m
Doo? It’s all gonna depend on if he can get his FB speed up or pitch a setup role. He’s definitely a good teammate to try to get back. And LHP aren’t easy to come by.
Now the 2 tough spots.
Trea Turner is today where Rendon was a couple years ago. 2 Arb years left. He’s 27 so you can offer to buy out 2 Arb years and offer him 7 years total for $175? Or you can sit on it for 2 years and then likely lose him cause he’s probably gonna have 2 dynamite years and want 8 for $275.
Soto is another ball of wax. He’s as good as it gets and is gonna get better if that’s even possible. He’s 21 gonna be 22. Has 4 years of Arb control left. The Acuna deal was crazy crazy in favor of the team. I dont see how possible to even offer that deal to Soto without insulting him? But maybe? 10 years $150 with mutual options at the end? 15 years $300 with options and staggered opt outs?
I dont know. What I do know is… every year you leave him under Arb control, the likelihood of having any say in keeping him a Nat and controlling the cost goes precipitously downward year by year. Hell, month by month. Injury I think is his only downside potentially.
There is some other good youth on the team.
Robles in CF
Kieboom at 3B
Garcia at 2B
Stevenson & Taylor still show OF hope
Ross, Fedde and Voth are serviceable but not a lot more than 3 thru 5 rotational.
International league. Pitching and catching in the draft. Eyes out for that poachable diamond. But players like Scherzer and Cole dont make it to free agency too often.
Nats have too many older players who are multi position utility types but not consistent stars to win another WS. Pitching is injury prone, but the downside was losing Rendón = his production & protection in lineup. No one can deny that effect in ‘20.
Keep & secure: Turner, Soto, Robles, Garcia, then offer Scherzer, Taylor, Suzuki, Cabrera;
Trade Keiboom and a few more for help pitching.
Need for ‘21 a bopper OF and a big time 1st B. But DRAFT smart for them too.
In 2022 might have a shot to repeat.
Rizzo gotta work your stuff now!!! Go NATS vs Yanks in ‘21 WS !!!
agree with almost everything you said. hesitant on the Kieboom thing.
he’s a 2nd/3rd/SS player with supposedly a plus bat and glove and our highest prospect. so it all depends on how he is viewed.
if we still have faith that he is a #1 prospect material than we need to keep him and hope he nails down 3B. Trea is our SS and Garcia is our 2B. cause if we plan on trading him, we still need at least a solid 3B and what ever pitcher we get is probably going to slot in as a #4 or if higher will push one of our top 3 into a 4th spot. So, i’d rather keep potentially our every day 3B playing 150 games at a decent to high level than just improve our 1 thru 4 once every 5 day pitchers. This has a lot to do with what we are able to accomplish re: Max of course. if he walks after 2021 than yeah, we’re down to 2 big guns in the rotation with one of them on a long-term questionable deal. (i love celebrating StrasMas but his delivery and suceptibility to the injury bug makes me hesitant. i think we gave him too much honestly. i would have been more comfortable with THAT big chunk of change going to Rendon and hoping to get 135 or more games a year out of him of A to A+ 3B out of him. but, what’s done is done.
Am super glad we locked Rizzo and Davey as i have faith in both of them.
Time to let a few guys walk away — Sanchez, Suzuki, Eaton, Taylor. Try to hang on to Kendrick for one more year. Cabrera too but he’ll be looking for more years. Doubtful they can reach long term deals with Soto or Turner but no harm in trying.
Then go hard after JT Realmuto and lock up a corner OF. Sign an innings eater for the rotation and hope for a recovery from Strasburg and more progression from 1 or 2 of Voth, Fedde, Ross. See where Max, Stras and the rotation stand after 2021 and address it then.
They could have been in negotiations for a long time
Look, I’m a Braves fan, so my comment will look like a homer move…. but he is not a good manager… how do you earn yourself an extension from taking a World Series winning team to last place over night? They are arguably the 3rd worse team in the NL and roughly in the bottom 5 in all of baseball this year. And hey, I get they won the World Series last year. That team was loaded… they should have run away with the division also but didn’t. I get WS rings are what matter, but consistent winning throughout the season with that loaded roster should have been expected. Not to mention how terrible the team is this year :/
Loaded roster. Have you looked at the putrid lineup The Nats have put out there this year?
Martinez had a 19-31 record last year at a time when the media and fanbase wanted him fired. He stayed the course and the rest speaks for itself. Martinez – or any manager for that matter – could win 3 WS and someone on this forum would say he’s not a good manager. Rendon’s departure was not on Martinez. And the list of injuries this season is stacked high. That said, were there alot of guys who underperformed and regressed vs their 2019 performances? Yes. But for anyone to make any hard decisions re: an abbreviated 60 game season is a stretch.In a similar vein, should the Braves have punted on Swanson after his sucktastic 2017 season? Obviously not.
If The Nats put up a similarly poor performance next season, than that’s a different matter.
What did you say when folks made harsh judgments about Dansby Swanson after his crappy 2017 season?
If ANY manager won 3 World Series rings there’d still be someone on here who’d question his abilities.
Did Washington have players this season who regressed signicantly vs. 2019? Definitely. But they also had a ton of injuries to overcome.
Making any definitive judgements after a 60 game abbreviated season is unwise — The Marlins made the playoffs for crying out loud and The Mets/Phils/Nats are gonna sit at home, even with an expanded playoff format. Who expected that ?
If the Nats finish with a similarly awful performance next season, than perhaps evaluating Martinez in a different light will be better. The guy turned around a 19-31 team last season when the media and fanbase wanted him fired. He stayed the course, and that wasnt easy
I don’t understand the correlation between my comment, ur Swanson statement, and the rest of your statements at all. I love how you lead with it as if you just dropped the hammer … clearly my assessment of Martinez is more than just this year. So your lecture does little good.
Most of your initial comments make no sense. and your reply makes even less sense.
I don’t get the correlation, either, and I am a Nats fan.
not a good manager
3rd worst team in the NL
bottom 5 in all baseball
terrible team
yet they went 4-6 against your Braves.
your Braves went 6-4 against them
only 1 game away from a .500 record against such a “terrible team”
guess the Braves weren’t that good either…
P.S. — alas, The Phillies can actually reach the playoffs with a win today and losses by both the Brewers and Giants.