talkdcsports-kzeim

On June 6, the Washington Nationals were at 30-33 with optimism growing for the then, third place Nats. Then the very next day, Jacob deGrom tormented the Nats just like when he was with the Mets. Flashback to May 22, 2019, it was deGrom who sent the Nats to a tough loss and dropped Washington to a 19-30 record, and set-up the infamous 19-31 game the next day. Manager Dave Martinez was on the hot seat at that point — and to the ledge of no return according to the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga who wrote that Martinez was about to be fired as a foregone conclusion in a “season is lost now.“ How close that firing was to happening — or now, is an unknown. Talk about a case of déjà vu!

A little over a week later from that 30-33 record, this team has suffered eight consecutive losses and a whirlwind of negativity centered around manager Martinez‘s controversial comments after Saturday’s game. The Washington Nationals have tried to change the storyline this evening and will call-up their top prospect, Brady House, from the Triple-A level.

In Washington, D.C., the movie, Clear And Present Danger, with Harrison Ford put a twist on the D.C. Two-Step and called it the “Potomac Two-Step” as the President said, “It’s the ole Potomac two-step, Jack,” and Jack Ryan responds, “I’m sorry, Mr. President, I don’t dance.” Many fans have no reason to dance. In D.C. politics, when the sh#t hits the fan, they pivot to damage control. That seems to be what general manager Mike Rizzo just did to divert the stink from Martinez, and the losing streak, by calling-up House. For the moment, that might have worked.

We do know that Martinez’s current contract expires at the end of the season with a team option attached. Technically, he doesn’t need to be fired to depart after the season. If the team wanted him gone now, they would do what they did in mid-2009 when Manny Acta was the only Nats’ manager fired mid-season, and replace him with an interim manager to finish the season. In his eights seasons with the Nats, Martinez does seem to have nine lives.

To quash the ridiculous narrative, the cost to place an interim manager from within the system in-place wouldn’t cost more than a few hundred thousand dollars. A source told us that the reason they might not fire Martinez is out of respect for this franchise’s only World Series manager. The Nats have already flushed $7.4 million when they DFA’d Colin Poche, Lucas Sims, and Jorge Lopez. Where do these stupid narratives start from? Martinez isn’t making anything close to $7.4 million. His salary is a sunk cost.

In Baseball America’s current top prospect rankings, House was back in the Top-100 for all minor league prospects. While many were calling for House to be called up this past Friday to align with the start of the series against the Marlins that concluded today, Monday became the day to two-step.

After Saturday’s game, Martinez made national headlines when asked who’s to blame for the offensive woes, players or coaches? That set Martinez off on a rant to defend his coaches, and in turn seemed to put all the blame on the players. We checked in with sources and the feedback was interesting from no comment, to “who cares”, to “jerk move”, to a former Nats’ player, “Davey buried the players today.” There was no apology from Martinez, but he gave an explanation that went in the direction that his comments were taken out of context.

“The [players] were great. I talked to a lot of them already. It wasn’t on them. My comments were nothing about them. They know that. They read through it, and I talked to them about it. They’re good. They want to win today, that’s the biggest thing. The clubhouse is about as good as it’s ever been. These guys have stuck together. We went through this before. We’ve lost seven or eight before. We’ve got to stick together. All of us, 26 players, all the coaching staff, everybody.”

“Was never about the [players], right? I never mentioned anything about players. 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.”

— Martinez said before Sunday’s 8th consecutive loss

The point that Martinez misses when he shifts the conversation to when “we start doing the little things, we’ll start winning some of these games,” is that a lot of the little things begin with him and the coaches. You must find ways of making incrementally better decisions to improve your chances to have additional successes. We have discussed move after move that were not made that would have increased the chances of success.

Even the best moves, per the stats, do not always work. But doing nothing is part of the little things that were not done.

The Nationals have only scored 31 runs in June over 13 games, and that is just 2.38 runs per game on average. That is the worst in all of MLB. But sure, it’s all on the players, and not on the coaches. Wink wink.

By bringing up House, you would expect the chatter to move in that direction — because it is a big storyline. But Daveygate might not go away that easily. Winning is about the only thing that might change the conversation.

In 2021, House was a pre-season high school No. 1 draft prospect. Some analysts dropped him to the third best high school draft pick, and the Nats were surprised to get him at 11th overall in the first round. In Triple-A, the top prospect has been bashing home runs with distance, and 13 in total with a strong .304 batting average and an .872 OPS. The negative on him is his K-rate which seems to come and go where he will have some games where he sees the ball so well, and others where he could have three strikeouts in one game.

To officially make room for House, the Nats will have to open a 40-man spot (not announced), and Jose Tena has already been optioned to Triple-A to find his power stroke. In addition, Robert Hassell III was optioned to Triple-A. Up in Hassell’s place will be the second stint for Daylen Lile after his first MLB looks weren’t good overall. Yes, Lile had his moments, but his .194 batting average and a .612 OPS with some inconsistent defense got him a quick option back to the minors. With Hassell’s offensive struggles — Lile will get a second chance.

From the words of Rizzo, “It’s hard to get here and harder to stay here.” Truth.