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As the 5 o’clock ESPN All-Star team “reveal” show wrapped up, the Washington Nationals PR crew was offline. No instantaneous social media mentions from the team as you would expect when two of your youngest stars, MacKenzie Gore and James Wood, were chosen from a last place team to play in nine days in the All-Star game. Odd indeed, and that is because the team was on standby. They were in the process of officially firing Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez after today’s game.

As news broke from ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Nats quickly confirmed the news just 9-minutes later with a prepared press release that announced that assistant GM Mike DeBartolo will be the team’s interim general manager for the remainder of the season, and his first order of duty will be to name an interim manager tomorrow to replace Martinez.

“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city.  Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C. While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our Club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”

— managing principal owner Mark Lerner said in an official statement from the Washington Nationals

The news comes after a 6-4 loss to the Red Sox today, which dropped the Nats to a season-low 37-53 for the season.  We reported through a source, earlier in the week, that Martinez did not have his July 1 option picked up for the 2026 season, although our source wouldn’t confirm when the decision was due on Rizzo’s 2026 team option.

To stay in-house to replace Rizzo was a call for the 40 year old DeBartolo, who began his career with the Nats as an intern in baseball operations that started as a 4-month summer stint in 2012, and then he was rehired in 2013 and has been with the Nationals ever since. To make an impression on Rizzo is what led DeBartolo on a fast track to a Senior VP role, and he made it to Assistant GM to Rizzo in just 7-years. A few have that title, but it was DeBartolo who was never tainted with any negativity, and that ultimately led to his promotion to the interim GM spot. DeBartolo has an MBA from Columbia, and a BA in Economics from Tufts.

Some felt that Eddie Longosz, VP of Player Development, was Rizzo’s heir apparent. Longosz started his career much the same way as DeBartolo. While DeBartolo is the interim choice, it does not necessarily mean he will ultimately be the permanent GM as that won’t be decided for months.

Most thought Rizzo and Martinez would ride out their 2025 contracts, and Martinez would be gone after the season. Rizzo seemed like a lifer. Seemed, obviously not the case after today’s announcement which came shortly after Gore and Wood were named to the All-Star team came with strange timing — but obviously behind the scenes, ownership felt that this couldn’t go any further.

The decision came after a difficult June that included an 11-game losing streak, during which the Nationals went 7-19, and sunk to last place in the NL East. The team statement said, “need for a fresh approach and new energy.”

After yesterday’s broadcast of the game, MASN’s Kevin Frandsen spoke about the lack of “energy” which has been a sore subject for weeks as we broke news months ago about a player who was upset that Martinez was not standing up for his players with the umpires, was the gist of it. Afterwards, camera were panning on Martinez, and in New York, they caught him in a bad camera shot.

Martinez was the longest-tenured manager in Nationals team history from the beginning of 2018 to today — and he just got his 500th win on Thursday. His final record is 500-622 for a .446 winning percentage. Rizzo was the Lerner’s first hire when they bought the team in 2006 making this nearly 20 years with the team and his 17th year as the head of Washington’s baseball operations.

Both men should be celebrated for their successes and contributions to the team, but as Rizzo has said during coaching changes, “Sometimes you need a new voice,” and today that fell on him and Martinez simultaneously as the Lerner ownership group is going with new voices.

While DeBartolo is the interim general manager, he will be in Atlanta for the Draft on Sunday, and there might be a much different course of action change there from the player Rizzo might have selected. With Danny Haas running the draft process, a source told us that the plan was to approach agents on the day of the draft to see who they would take which would require an agreement pending a physical before they announced the player.

“Mike DeBartolo is a smart and thoughtful executive, and we’re fortunate to have him as part of our organization. As we hold the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft and look ahead to the Trade Deadline, we are confident in his ability to lead the baseball operations staff through these next, important months.”

— Lerner said this afternoon

While some would say the timing was shocking, Rizzo was crushed in an article on May 27, by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic titled, “Nationals remain among MLB’s bottom feeders despite lengthy rebuild,” and the negativity was mostly focused on general manager and president of baseball operations, Mike Rizzo. Up until that point, the national media always considered Rizzo as a shining star among executives and only Georgetown Prep alum, Brian Cashman of the Yankees, had more tenure with one team. Another scathing article last week by the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga might have been the final nail in Rizzo’s Nats employment.

In my opinion, those two articles changed everything on the landscape for Rizzo and also for Martinez, who put his foot in his mouth on a response to the media when asked where the blame belongs, on players or the coaches, and Martinez responded, “It’s never on coaching. Never on coaching.” That became national news too and an embarrassment for the team.

For as great as the World Series win of 2019 was, this is a profession of “What have you done for me lately?” Hopefully in time, all wounds will heal, and the fans can look at the good times of 2019 when times are better for the team. There are a lot of hard feelings now as fans have been asking for firings for a while.