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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Riggleman resigns from Nationals

After completing a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners, the Washington Nationals and their front office were in for a shocker when manager Jim Riggleman resigned due to a contract dispute.

ESPN’s Jim Bowden, a former Nationals general manager, reports that current Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo is shocked, stunned and disappointed that Riggleman is leaving. Rizzo is disappointed that Riggleman is “letting the team down and putting himself first,” according to a Bowden tweet.

Most speculation states that Riggleman put an ultimatum down to pick up his club option for 2012, which was apparently bothering him that it wasn’t earlier picked up earlier this season, after today’s 1-0 victory over the Mariners and resigned when he didn’t receive Rizzo’s guarantee this afternoon.

The Nationals have won 11 of their last 12 games and have a winning record for the first time since April 20th. This has to be a major blow to the team’s psyche, and could ultimately ruin their chances of a wild card due to the coaching adjustment that they will face.

A few names have been tossed around as the likely option to be the interim such as John McLaren, Bo Porter, and Bob Boone. McLaren should be the favorite with his familiarity with the Nationals (current bench coach) and he has former experience managing a big league team in a interim situation.

The Nationals have a bright future tons of young talent, and should be a force to compete in future years, but if they want to make the playoffs and capitalize on their current momentum, the next two weeks will be a telling sign of how the young Nationals react to their new manager.

**UPDATE**
John McLaren has been named the next manager for the Washington Nationals. As I explained earlier, McLaren is the perfect hire for them because of his familiarity with the team and his prior experiences. Although he didn't produce the greatest results as an interim in Seattle, he has the chance to keep the momentum for Washington and help them have an opportunity to reach the playoffs. It will be interesting if they look for a long-term manager (such as the situation in Florida) but I will address both of those situations in a blog post in the near future.

1 comment:

  1. Good post. I wrote on Riggleman today too. We missed ya at the Bees last night but I've got one note.

    I see six teams (not currently leading their division) as more likely candidates for the Wild Card spot out of the NL, and I don't think changing managers will affect wins and losses significantly enough to alter that stance.

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