The Washington Nationals made a shocking move on Sunday night that will likely have implications across all of Major League Baseball. The Nationals, who hold the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft that starts next Sunday, announced on Sunday that president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez had been fired. Add in the fact that Major League Baseball's trade deadline is at the end of the month, and the timing of the firings has left many baseball insiders by surprise.
There's no doubt that it was a bold choice, considering the important decisions that are ahead with the draft and deadline, but it speaks to an ownership group that grew frustrated with the current state of operations for their baseball department.
Despite a talented group of young core players, the Nationals enter Monday with a record of 37-53 and 16 games out of first place in the National League East. Above all else, that would be the reason why Rizzo and Martinez were fired, as the progress the Nationals had made with their roster construction and development was not translating to success on the field. It was also a reminder of why the Minnesota Twins may be doomed until the Pohlad family completes the sale of the team.
Nationals clean house and it’s a glaring indictment of Twins ownership
A hidden reason why the National made the decision now to fire Rizzo and Martinez is that the team had to decide on the 2026 options in their respective contracts this month. As opposed to picking up the options only to fire them after the season, the decision was made to fire them now and save the charade. Meanwhile, despite all that has gone wrong with the Twins between the end of the 2024 season and this season, the team has already picked up the 2026 option on Rocco Baldelli's contract.
The decision to already reveal Baldelli will be back for the 2026 season just speaks to the Pohlad family's content with keeping things status quo while they are on their way out. And to be fair, a new ownership group would likely want to bring in their own people, so it wouldn't have made total sense for the Twins to make as drastic a change as the Nationals just made.
That said, the hope should be that the Pohlad family is able to complete the sale within the next 6-12 months. Otherwise, the directionless Twins will continue to dive further into obscurity given their handcuffed situation.