On Thursday, Nationals manager, Jim Riggleman decided to resign as the manager of the Nats. Since then, GM Mike Rizzo found his new man in Davey Johnson. Johnson led the Mets to a World Series title in 1986 and led the Orioles to two ALCS' in 1996 and 1997. Johnson has also managed the Reds and lastly the Dodgers in 200 while also managing Team USA in the 2009 world baseball classic. Johnson signed to manage the Nats for the rest of the season and if he is not retained, as the manager, for the 2012 season he will work else were in the organization. Before I get into Johnson, I'll get into how badly the Nats handled the Riggleman situation.
At the start of the season, Jim Riggleman knew that his contract was up and if he did not led the Nats to a decent season. Riggleman wanted to get this contract situation solved during the season. I'm not sure if this is whatt Riggleman wanted at the start of the season, but with the way this team has been playing it only seemed right that GM, Mike Rizzo, and Riggleman have contract talks. That never happened, and while the Nats were in the middle of there best month, since moving to DC, Riggleman said enough and decided to step down, due to the lack of communication between Riggleman and the organization. A lot of people say oh Riggleman quit on the team. I tend to think differently. I think Riggleman was in the right because the organization never asked to discuss his contract with him, despite the Nats being in third place and above .500. This team, on paper, should not be in third place in a tough NL east division. This team's success should go to Riggleman's credit as this team lost there future star, this year, due to tommy john surgery. I find it disturbing that owner Ted Learner and GM Mike Rizzo would rather spend $126 million on a player, in Jayson Werth, than spend money on a manager that has this team playing above its potential. Let's see here, signing a player that is past his prime to an outrageous contract while letting actual talent leave sounds a lot like another organization in this city. For now I don't like the way Ted Learner handles this team, but the next few years will tell if Learner will be like Dan Snyder or Ted Leonsis.
Despite letting go of a manager that was doing one hell of a job with this team, Rizzo made a good hire in getting Davey Johnson. Being an O's fan, since DC had no team, all I have is good memories of Davey Johnson and if Peter Angleos wasn't such an idiot and fired Johnson, the O's could've possibly won another World Series. Anyways Johnson brings tons of knowledge to the table and that is a great thing since the Nats are a young team with a lot of raw talent. Johnson is a winner as he has taken every team he has managed to the playoffs, except the Dodgers. Johnson is 68 and because of his age, Rizzo had the contract say that Johnson will be manager for the rest of this year and if he is not brought back as manager, next year, he will still be a part of the Nats organization and will help in the search of his successor. Johnson will manage his first game on Monday, as the Nats head west to take on the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim. If the Nats do continue to win the rest of the season, Rizzo will look like a genius for letting Riggleman go, if the Nats finish around 20 games or worse under .500 then DC will be questioning Rizzo as the GM.
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