By Jordan Long
The Washington Nationals sit at 69-72, 8.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for 1st place in the National League East Division and are 9.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. Even though it has been a season to forget, 1st year manager Dave Martinez’s job is safe for now.
This has been an awful season for the Nationals. Going into the year, the Nationals were a talented team who won 97 games last year and ended up in 1st place in the National League East. They lost to the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series in 5 games, costing Dusty Baker his job. The Nationals hired Dave Martinez on October 30th, 2017 hoping he would take this team to the next level.
This season the expectations were even higher. On paper, the Nationals were going to be a World Series contender. It didn’t happen.
The offense hasn’t been the problem for them this season. They are 10th in all of baseball with a team average of .253. This team is able to hit on base but they aren’t smacking home runs with a total of 166 ranking them 14th in all of MLB. Washington’s hitters are patient at the plate. They don’t take chances swinging at pitches outside the zone. They have a total of 1,136 strike outs, which is the 8th least in all of MLB.
Those numbers say they should be a contender this year. The problem has been their pitching. Their overall ERA is 4.02. That is average in baseball this season.
The Nationals aren’t playing to the expectations they set to start the year. This is on the Manager Dave Martinez. According to Yahoosports.com, General Manager Mike Rizzo said, “I think Davey’s doing a great job in managing this team. He’s managed them through a lot of trials and tribulations that a lot of first-year managers haven’t had to go through, and to have a team playing with the exuberance and energy level that they’re playing at this point I think is a testament to Davey and the staff and the way that they feel about him in the clubhouse.”
This is a smart move to keep Martinez. This is his 1st year ever managing at the MLB level. Sure the Nationals aren’t playing playoff type baseball, but they have to hope they are improved next year under Martinez.
On the other hand, the Nationals are used to playoff baseball since they have been in the playoffs the previous 2 seasons. They fired Dusty Baker for not making it past the NLDS. Martinez will have a short leash next year. The Nationals can’t start out slow or miss the postseason. That will cost him his job. Hopefully for Martinez, this season was a fluke and he will have them playing postseason baseball next year.
Leave a Reply