Following an 83-79 season and a massively disappointing second place finish in the NL East, and no playoff spot; the Washington Nationals have relieved manager Matt Williams of his duties with the club. Williams manged the Nationals for just two seasons.
Williams was the 2014 National League Manager of the Year after guiding the Nationals to a 96-win season and an NL East title before losing to the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants in four games in the Division Series. After yesterday’s season finale, a 1-0 loss to the New York Mets, Williams said: “We had some things that went sideways and we had a whole bunch of injuries, and not much you can do about that except adjust and move on. We’re all disappointed in the outcome. … It all ends very abruptly.”
The Nationals were thought of by many to be the best team in baseball after signing pitcher Max Scherzer to a 7-year, $210 million dollar contract in the offseason. They were quickly installed as the World Series favorite in betting circles. Injuries, internal turmoil and struggles on the field all contributed to Washington’s poor play.
General manager Mike Rizzo, who exercised Williams’ 2016 option and was thought to be on the firing line along with Williams, but will return, said the following on Sunday: “We’ll get all of our baseball operations people together, and we’ll begin the process of sorting out what went right, what went wrong, what we need and what we need to do to go forward to become the championship organization that the Washington fan base deserves.”
In addition to Williams, the Nationals also did not renew the contracts of bench coach Randy Knorr, pitching coach Steve McCarthy, hitting coach Rick Schu, third-base coach Bobby Henley, first-base coach Tony Tarasco, bullpen coach Matt LeCroy and advance scout Mark Weidemaier.
