Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ second game with the Orioles in OPACY…
Davey Martinez announced before the second of two with the Orioles in Baltimore last night the entire Washington Nationals’ coaching staff will be returning in 2025, an early decision he said he wanted to get done sooner than later for continued stability as he, and the front office in D.C., think the ballclub is close to turning a corner, and returning to some level of respectability/competitiveness in the near future.
So everybody’s coming back?
“The whole major league coaching staff,” Martinez confirmed on Wednesday.
“Yesterday we signed all our coaches back for one more year, and I think it’s awesome,” the seventh-year skipper told reporters. “These guys have worked really hard every day to try to get these young guys better, they’ve done a great job, so I’m really proud of them and I wanted to bring them back, so working really hard with [GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo] and ownership, they also felt the same way about these guys.
Davey Martinez announced that the entire Nationals coaching staff has been invited back for the 2025 season. pic.twitter.com/Hg5yzLO04c
— Nationals on MASN (@masnNationals) August 14, 2024
“So they’re all coming back. I’m excited about that.”
Rather than wait for the offseason as they have in the past, Martinez and Rizzo and Co. in the Nationals’ front office made the decision early this time around.
“I really wanted to get it done now,” Martinez said. “This way, there’s a little bit of unity, and all the guys know they’ll be back, instead of doing it at the end of the year. I really feel like this is a good corps, and we work really good together. And they’re doing a great job with the kids. So for me, it was important to get it done as soon as possible.”
Martinez and his staff will get an extended look at some high-end prospects, and the odds and ends the organization’s assembled through trades, signings, and the draft recently, to see who’s part of the future and where they’ll have to supplement through further deals if they’re determined to start adding to the core they’ve put together since they started their reboot in 2021 (or do you think it really (re)started in 2022, when they determined they’d be building around someone other than Juan Soto?)
Photo by Mark Taylor/Getty Images
Martinez, Rizzo, and ownership all, apparently, believe the staff they’ve put together will help them take the next step.
“I’m really glad that ownership and [Rizzo] decided to do it right now, as opposed to waiting until later,” the manager said.
“At least now, our young [players] know these [coaches] will be back and will continue to work hard to get them going, and keep them going, and get them ready for the years to come.”
Martinez made a number of changes last winter, replacing his Bench Coach Tim Bogar, with Miguel Cairo, Third Base Coach Gary DiSarcina with Ricky Gutierrez, Assistant Hitting Coach Pat Roessler with Chris Johnson, and First Base Coach Eric Young, Jr. with Gerardo Parra, as they also brought on Sean Doolittle as a Pitching Strategist.
Photo by Kyle Cooper/Colorado Rockies/Getty Images
“We brought guys in that, one, I’ve known,” Martinez said. “That I’ve known what kind — the Doolittles, the Parras, Ricky [Gutierrez], who was here in this organization, who’s got a great understanding for the infield stuff, and has done a great job over at third base as well. These guys understand, they get it. Some of these guys aren’t that far removed from the game.
“They understand players really well. So it’s a great continuity with these guys and what they’re doing and what they’re bringing to the club.”
What stands out with his staff, the skipper explained, “… [is] really how hard they work and how much they care about our players, because they really do care. And there’s mornings, hours that we need, and they get here super-early to make sure that they’re ready to start their day, and the conversation with players, and the way they got about their business has been unbelievable.”
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
Unfortunately, the Nationals and their coaches didn’t get to celebrate the news with a win.
Martinez and Co. settled for a split of their two-game set (and four-game season series) with the Orioles, dropping the fourth and final game between them this year by a score of 4-1.
“We weren’t very good offensively today,” he said, after a five-hit, one-run game in which his team was 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and five left on base. [Orioles’ righty Dean Kremer] actually really kept us off-balance throughout the night, but as I always say, this game is about consistency, you know, yesterday we were on everything, we stayed on the balls, we hit them the balls to the middle of the field, today we really couldn’t get anything going.”
Is the split with the AL East leading Orioles (71-50) a sign the Nationals (55-66) are making a bit of progress (after they went 0-4 against the O’s last season, and 1-3 in 2022)?
“It’s a work in progress,” Martinez told reporters.
“But we’re starting to see progress. We really are. Our young guys are starting to get it. We’re starting to play a little bit better. I love the way we’re coming out and competing every day. We’re playing hard for 27 outs. But we’re getting closer.”