The Washington Nationals are in the midst of a conundrum with franchise icon Stephen Strasburg and when they will honor him as he retires from baseball. In the meantime, they got a deal done to keep general manager Mike Rizzo on board.
The Nationals announced that they have signed Rizzo to a multi-year contract extension. His contract was set to expire this offseason.
“It has been a pleasure to work alongside ownership as we put the pieces together for our initial team build-up and run,” Rizzo said in the announcement. Now, we believe we are developing the next generation of contenders and champions. We deeply believe in our process and in our progress. The next few years are going to be ones no Nationals fan will want to miss.”
Nationals owner Mark Lerner also expressed excitement and confidence about the team's future and reiterated the franchise's goal of making a team that its fans can take pride in.
“We are once again hard at work to build a championship contender in D.C. We now believe we have the beginnings of a roster filled with promising young players and exciting prospects at nearly every position,” Lerner said in the announcement. “While we once talked about winning World Series rings for our baseball-loving fathers, Mike’s family and ours now look forward to winning even more rings for our children and grandchildren — and, of course, for every other Nationals-loving fan and family everywhere. We are excited about our future.”
Mike Rizzo has been the Nationals' lead executive on the baseball operations front for the last 15 seasons. In that time, Washington has made the playoffs five times and won the 2019 World Series. Superstars like Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer and Juan Soto have all come up through or joined the organization in Rizzo's tenure, as have numerous other stars like Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon.
Ironically, one of Rizzo's most infamous decisions was to bench Strasburg for the 2012 playoffs in order to preserve his arm, costing the Nationals a chance at making a playoff run when they had won the most regular-season games in franchise history, even dating back to when they were the Montreal Expos. Now, he is receiving an extension as the franchise plays games with his retirement. This isn’t Rizzo’s fault, of course, but the timing is just bizarre.
The Nationals squandered their chance to continue competing for titles after their surprising 2019 run but were able to turn many of their stars into intriguing prospects for the future while drafting a few others. Players like C.J. Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood give them an intriguing young core.
Follow Us
Subscribe