When one of your players hits over 40 homeruns and bats at .330, you’d think that a spot in the postseason is guaranteed, especially in one of the weakest divisions in Major League Baseball.
Unfortunately for Bryce Harper and the other half of the team, the Nationals will have to wait till 2016 to taste the postseason again. And they have new skipper Dusty Baker—hired after the front office staff was made to look quite foolish—to guide them.
Less than 24 hours after—excuse the pun—choking in an embarrassing season-ending loss to the Mets, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo decided to fire the entire coaching staff. Seems harsh, but with a roster like that, it may have been pretty justified. “This entire season was a disappointment,” said Rizzo in a public interview, “not only for myself, but ownership, to the fan base of Washington.”
Spirits were pretty high when the 2015 season began. The Nationals were coming off of a 96-66 season, Bryce Harper looked better than ever, and they just signed Cy Young and award-winner Max Scherzer.
So what went wrong? According to sophomore Kyle Mittauer, a lot of things did.
“There were discrepancies among the players,” Mittauer said, “and the coaches didn’t trust their staff.
Matt Williams, the now ex-head coach of the Nationals, was hired prior to the 2014 season. Dusty Baker was also an applicant for the job at the time. Coming off of a managing job with the Cincinnati Reds, Baker was everything you could want in a manager. He had the skill and he had the experience.
Williams, on the other hand, had just finished his contract as a third-base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Williams had very little experience as a head coach at the time.
To everyone but Mike Rizzo, who worked on the Diamondbacks with Williams, the decision was obvious. Why he hired Williams over Baker is still a mystery. People have theorized that there was bad blood between the two, but it seems like we’ll never know. It still leads fans to wonder how the past few years would have changed if Baker was the manager.
“He [Baker] has tons of postseason experience,” said Mittauer. “He’s even been to the World Series as a player.”
Another issue for the Nationals could lie in team chemistry. Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon was suspended for the rest of the season after attacking Bryce Harper over an argument in the dugout.
The biggest hurdle for the Nationals going into the future could be getting along as a team.
But even who’s going to be on that team is uncertain. It seems like many of the current players, including shortstop Ian Desmond, who spent his whole career in Washington, may not be coming back for 2016.
Still, there were some bright spots in the Nationals organization. New signing Max Scherzer became the first pitcher since hall-of-famer Nolan Ryan to throw multiple no-hitters in a single season.
Bryce Harper is also the frontrunner for the National League MVP award after having his best season to date, which could be the best news the Nationals have gotten in a long time.
“Harper’s MVP, no doubt,” Mittauer said,” with the kind of numbers he’s been putting up, I would be angry if he wasn’t.”
The clown car known as the Nationals, however, wasn’t quite done.
Nats management said they were going to hire former San Diego manager Bud Black to replace Williams. Talks broke down, however, when Black felt disrespected by owner Ted Lerner. The deal fell through, making the Nationals owners look unprofessional.
Baker, however, was ready to step in, and Nats fans hope things will settle down with the seasoned skipper at the helm.
“Things couldn’t get any sillier,” said English teacher Brooke Nelson, a long-time Nats backer. “I’m ready for some real baseball in DC.”