The Washington Nationals were supposed to be World Series champions this year. They were everyone's pick but disappointed at every turn, the only bright spot in the organization being Bryce Harper but even he at times left a lot to be desired. The Nationals fired underachieving manager Matt Williams after the calamitous season and went in search of a new manager. Cue fiasco, Bud Black, and the return of the Dusty Baker.
The back story goes like this. The Washington Nationals imploded, the culmination being the fight between closer Jonathan Papelbom and outfielder, likely MVP, Bryce Harper, at the close of the regular season. The Nationals quickly dumped Matt Williams at the end of the season and went looking for a new manager. The Washington Post Online takes up the story:
"Early last week, the Lerners interviewed both men(Dusty Baker and Bud Black) for the job of managing their baseball team, the Washington Nationals. They chose Black, and by last Wednesday morning, from their ornate dwelling, they offered him the position."
Only, the Lerner family, the owners of The Washington Nationals, weren't quite prepared to pay his asking price. Instead, they lowballed Black, a man with significant managerial experience, with a 1 year 1.6 million dollar contract offer that not even a rookie first time manager would even consider. Black just came off an 9 year stint managing in San Diego and made that team respectable even when he wasn't provided with the type of line ups to do much with. The website Washington's Top News puts the feebleness of the contract into perspective, "Team ownership would not budge above two guaranteed years, the same week that Don Mattingly was handed a four-year, $10 million contract by the notoriously cheap Jeff Loria in Miami."
The Nats were lucky that there was a quality manager available who wanted the job. In Dusty Baker, the Nats got a manager with more experience than Bud Black and a man who has had playoff, whereas Black has never made the playoffs.
However, where the Nationals are concerned, this isn't anything new, back to Washington's Top News, "Former Nationals GM Jim Bowden said on his MLB Network Radio show on SiriusXM Tuesday that the baseball operations staff wanted to hire Joe Girardi to be the manager, but that ownership wasn't willing to pay, and the team ended up with Manny Acta instead. The Yankees have gone 735-561 (.567 win percentage) under Girardi, including the 2009 World Series title. The Nats went 158-252 (.385) under Acta, who was fired halfway through that '09 campaign "
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