Unconventional game plan worked for Rizzo, Nationals
WASHINGTON — In some ways, this World Series championship serves as an “I told you so” for the Washington Nationals and their general manager, Mike Rizzo.
For the choices to hire, then stick by, manager Dave Martinez, especially in the face of a 1931 record, the worst 50game start to a season in baseball history for an eventual title winner.
For making midseason pickups of players discarded by other teams, such as Gerardo “Baby Shark” Parra, and assembling, in this “Let the Kids Play” era, a group of “Viejos” such as playoff star Howie Kendrick, to form the oldest roster in the majors.
For caring about chemistry as much as what’s quantifiable.
For the muchdebated decision to shut down Stephen Strasburg all those years ago, a move meant to protect the surgically repaired right elbow that just made Strasburg a World Series MVP and the first pitcher to end a postseason with a 50 record.
For the philosophy of valuing oldfashioned starting pitching above all else: Each of Washington’s four wins in the Fall Classic came after sending to the mound Strasburg or Max Scherzer, whose “back from the dead” — in teammate Adam Eaton’s phrasing — return from a nerve problem near his neck got things going in a 62 victory in Game 7 at Houston on Wednesday night.
“Mike’s a baseball guy. He always has been,” first baseman
Ryan Zimmerman said. “He leans on his scouts, on his guys that go watch games. He’s evolved, just like everyone else has, with the analytics and all the data that’s available. That information is useful. I don’t think you have to be one way or the other. I think you can kind of blend it together. And I think he does a really good job of that.
“But he’s huge on chemistry and clubhouse stuff, not bringing in bad teammates, not bringing in bad guys. Before he makes, really, any sorts of moves, he will reach out to us and ask if we’ve heard anything about this player or that player.”
Now as the offseason begins, Rizzo must get back to work.
Strasburg could opt out of his contract. Anthony Rendon, who homered in the last two games of the Series, can become a free agent. The bullpen, so bad for so long in the regular season but just fine as a condensed unit in the postseason, must be rebuilt.
Zimmerman, the 35yearold “face of the franchise,” has been around for all 15 of the Nationals’ seasons, but might not get a 16th.
He was there for 100loss seasons in 2008 and 2009 that led to two No. 1 overall picks, one of which turned into Strasburg. (The other? Sincedeparted outfielder Bryce Harper.) And now he has seen the Nationals deliver Washington’s first World Series trophy since the Senators won 95 years ago.
A parade along Constitution Avenue is planned for Saturday.
“The organization deserves credit for the way they put this team together. It’s a bunch of old guys in here that they trusted. There’s not a lot of teams that were willing to put together a roster like ours,” former A’s reliever Sean Doolittle said. “There’s a bunch of guys over 30 years old and, according to the smartest people in the room, you can’t win games like that anymore. You need young, athletic, controllable talent. We’re really proud that we’re the oldest team in baseball and we just won the World Series.”
Maybe that helped young outfielder Juan Soto and Co. figure out a way to follow Martinez’s “just go 10 today” motto and not get worried when things looked bleak.
Whether it was that terrible beginning to the season or deficit after deficit in mustwin games — from the NL wildcard victory over the Brewers to the 4for4 success on the road against 107win Houston — Washington heeded its skipper’s orders to “stay in the fight.”
No team ever had won more than three elimination games after trailing in each during a single postseason. The 2019 Nationals did it five times.
That included erasing Houston’s leads of 21 in Game 6 of the World Series, then 20 in Game 7.
“It’s almost like we’ve done it so many times that we have to get punched in the face to kind of wake up,” Strasburg said. “We don’t quit. We never quit throughout the season, despite kind of everybody saying that we were done.”