Martinez set to lead Nationals on long run
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – During his 16-year career as a major league outfielder, Dave Martinez made the playoffs once, in his final season.
If he fails to reach October in his initial season as a manager, he might not see Year 2.
Although the Washington Nationals gave Martinez a rare three-year contract to take over the reins after they let go of Dusty Baker, he should know better than to consider that job security. Each of Martinez’s three predecessors won at least one National League East crown. None was granted a third full season at the helm.
So while Martinez is getting a chance to take over a championship-caliber club as a rookie manager, he joins a team still spitting venom after getting bounced out in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth time in six years.
“You embrace those expectations,” Martinez said Monday, the opening day of baseball’s winter meetings. “In my first press conference I said, ‘I’m here to win.’ If you don’t think that way, or any player thinks that way, why are you playing the game? I want them to understand we’re here to win.”
Oh, but Baker won plenty in his two seasons with the Nationals, going 192132 and finishing first twice before his clubs were eliminated in excruciatingly close division series, losing by a run in Game 5 both times. That wasn’t good enough to save his job.
Martinez, 53, arrives at a time when the face of the franchise, right fielder Bryce Harper, is heading toward his final season before free agency.
Harper, the 2015 NL MVP, was on his way to a second such award until a knee injury sidelined him for a month and a half late last season. Harper is widely expected to test the market, although the New York Yankees’ acquisition of outfielder Giancarlo Stanton might enhance the Nationals’ chances of retaining him.
One of Martinez’s key tasks will be establishing a rapport with Harper, 25, just like Baker had. Martinez joked that he’s ready to start lobbying Harper to stay right now.
“I can’t wait to work with him, and I hope we get to work together for a lot of years,” Martinez said. “He’s a tremendous player. Of course, anybody would want him on their team, but as of right now he’s a Washington National, and I’m looking forward to him being at spring training and working together.”
Martinez, who is bringing a revamped coaching staff, has lots to work with. He inherits a fully loaded rotation headed by three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and complemented by Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. All three finished among the NL’s top five in ERA.
The bullpen, long a source of consternation and the culprit in some ugly postseason losses, was mended by the July acquisition of Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson.
And a lineup that produced the highest on-base plus slugging percentage in the league and finished just five runs short of the scoring lead will be bolstered by the return of speedy outfielder Adam Eaton, who was limited to 23 games because of a serious knee injury.
Now it will be up to Martinez to blend those talents not just into a division winner — that’s expected in Washing- ton these days — but a championship club. As Joe Maddon’s bench coach for the last 10 years, Martinez reached the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 and earned a ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.
Along the way, Martinez developed a knack for combining people skills with the ability to absorb and implement advanced metrics.
At his introductory news conference, general manager Mike Rizzo said Martinez fulfilled the Nationals’ desire for a manager “who is progressive, someone who can connect with and communicate well with our players, and someone who embraces the analytical side of the game.”
Martinez, who interviewed with the Nationals before they chose Matt Williams as their manager in the 2013-14 offseason, is much more than a stathead. Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, Martinez honed his Spanishlanguage skills as an adult and is now bilingual.
He likes to spend time in the clubhouse with the players, not just retreat to his office. As a backup for stretches of his career, he has a sense for the importance of using the full 25-man roster and giving the starters days off.
All that is fine on paper, but more important will be his ability to get past the first round of the playoffs. He could feel the yearning in D.C. when the Cubs faced the Nationals in the riveting decisive game of the 2017 NL Division Series.
“One thing that stood out last year in Game 5, I stepped out of the dugout and I see 50,000-plus fans with all red on screaming,” Martinez said. “That was pretty impressive.
“So I know the fans are hungry for a winner, and this year hopefully we give it to them.”