Nationals general manager and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo said skipper Dave Martinez is partly to blame for the team’s poor start.
“Certainly. There is blame to go around when you are playing this poorly. There is blame on me, there is blame on the players, there is blame on the coaches, there is blame on everybody,” Rizzo said Wednesday during his weekly appearance on 106.7 FM The Fan. “There is enough to go around.”
Washington is 14-21 after a 6-0 loss on Tuesday in Milwaukee. The club has the second-worst record in the National League and is seven games under .500 for the first time since September 2011.
Martinez was named the new skipper after the Nationals let manager Dusty Baker go. In 2018, his first stint as a manager at any level, the Nationals went 82-80 and missed the playoffs.
Rizzo said the Lerner family ownership group is also dismayed with the awful start. Before the season the Nationals were considered one of the favorites in an improved National League East.
The general manager added it is hard to make a critique of Martinez with so many injuries to the everyday lineup.
“The players play hard for him,” Rizzo said.
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