LOVERRO: Firing Rizzo, Martinez will expose Lerner as penny-pinching, know-nothing owner

OPINION:

The Lerner family has never hired a general manager for the Washington Nationals in the nearly 20 years it has owned the team. 

The Lerners inherited the buffoon, Jim Bowden, from Major League Baseball when they bought the team in 2006 and kept him until they had to fire him because of the Smiley Gonzalez signing scandal.

It was Stan Kasten, team president and ownership partner who now oversees the most successful franchise in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who brought general manager Mike Rizzo to the organization.

Now, after firing Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, the Lerners will be exposed and fans will see that managing partner Mark Lerner doesn’t have any more knowledge about the baseball side of the business than he did when he first came to Space Coast Stadium in spring training 2005, when his family was bidding to buy the team and was hoodwinked by Bowden with team trinkets and souvenirs.

He’s Mark from West Palm Beach on line three.

The Nationals were swept this weekend by the Boston Red Sox before 100,000 mostly Red Sox fans at Nationals Park, and it proved to be their goodbye series for Rizzo, who has been the general manager since 2009, and Martinez, who Rizzo hired in 2018, a year before both were celebrating a World Series championship.

That dropped the disappointing Nationals to 37-53, and, following four straight losing seasons and an upcoming decision to pick up the contract options for Rizzo and Martinez, the Lerners finally decided it was all unacceptable and issued this statement:

“The Washington Nationals today announced the replacement of longtime President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo and Manager Dave Martinez, citing the need for a fresh approach and new energy. Washington Nationals Managing Principal Owner Mark D. Lerner made today’s announcement. 

“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city,” Lerner said. “Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C. While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our Club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”

Gutless, meaningless words, the kind we’ve come to expect from the Lerners.

No one is going to argue that the mediocre play and losing for several years now could continue without consequences. And you certainly can make the case for some poor player development decision by Rizzo and some dismal play on the field that reflected poorly on Martinez. But what both brought to the table should have overshadowed any shortcomings, since they did so handcuffed by bad ownership. Bad, bad ownership.

I know blaming franchise woes on bad ownership is a cliché of sorts, but if there is any town where we recognize how bad ownership can poison a team from top to bottom – and then how its absence can quickly change things — it is Washington. But we also know you can’t fire the owner.

If you could fire an owner, it would be for this:

“We are totally in on building this back to where we all expect it to be, to where our fans expect it to be,” Lerner told team announcer Dan Kolko in a “Nats Xtra” interview at the end of the 2023 season. “It’s his call how he wants to fill the holes in the lineup. He comes to me when he is ready, whether it’s a player or a free agent or whatever. Whatever he desires he has the resources and he has always had the resources since the day we took over the team to build a winner.”

This was a lie. Rizzo was turned down repeatedly by ownership for mid-level free agents to sign to put around the talented young players they do have. The Lerners spent a meager $60 million on the 2024 active roster and $65 million this season. Does anyone believe Rizzo was OK with that?

It will be interesting to see how the Lerners search for a new general manager. They have that same bad reputation inside the industry from front office executives who know very well the stories of how Rizzo has been shackled and how his biggest struggle was “managing upward.” They know the organization has let qualified, high-salaried employees go, only to be replaced by cheaper in-house candidates or none at all. They spend near the bottom of every department in baseball operations.

Everyone in the business has heard all the stories – like the Stephen Strasburg contract.

Weeks after the 2019 World Series, late owner and Mark’s father Ted made a deal with agent Scott Boras to sign Strasburg to a seven-year, $245 million contract – behind Rizzo’s back. The general manager, who would have never made such a ridiculous contract, was frozen out. It wasn’t the first time.

That has proven to be perhaps the most destructive act in their tenure as owners, particularly how the Lerners, following the COVID-19 fallout, have seen their real estate empire damaged and turned even more miserly. 

Strasburg appeared in just eight games after that until his 2022 retirement, giving up 24 runs in 30.4 innings pitched. He has earned $35 million a year since then, including this season – 50% of the total active roster salaries the Lerners were willing to spend this season.

The Lerners will certainly find someone to take the GM job. People came to work for Dan Snyder. But that new GM will find that their main job description is trying to squeeze nickels out of Mark from West Palm Beach.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.