WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez agreed to a new two-year contract with the club he led to the 2019 World Series championship.
The Nationals said Tuesday, before opening a series at the New York Yankees at night, that Martinez is getting what they called a multiyear extension without revealing for how long. A person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press it is for two years; the person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms were not announced.
“It’s always good when you’re working really hard to get better, but to continue to give me the opportunity to do that, especially with such a young group, means a lot to me,” Martinez said before Tuesday’s game. “We are heading in the right direction.”
The Nationals entered Tuesday with a 57-68 record and last in the NL East.
The Athletic was first to report on Martinez’s agreement and reported that general manager Mike Rizzo was close to a new contract, too.
The existing contracts for both the skipper and the GM expire at the close of this season, part of what has been a lot of uncertainty around a team that is in the middle of a rebuilding effort on the field and has been for sale off it.
Martinez’s record with Washington entering Tuesday was 378-455, a .454 winning percentage.
The former major league player took over as the manager of the Nationals in 2018, his first job leading a team. The next year, Washington got off to a 19-31 start before stars such as Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Juan Soto, Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner helped surge to a NL wild-card berth. The Nationals eventually defeated the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the World Series for the franchise’s first title.
The going has been a little rougher since then, to say the least: Washington has finished with a losing record and at the bottom of the NL East every year.
That is a result of Rizzo’s attempt to revamp the roster, a work-in-progress that began in earnest with a swap that shipped Scherzer and Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 2021 trade deadline and netted two key building blocks in return: 2023 All-Star pitcher Josiah Gray and catcher Keibert Ruiz.
There was more, including sending Soto to the San Diego Padres for a package that included current starting shortstop CJ Abrams.
“You could never imagine how this path would go, but we’re here today,” Martinez said Tuesday. “I always talk about being where your feet are, and I like where we’re headed. I said before: ‘Bumpy roads lead to beautiful places.’ We’re going to get there. We got a good core group.”
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AP freelance writer Larry Fleisher in New York contributed to this report.
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