Manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo were fired by the last place of Washington Nationals-Baltimore Sun

WASHINGTON (AP) – Manager Dave Martinez and General Manager Mike Rizzo was fired by Washington Nationals on Sunday in a shocking movement for their time, even if the club was more than half the way through the sixth loss season in a row since winning the 2019 World Series World Series.

The team announced the changes only a few hours after the defeat of Washington 6-4 at home completed the sweep by Boston Red Sox. Nationals are 37-53 and finally in East NL; The only national league club with a worse record is Colorado Rockies.

But the amateur draft is only one week away, and Washington has the whole choice No. 1.

Senior VP and GM Assistant Mike Debartolo took over Rizzo temporarily. A substitute for Martinez is not immediately named.

Washington can use options to expand Martinez and Rizzo’s contracts outside this season.

“Although we appreciate their success in the past,” said Nationals Mark Lerner in a statement issued by the team, “Performance on the field is not a place that we or our fans expect. This is a very important time for our club, and we believe that new approaches and new energy are the best actions for our moving teams.”

Rizzo’s time runs the Nationals ends after more than one and a half decades. One of the first employees of the Lerner family when taking control of the organization, Rizzo has become GM since 2009 and added the title of President of the Baseball Operation in 2013.

“He played an important role in leading the transformation of our agricultural system and building a list that reached an unprecedented level of organizational success,” Lerner said. “Mike helps make us who we are an organization, and we are very grateful to him for his hard work and dedication.”

Martinez is the fourth manager who has been fired since the start of this season – after Derek Shelton from Pittsburgh, Bud Black Colorado and Brandon Hyde from Baltimore.

Martinez’s complete record with Nationals is 500-622. Last month, he underestimated the question of a reporter about how to share mistakes in bad performance between the players and his staff.

“There was never training,” Martinez said at the time. “Never in training. The trainers do their (butts) every day. We will not lead here and say it is a coach. It was never in the coach. They worked hard. The message was clear. All work was done before. So, sometimes, they had to go there and play the game. Always about the players. Always.”

Martinez was never a manager at any level when Rizzo hired him to replace Dusty Baker before the 2018 season. The Nationals left 82-80 in the first season of Martinez and started early 19-31 in the following year, which led to several calls for him to be replaced.

But Rizzo was trapped with Martinez, and the decision paid off in a big way: led by Pitcher Start Stephen Strasburg, who won the World Series MVP award, and Max Scherzer, outside Rookie Juan Soto, Jiture Young Turner and a series of Veteran –

There is no one from the World Series list that is still playing for franchises.

Washington took a step back in the 2020 season filled with Pandemic, and then Rizzo began to separate the list, making a series of trade that sent Scherzer, Soto, Turner, and others elsewhere.

Reconstruction continues, without a lot of concrete progress in the standings to be shown, although the team does have a number of building blocks that show promises, including the Mackenzie Gore starter and outside James Wood-both named NL All-Stars on Sunday-Sunday with CJ Abrams shortstop, which is an All-Star a year ago.

“Nationals fans have many things to be optimistic, and we see this change as a difficult step, but it needs to move in a positive direction,” Lerner said. “As happened since my late father took the control of the team almost 20 years ago, our family remained committed to winning.”

Washington finished fourth or fifth in East NL every year from 2020 to 2024, never compiled a percentage of wins higher than 0.438 (71-91) each from the last two seasons.

“I always appreciate and admire Davey’s desire for his baseball and love game for his players,” Lerner said. “Davey’s ability to connect with our staff, our players, our fans and our community distinguishes it. While this chapter has ended, we know that it does not close books about what should continue to be a long and successful career in baseball.”

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Initially published: July 6, 2025 at 6:39 PM EDT