At the macro level, it’s impossible to look at the Nationals’ 2025 season to date and deem it a success. The team has been in a tailspin since early June, losing 28 of its last 38 games and plummeting to 20 games under .500. That tailspin cost both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez their jobs, firings few could have accurately predicted when they closed out May with a respectable 28-30 record.

Now, the strange part. At the micro level, there actually have been a few positive developments through the season’s first half. Several key young players have performed exceptionally well. Several prospects called up to debut amid the turmoil have done a nice job to date.

Those individual positives don’t add up nearly enough to salvage the big picture. But they have created a weird dichotomy to the first 96 games of the season. All is not well around here, but all is not lost, either.

There’s much that still needs to take place in the second half to determine the fate of the 2025 Nationals, and we’ll explore that Friday morning before the guys return from the All-Star break. Today, we’ll look at what already transpired, what went right and what went wrong through a first half that won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who had to experience it. …

RIGHT: JAMES WOOD
This can’t be said enough: Wood is having the best individual season by a National since Juan Soto. The team hasn’t had a qualified hitter finish with a .900 OPS since Soto’s .999 mark in 2021. Wood currently sits at .915, and that’s down 43 points over his last eight games. If he gets that number back to .950, he’d joint an awfully select list of players in club history (Soto, Anthony Rendon, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper). That’s it. Oh, he’s also on pace for 41 homers and 116 RBIs. Only Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) have hit 40-plus homes in club history. Only Rendon (126) has driven in more than 110 runs. If the Nats were a more competitive team, Wood would be in the MVP discussion over the rest of the season.

The No. 1 pick was always going to dominate the conversation about the Nationals’ 2025 draft class, no matter who they selected. And a front office that experienced major change just one week ago desperately wants and needs Eli Willits to become everything they believe he can be, putting to rest any doubts about their somewhat-surprising decision to draft him.

But the Nats also know this draft can’t be considered a success if only their first round pick pans out. Among the reasons ownership decided to make a change of general managers was the organization’s lack of development of later round picks over the last decade.

There have been some strides made in that area more recently, with the likes of Cole Henry (second round, 2020), Daylen Lile (second round, 2021), Jake Irvin (fourth round, 2018), Mitchell Parker (fifth round, 2020), Jacob Young (seventh round, 2021) and Brad Lord (18th round, 2022) all reaching the big leagues and becoming contributors of varying degrees. But it’s still not enough. The Nationals know they need to develop more quality players out of picks beyond the first round.

It will be some time before we know if they were successful in that regard this year, but it’s clear they took a different approach with several of their down-ballot draft picks over the last two days: They went for more high-upside high schoolers than has typically been the case.

“They’re such talented guys,” vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said. “Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”

James Wood seemed to set the bar high enough when he kicked off tonight’s Home Run Derby with a solid number and several jaw-dropping blasts.

Little did the Nationals’ young slugger realize just how impressive the competition would be on this night.

Despite launching 16 home runs as the first contestant at Atlanta’s Truist Park, Wood wound up being the first one eliminated when the four batters who followed – Brent Rooker, Junior Caminero, Oneil Cruz and Byron Buxton – each surpassed that number.

Wood drew the short straw and had to bat first, leaving the 22-year-old with no way of knowing how many home runs it would take to advance to the semifinals. And he got off to a slow start, with only one of his first eight batted balls clearing the fence.

But the young man known for hitting baseballs as hard as anyone in the sport put forth a mighty swing at that point that got him going at last. His 486-foot blast off the roof of the restaurant in right-center field was longer than any ball hit during last summer’s derby in Texas.

The gentlemen in charge of the Nationals’ draft war room Sunday night all made the same point, in their own various words, about the ultimate decision to use the No. 1 pick on Eli Willits. They all were adamant he was the choice, no dissension in the room.

Vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas: “I think there was general consensus for a while, and it solidified into unanimous toward the end of our process.”

Assistant scouting director/national crosschecker Reed Dunn: “I’m really proud of the work everybody did to come together. And, as Danny said, to make a unanimous decision on somebody we truly believe in.”

Senior director of amateur scouting Brad Ciolek: “We scouted the entire class. We were prepared. And then ultimately when we ended up winning the lottery, we knew exactly who we needed to hone in on, who we needed to do more work on.”

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo: “It was one of those nice things where the scouts and the analysts see things the exact same way and saw him as the best hitter in the draft, the best fielder in the draft, with just great makeup, great work ethic and all the intangibles. Everything came together, and it was a really collaborative and great process.”

In the end, the Nationals went with the other talented shortstop from Oklahoma whose father played in the big leagues.

The Nats selected Eli Willits with the No. 1 pick in tonight’s Major League Baseball Draft, a choice that may have surprised some but became increasingly possible over the last week both because of the 17-year-old’s all-around skills and the suspicion he might command a lower signing bonus than either Ethan Holliday or Kade Anderson, possibly opening the door for the club to go over slot on later-round picks.

Owners of the top selection in the draft for the third time in club history, the Nationals faced a much tougher decision this time than they did when last they found themselves in this position. Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Bryce Harper (2010) were no-brainers, two of the most highly touted prospects in the history of the sport.

The list of viable options was much longer this year, with Willits joined by fellow Oklahoma high school infielder Holliday, LSU left-hander Anderson, Tennessee lefty Liam Doyle and California high school right-hander Seth Hernandez all meriting consideration down to the wire, according to a source familiar with the club’s deliberations.

Willits, who admitted he made it his personal goal to be drafted No. 1 overall two years ago, was optimistic about his chances after he visited Nationals Park last month and got a chance to meet team executives and coaches. That didn't diminish his emotions when he officially got the call today.

The only two previous times the held the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft, the Nationals knew well in advance who they would be selecting. Shoot, the whole baseball world knew they’d take Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010, two of the most-hyped prospects in draft history who would go to enjoy stellar careers in their own separate ways.

This time around, nobody seems to really know who the Nats are going to pick. In a year with no clear-cut consensus No. 1 guy, the player’s identity very well may remain a mystery right down to the wire at 6 p.m. Sunday when the 2025 Draft begins in Atlanta.

The pool of potential candidates has been deep since the moment the Nationals surprisingly won the Draft Lottery in December, despite owning the fourth-best odds of any team in the mix at a mere 10.2 percent. The club’s amateur scouting department has spent the last seven months scouring the country, getting dozens of firsthand looks at perhaps a half-dozen or more players under consideration.

The group finally gathered in the war room at Nationals Park last week to begin deliberations, only to be impacted by a stunning grenade drop Sunday evening when the club’s owners fired longtime general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez.

The timing of Rizzo’s firing shocked many, because it came one week before a draft he was supposed to be intimately involved in. Does his dismissal change the way the team will approach this all-important pick? Not necessarily.

ST. LOUIS – Wednesday night’s offensive explosion may have created an uplifting moment for a Nationals club reeling from a week of turmoil. But anyone who predicted that lopsided win over the Cardinals would serve as a springboard for bigger and better things to come hasn’t been watching this team enough all year long.

The 2025 Nats can be defined by many things, but high on the list is inconsistency. The results of one game rarely have any carryover effect into the next one. And boy was that on display tonight during an 8-1 lambasting at the hands of the Cardinals.

Overwhelmed yet again by Miles Mikolas, the otherwise struggling St. Louis right-hander who somehow has owned this particular opinion for some time now, the Nationals put forth one of their weakest offensive showing of the season. They finally scored their lone run in the top of the eighth, finishing with four hits, three walks and five total bases.

As such, they trailed from the get-go and never seriously threatened to come back, certainly not after the Cardinals torched the bullpen for six late tack-on runs to finish off the series victory and send the Nats (38-55) off to Milwaukee to close out the first half of a season that few will want to remember.

"Take a deep breath and understand the talent in this room is able to win baseball games on a daily basis," right-hander Michael Soroka said. "That's what we get to: Looking back on the good things we did in this first half. And I think there is a good amount. It's just a matter of being consistent with it." 

ST. LOUIS – Dylan Crews’ path back to the active roster took another big step Wednesday when the Nationals outfielder began throwing for the first time since suffering an oblique strain seven weeks ago.

Crews participated with his fellow outfielders prior to tonight’s game against the Cardinals in defensive drills and shagged fly balls during batting practice. He was purposely being cautious with his throws, but he felt comfortable enough to make a lunging, backhanded grab of a line drive hit to his right, a good test for his core muscles.

Though he isn’t taking BP on the field yet, Crews has been hitting in the batting cage for the last week, further signs of his progress.

“He’s feeling good right now,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “Yesterday he threw from the outfield. He’s been hitting in the cages. It’s a good sign. Yesterday I talked to him and asked how he’s feeling, and he said he’s feeling great. Just waiting to see this protocol he has got to follow with the trainers, but hopefully he can come back sooner than later.”

Crews hurt himself May 20 on a check swing, tugging at his right side. He was shut down from anything resembling baseball activity for more than a month while the oblique muscle healed, and has been slowly ramping up his rehab since cleared to begin.

ST. LOUIS – It’s been an eventful week, to put it mildly. The Nationals have been in chaos mode since Sunday, and only on Wednesday did things start to feel a bit closer to normal again. Tonight, though, presents an opportunity to not just feel normal again but feel good about themselves. With a win over the Cardinals, the Nats would complete a series victory.

That’s easier said than done, of course. The offense needs to put together quality at-bats like it did during Wednesday night’s 8-2 win at Busch Stadium, and that group needs to do it against an opposing pitcher who has owned them for a while. Miles Mikolas has not been an effective starter in several years, but he has thoroughly dominated the Nationals over the last three seasons, posting a 1.95 ERA and 1.012 WHIP in five total starts. In 79 starts against everyone else since 2023, the right-hander has a 5.28 ERA and 1.324 WHIP. There’s your challenge for tonight.

On the mound, Michael Soroka wants to bounce back from a ragged July 4 start against the Red Sox, one in which he allowed the first five batters he faced in the top of the fifth to reach (and ultimately score after he was pulled). Seven total runs were charged to the right-hander that night. As always, he needs to show he can finish what he started, though it will be interesting to see how Miguel Cairo manages his start as opposed to Davey Martinez.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 90 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
RF Daylen Lile
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young

ST. LOUIS – First things first: Luis García is not Luis García Jr.

The former is the Nationals’ new 38-year-old reliever, signed on Tuesday. The latter is the Nats’ 25-year-old second baseman, the organization’s longest tenured player having signed as a teenager in 2016. Whose father, Luis García, is the 50-year-old former infielder who played eight big league games for the Tigers in 1999.

Got all that? Good. Just remember this particular article is about Luis García, the 38-year-old reliever, and everything will be fine.

Name confusion aside, the Nationals are happy to have this García as part of their bullpen now, hoping the veteran right-hander can help take some burden off the young arms who have been thrown to the wolves this season, a few of them surviving but several of them having been eaten alive.

“It really helps,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “He’s got some experience. We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of young pitchers in the bullpen. It’s a good mix to have another veteran out there who can help with the young players.”

ST LOUIS – On day one, Miguel Cairo stayed on course and managed as if he was merely filling in for Davey Martinez. On day two, he decided to veer just a bit into the wild and try something different. And then was rewarded for it.

With a couple of lineup tweaks designed both to get more right-handed hitters into the lineup against an opposing starter with reverse splits and to keep bench players more engaged, Cairo watched his Nationals cruise to an 8-2 victory over the Cardinals, his first as interim manager.

"It was good," Cairo said. "It was good for my friend Davey. This one was for him, because he's the one that put this team together and believed in these players and put the coaching staff together. So this goes to him."

That tweaked lineup, featuring Amed Rosario in the third spot and Alex Call in the sixth spot against St. Louis starter Andre Pallante, jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.

It didn’t hurt, of course, to also have MacKenzie Gore on the mound, the All-Star left-hander turning in another stellar performance to close out his breakthrough first half in style.

ST. LOUIS – Trevor Williams has a partial tear of his elbow ligament, one that will require a surgical procedure that will sideline the Nationals' right-hander until at least early next season, possibly most of the season.

An MRI taken of Williams’ elbow revealed a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. Because it’s not a full tear, doctors believe it can be treated with an internal brace procedure, the relatively recent, less-invasive surgery that allows a pitcher to return in approximately nine months. Williams will be operated on next Thursday by Alabama orthopedist Jeffrey Dugas, who did caution the 33-year-old he might actually need to perform Tommy John surgery if the ligament appears to be more damaged once he sees it firsthand.

If the internal brace procedure is all that’s required, Williams was told he could return to pitch next April or May. If the ligament has to be reconstructed via Tommy John surgery, he would miss most – potentially all – of the 2026 season.

“It’s unfortunate that’s what it is,” he said. “But I’m glad that we’re going to be able to fix it and get it right.”

The news comes as a blow both to Williams, who made only 30 combined starts the last two seasons due to arm issues, and to the Nationals, who re-signed him to a two-year, $14 million contract over the winter.

ST. LOUIS – Tuesday was not a normal day for the Nationals, who were adjusting to life with a new manager and general manager, then had to go out and play for the first time under that new arrangement (after waiting out a 2-hour, 19-minute rain delay, by the way). The result was a lackluster 4-2 loss to the Cardinals. Could tonight feel more normal for everyone? You would certainly hope so, now that the dust has settled.

The best thing the Nats have going for them is MacKenzie Gore on the mound. The recently named All-Star takes the mound for what will be his final start of the first half. He’s on a full week’s rest after throwing 111 pitches last time out. And his next appearance (should Dave Roberts choose to use him) would come six days from now in Atlanta in the Midsummer Classic.

Interim manager Miguel Cairo wrote out a lineup card Tuesday night that could’ve been penciled in by Davey Martinez, with everyone in their usual spots. That’s not the case tonight. Even though the Cardinals are starting right-hander Andre Pallante, Cairo is using a couple of guys who typically start against lefties: Amed Rosario (batting third and playing second base) and Alex Call (batting sixth and playing right field). Is that a matchup thing, or is that perhaps an attempt to put a better defensive lineup out there with his ace on the mound? We’ll ask him shortly.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 87 degrees, wind 6 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Amed Rosario
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
RF Alex Call
3B Brady House
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

ST. LOUIS – So, anything interesting happen over the last 72 hours?

Suffice it to say, it's been a monumental few days around the Nationals, with arguably the most significant personnel moves the organization has ever made coming Sunday night after their loss to the Red Sox. For the first time since early 2009, Mike Rizzo is not the general manager of this team. For the first time since October 2017, Davey Martinez is not the manager of this team. The interim GM, Mike DeBartolo, shared in notable fashion Tuesday afternoon his vision for instituting "real change" in an organization that perhaps had grown stagnant. The interim manager, Miguel Cairo, shed tears as he described the internal conflict he felt when he was asked to replace his good friend in the dugout.

Meanwhile, the MLB Draft is now four days away, and the Nats have the No. 1 pick. The trade deadline is 22 days away, and DeBartolo has a whole lot to consider as he navigates his way through this critical stretch for the first time as the guy in charge. And then there are the matters of James Wood and MacKenzie Gore making their first All-Star Game (with Wood also participating in his first Home Run Derby), Keibert Ruiz going back on the 7-day injured list, Travis Sykora dealing with an injury at Double-A Harrisburg that will prevent him from pitching in the All-Star Futures Game and the fact the Nationals now employ two Luis Garcias on their 26-man roster.

You've probably got questions. I hopefully have answers. Use the comments section to submit your inquiries, and I'll do my best to answer them over the course of the morning ...

ST. LOUIS – By the time they took the field tonight, the Nationals had ample time to process the events of the last 48 hours. Not only did they have an off-day after arriving in St. Louis late Sunday night to consider the firing of their longtime general manager and manager, they also had a two-hour, 19-minute rain delay that pushed back first pitch of their series opener at Busch Stadium until 9:04 p.m. local time.

The question then was: What kind of effort would they give in their first game under an interim manager and GM? Would they be inspired by the shocking changes, or would they have trouble summoning up the energy to right this wayward ship?

The answer: The effort was fine, but the performance was pedestrian.

With Jake Irvin surrendering a pair of home runs and the Nationals lineup managing only one rally over the course of nine innings, Miguel Cairo found himself on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss to the Cardinals in his debut as the team’s interim manager. Mike DeBartolo, in his first game as interim GM, watched it all unfold from a booth adjacent to the press box, the one game he’ll watch in person this week as he now heads back to D.C. to oversee preparations for the No. 1 pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft.

"I like to win. I don't like to lose," Cairo said. "But the most important thing after the last 48 hours, the players, the guys were ready to play. You can tell the energy. You can tell they wanted to go out there and do their job. That's what we're looking for. We'll get them tomorrow."

ST. LOUIS – While making a point to thank the man he has replaced and the owners who have now given him an unexpected opportunity to lead a baseball operations department, interim general manager Mike DeBartolo made clear today he has been given the authority to lead the Nationals into a new direction he believes will lift them back into regular contention after six straight losing seasons since the franchise won the World Series.

“The fans are right to be frustrated. We’re all frustrated,” DeBartolo said this afternoon in his first public comments since replacing Mike Rizzo on Sunday evening. “We have a lot of interesting, exciting, young pieces to build on. We have a lot more we need to build. Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need real change. I’m excited to bring a fresh approach, a fresh voice to this role, and integrate more data, more technology, more innovation into our decision-making across the organization at all levels, and hopefully improve the performance of our players as well.”

The man who now reports to DeBartolo as interim manager, meanwhile, made it clear he took the job only because he first received the blessing of his predecessor and close friend.

“The only approval, the only blessing that I needed, it was from my friend, Dave Martinez,” Miguel Cairo said, his eyes welling up during his first press conference in his new role. “And the reason I’m doing this right now and I took the job is because I got his blessing. If he would have told me no, I would have gone home with him, gone to see my family. But he told me to do it, continue doing what we started.”

Cairo, who served only 1 1/2 seasons as Martinez’s bench coach but has known him since the two were teammates with the Devil Rays in 1998, will lead the existing coaching staff through the remainder of the season, with two slight changes. Catching instructor Henry Blanco will now become his bench coach, and organizational mainstay Bob Henley will return to the big league staff as field coordinator.

ST. LOUIS – Hello from Busch Stadium, where an unexpectedly new era of Nationals baseball begins tonight. There’s a week to go until the All-Star break, 72 games left to play in the season. And there’s a new general manager and manager (interim, in each case) calling the shots the rest of the way after Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez were fired following Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox.

We’ll be hearing from Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo this afternoon, so plenty more to come from them on their vision for the rest of the season. One significant note to add here, though: The Nationals announced a couple more tweaks to their coaching staff this afternoon. Henry Blanco, who has been the catching instructor, will now be Cairo’s bench coach. And Bob Henley, who has held a variety of roles in the organization since the beginning, is back on the staff as major league field coordinator.

As for tonight’s game, it’s Jake Irvin on the mound for the Nats, who decided over the weekend to give MacKenzie Gore a couple extra days off after his 111-pitch start, which also sets him up to be available for next week’s All-Star Game. So it’s Irvin on normal rest in the series opener against veteran right-hander Sonny Gray for the Cardinals.

UPDATE: Some roster moves to share here, as well, since they'll probably get lost in the shuffle with the other big news of the day ... The Nationals have signed veteran reliever Luis Garcia (no relation to the second baseman who he's now teammates with) and optioned Eduardo Salazar to Triple-A Rochester. And they've placed Keibert Ruiz back on the 7-day concussion injured list, recalling Drew Millas from Rochester to take his spot. They cleared a 40-man roster spot for Garcia by transferring Trevor Williams to the 60-day IL.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 77 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field

When last we saw the Nationals on the field, CJ Abrams was lofting a long fly ball to left field for the final out of a 6-4 loss to the Red Sox, completing a series sweep. A frustrating loss to end the homestand, for sure, but it was immediately followed by uplifting news: James Wood and MacKenzie Gore had been voted into the All-Star Game by their peers.

When the Nats take the field again tonight in St. Louis, they will do so after the biggest shakeup this organization has experienced in a very long time. The Sunday night firings of general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez threw the franchise into chaos, and it’s probably a good thing the team was off Monday because it took more than 24 hours for the dust to settle from that seismic event.

Miguel Cairo, not Martinez, will be manager tonight against the Cardinals and presumably each of the season’s final 70 games. Mike DeBartolo, not Rizzo, will be in charge of baseball operations. Both already were well-respected club employees and are as reasonably prepared for their new assignments as possible. But both are entering uncharted waters.

There are countless questions that still need to be answered. Some of them probably need to be answered by a higher-ranking team employee than will be made available this afternoon at Busch Stadium. But for now, here’s what we need to hear from DeBartolo and Cairo as they embark on an unexpected journey for the next three months …

ARE THERE ANY OTHER CHANGES TO THE COACHING STAFF?
It did not initially sound like there are, but we don’t know that for sure yet. Cairo gets bumped up from bench coach to interim manager. Will he have a bench coach? Will they add that title to catching coach Henry Blanco’s responsibilities, or might they add someone new to the staff to help out? Is everyone else from Martinez’s staff staying through the season, one that essentially leaves them all with lame-duck status?

The Nationals named Miguel Cairo interim manager this afternoon, promoting Davey Martinez’s bench coach in the wake of his firing Sunday evening.

Cairo will take over Tuesday night when the Nats open a three-game series in St. Louis, inheriting the same coaching staff he was a part of the last 1 1/2 seasons.

The former big league infielder was offered the job following Martinez’s dismissal Sunday after the team was swept by the Red Sox, falling to 37-53 in a season that was supposed to see the franchise take a significant step forward in a rebuilding effort that began four years ago. He took a day to consider the offer before accepting.

Triple-A manager Matt LeCroy likely was the Nationals’ other option to replace Martinez for the remainder of the season before a full managerial search is conducted by ownership and the club’s eventual permanent general manager.

Mike DeBartolo, who was named interim GM on Sunday after Mike Rizzo was fired following a 16-year tenure leading baseball operations, is now in charge of day-to-day operations. In addition to the 72 games remaining on the team’s schedule, DeBartolo also has immediate responsibilities leading the Nats into Sunday’s MLB Draft (they hold the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since they drafted Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in 2009-10) and then the July 31 trade deadline.

Mike Rizzo became the Nationals’ full-time general manager in August 2009. By that point, he had three years of experience with the organization, five months of experience as interim GM. Taking over a franchise in disarray following the mid-spring training resignation of Jim Bowden amid a scandal involving a Dominican prospect who falsified his name and age, Rizzo did plenty during those five months to convince the Lerner family and then-team president Stan Kasten he deserved the job on a permanent basis.

But there was one final task Rizzo needed to accomplish before his superiors were fully convinced: He needed to sign Stephen Strasburg before the Aug. 15 midnight deadline for all of that summer’s draft picks.

Rizzo took negotiations with agent Scott Boras down to the final minute before emerging with a deal: four years, $15.1 million, the most money ever guaranteed a major league draft pick. And in the Nationals Park conference room where he announced that successful deal in the wee hours of the morning – the same room where one year earlier Bowden announced he had not been able to sign 2008 first round pick Aaron Crow – an unsuspecting Rizzo was ambushed by Kasten with a shaving cream pie to the face.

A few days later, Rizzo officially had the GM job he long coveted. One he held for just shy of 16 years, making him one of the longest tenured heads of baseball operations in the industry. Along the way, he built a 103-loss team into a 98-win division champion, made the playoffs five times in eight seasons, won D.C.’s first World Series title since 1924, tore down the remnants of that championship roster to embark on another rebuild, traded away a likely future Hall of Famer for five prospects (three of which have since become All-Stars), hired five managers, signed five players to nine-figure contracts, signed countless more to lesser deals, acquired players who helped make the team better and in some cases worse and both butted heads with and celebrated successes with nearly everyone he worked with along the way.

Signed to five separate contract extensions over the years, Rizzo always seemed to find himself waiting until the last minute for his bosses to lock him up, an annoyance for sure but one he begrudgingly accepted as the price of holding such an important position in this organization. That’s the situation he found himself in once again this summer, waiting to see if the Lerner family was going to pick up his contract option for the following season or finally decide it was time to make a change.