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?
WILL CAIRO PUT HIS OWN STAMP ON THIS TEAM?
He’s not Martinez, but the 51-year-old former major league infielder does seem to share a good number of his former boss’ qualities and philosophies. On the few occasions he managed the last season and a half when Martinez was either ejected or suspended, Cairo suggested he made the same kind of moves Martinez would have made. Now that he’s truly in charge, will anything change? Will we see any different looks in the lineup? Will he manage the bullpen any differently? Will he keep playing time roughly the same as it has been?
HOW MUCH AUTHORITY DOES DEBARTOLO NOW HAVE?
Rizzo really did call the shots as GM, his only interference coming when ownership wouldn’t provide him the financial resources he sometimes sought. He earned that right over 16-plus seasons in the job, especially when he won that World Series ring in 2019. DeBartolo was a key behind-the-scenes figure for many years, but he’s never been the front-facing guy in charge. He comes from an entirely different background than his predecessor, with a business degree from Columbia and work experience with a Boston investment firm before moving into baseball. Will he be allowed to make significant changes to the way the Nationals operate?
WHO’S RUNNING THE DRAFT?
Midseason firings of GMs are rare, but the Lerner family took it to another level when it fired Rizzo one week before the MLB Draft, with the Nationals holding the No. 1 pick. Rizzo, forever a scout, spent countless hours this spring and early summer checking out the potential candidates and certainly had already given his opinion to the heads of his scouting department (Danny Haas, Brad Ciolek, Reed Dunn). How involved will DeBartolo be in that process now? Does he defer to his experienced team to make the decision, or does he have his own thoughts and want to make sure they’re taken into consideration before the team makes its selection Sunday night?
HOW WILL THEY APPROACH THE TRADE DEADLINE?
There’s only two weeks between the Draft and the July 31 trade deadline, a too-short window that has annoyed executives around baseball since MLB moved the Draft back from its traditional June date in 2021 to coincide with the All-Star Game. DeBartolo is going to find himself a very busy man as he navigates his way through this minefield. The Nationals entered the season hoping to be buyers at the deadline, or at least to be good enough to stand pat. But at 16 games under .500, there’s every reason to believe they’ll be sellers again. The question is how far will DeBartolo go? Players due to become free agents at season’s end (Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka, Josh Bell, Amed Rosario, Paul DeJong, Andrew Chafin) are the obvious candidates to be shopped. But would he listen to offers on players still under club control beyond this season, like Nathaniel Lowe, Luis Garcia Jr. or even (gulp) MacKenzie Gore?