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.

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals made their first significant bullpen change of the season this evening, signing veteran left-hander Andrew Chafin to a major league deal and designating Colin Poche for assignment.

Chafin, 34, has 601 games of big league experience with six different clubs, the first 380 of them with the Diamondbacks. Owner of a 3.42 ERA, 1.275 WHIP and 20 career saves, he had a 3.51 ERA in 62 games with the Tigers and Rangers last season.

Chafin opened this season with Detroit's Triple-A club in Toledo, posting a 2.13 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings before opting out of his minor league contract and becoming a free agent. He's scheduled to join the Nats in Cincinnati on Friday.

Poche made the Opening Day roster out of spring training based on his solid track record with the Rays, but the 31-year-old struggled from the outset and never found a groove despite a number of opportunities. In 13 total appearances, Poche had an 11.42 ERA, issuing 12 walks in only 8 2/3 innings. He also allowed 8-of-12 inherited runners to score.

Chafin will join Jose A. Ferrer as the two left-handers in a Nationals bullpen that enters the day ranked last in the majors with a 7.41 ERA and 1.77 WHIP. The team will be a man down for tonight's game, with only seven available relievers.

PITTSBURGH – If nothing else, the first two weeks of the season offered up an apparently real sign of improvement from the Nationals lineup: Power.

A ballclub that ranked near the bottom of the majors in home runs and slugging the last two seasons was now hitting the ball in the air with authority. Through their first 13 games, the Nats totaled 42 extra-base hits, 18 of them homers.

And then they hit the road and stopped hitting altogether, the latest example coming today in a lifeless 1-0 loss to the Pirates to wrap up a miserable series at PNC Park.

Shut out into the eighth by Andrew Heaney one night after they suffered the same fate against Bailey Falter, the Nationals wasted a quality pitching performance by Trevor Williams and their own beleaguered bullpen, which rose to the challenge for a change and kept the game close.

"Look, I think we're playing great baseball, and we all believe in ourselves and believe that we can take it to the next level," said Williams, whose team is now 7-12 to open the season. "We hold each other accountable, and we hold each other to a higher standard. We're going to keep putting our head down, because the only way through this is through."

NASHVILLE – When it came time to evaluate his coaching staff at the end of the season, Davey Martinez knew it was time to make some changes. Even if it meant parting ways with some longtime confidants.

Tim Bogar was one of Martinez’s first hires after he was named Nationals manager in 2018, initially serving as first base coach before moving to bench coach. Pat Roessler joined the staff in 2020 as assistant hitting coach. Gary DiSarcina and Eric Young Jr. were added in 2022.

All are now gone, replaced by two in-house promotions and two outside additions in the biggest coaching staff shakeup Martinez has made in six years on the job.

“Obviously, it was a tough decision,” Martinez said today, his first public remarks since the moves were made in October. “Very close to all those guys. I’m going to miss them. But I thought it was an opportunity, being where we’re headed, to bring some fresh guys in, and some guys that are very well capable of coaching young players.”

The two in-house promotions: Ricky Gutierrez (who spent this season in the newly created position of run prevention coordinator) is now third base coach, while Gerardo Parra (who won the 2019 World Series as a player and then took on a front-office role in 2022) was named first base coach.

It’s not uncommon for a veteran manager to make changes to his coaching staff. It is somewhat uncommon, though, for a veteran manager to make changes to his coaching staff after he was just given his own contract extension near the end of a season most consider to have been more successful than the previous one.

When word got out last month the Nationals weren’t bringing back four of the eight coaches from Davey Martinez’s staff for next season, it raised at least a few eyebrows. But it also felt appropriate to withhold judgment until those positions were filled, at which point everyone could better understand what was intended all along.

Well, now we know what the full 2024 staff will look like. Out is longtime bench coach Tim Bogar, replaced by former White Sox bench coach (and interim manager) Miguel Cairo. Out is third base coach Gary DiSarcina, replaced from within by run prevention coordinator Ricky Gutierrez. Out is first base coach Eric Young Jr., replaced from within by fan favorite and briefly special assistant to the general manager Gerardo Parra. And out is longtime assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler, replaced by former White Sox assistant hitting coach and big league third baseman Chris Johnson.

Two in-house replacements. Two outside additions. Two with prior big league coaching experience. Two with no prior big league coaching experience. Two former infielders replaced by two former infielders. One former outfielder replaced by a former outfielder.

And what conclusions, if any, can we draw from all this? Martinez hasn’t publicly spoken about the changes yet. Mike Rizzo declined to comment Wednesday about the coaching moves because they hadn’t been officially announced yet, but in referencing the overhaul of his scouting and player development departments he told reporters at the GM meetings in Arizona: “I think change is good. I think that we needed a refresh to a lot of parts of our baseball operations department, and we did. We’ve never been afraid to make moves … We brought in a lot of good people, and I think there’s going to be a different look, and I think it’s going to be really effective.”

The Nationals announced their 2024 coaching staff today, officially making four changes while ostensibly eliminating one position that had been created this year.

Davey Martinez will have a new bench coach (Miguel Cairo), third base coach (Ricky Gutierrez), first base coach (Gerardo Parra) and assistant hitting coach (Chris Johnson) by his side next season. They join four holdovers who return to their same positions: pitching coach Jim Hickey, hitting coach Darnell Coles, bullpen coach Ricky Bones and catching and strategy coach Henry Blanco.

In the end, the Nationals chose to replace Tim Bogar, Gary DiSarcina, Eric Young Jr. and Pat Roessler with two in-house promotions and two outside hires.

The hiring of Cairo, Gutierrez and Parra had previously been reported. Cairo, 49, becomes Martinez’s right-hand man in the dugout, the former longtime utilityman joining the Nats after spending 2021-22 as the White Sox’s bench coach (and interim manager when Tony La Russa took medical leave) and 2023 as the Mets’ minor league infield coordinator.

Gutierrez spent this season in the dugout as well as the Nats’ newly created run prevention coordinator. The 53-year-old former big league infielder was responsible for working with CJ Abrams and Luis García in the field, and he’ll continue to coach the team’s infielders while also replacing DiSarcina as third base coach. He has never coached third base in the majors but has done so in the minors as manager of the Reds’ Double-A affiliate in 2020-21.

After filling two vacant spots on their coaching staff with in-house promotions, the Nationals are now filling a prime vacancy with a notable outside name.

Miguel Cairo will be Davey Martinez’s new bench coach, a source familiar with the decision confirmed, reuniting the former Tampa Bay teammates and giving Martinez another experienced voice in the dugout.

Cairo, 49, spent this season as the Mets minor league infield instructor, but he spent the previous two seasons as the White Sox bench coach, ultimately taking over as interim manager for several months while Tony La Russa dealt with a medical issue.

A veteran of 17 big league seasons with nine different organizations from 1996-2012, Cairo was a well-regarded utility infielder who played all around the diamond. He was still a young player when he and Martinez (then nearing the end of his career) were teammates with the then-Devil Rays from 1998-2000 and forged a friendship.

Martinez has spoken highly of Cairo in the past and lobbied for him to get the White Sox’s full-time managerial job after La Russa retired. Chicago instead hired Pedro Grifol for the position, leaving Cairo to find employment with the Mets instead.