Nationals Executive Responds To Manager Dave Martinez’s Comments

The Washington Nationals’ season has taken a turn even farther south than the team was expecting, and manager Dave Roberts made comments blaming the players after the team dropped its 10th straight game. General manager Mike Rizzo resisted commenting — until Wednesday, during his radio spot on 106.7 The Fan.

“There’s onus on the players, there’s onus on the coaches, there’s onus on the manager and there’s great onus on the general manager to do a better job,” Rizzo said during the interview, as transcribed by Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. While there is not one specific reason for the Nationals’ poor play, Rizzo is up to take accountability and say that the organization needs to reflect after an abysmal stretch.

The Nationals’ offense has been the league’s worst in run scoring in June, scoring only 42 runs. Meanwhile, the pitching has not been much help either, ranking 24th in Major League Baseball in ERA during the month.

Martinez did manage the Nationals to their only World Series victory in franchise history, but may have inadvertently turned the heat up on his seat following his comments and the team’s poor stretch of seasons recently.

Rizzo’s comments are far from a fix to their situation, but if the general manager is saying that the organization needs to look at itself and find the issue, then Martinez’s time at the top step of the Nationals dugout may be running out.

More MLB: Will Rafael Devers Trade Trigger Avalanche of Moves Before Trade Deadline?