Update: 2:15 pm DST: FOXSports.com's Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) just added another tweet based on another source's report:
"Another source said a "lack of (financial) commitment from ownership" was a factor in Kasten's decision to resign."
2:00 pm DST: 48 hours ago this would have probably come as more of a surprise, but after Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell's article yesterday entitled, "As Nats embark on next journey, will Stan Kasten be on board?", SI.com's Jon Heyman's (@SI_JonHeyman) Twitter report within the last half hour that read, "Stan Kasten resigned from the #Nats today," which has since been confirmed by FOXSports.com's Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) on his own Twitter feed, is somewhat less shocking. Mr. Boswell wrote in the article, (which seemingly brought the situation to a head since the announcement comes less than 24 hours after its publication), that Kasten believed that now was the time for the Nationals' ownership to finally step up and increase the team's payroll while aggressively pursuing the pieces they need on the free agent market:
"'This is the time to act,' [Kasten] said this week. 'We are close. This is how it felt in Atlanta just before we turned it around. Once you've laid the groundwork and improved the farm system, you need to add some pieces. That's where we are now.'"
Whether Kasten's decision to resign is a sign that he and the Lerners disagreed on the path the team should take in the near-future is unclear as of now. Mr. Heyman's article promised more info in an article still to come, and all that Mr. Morosi reported via Twitter was that, "Source says Kasten wants to take time away from the game for personal reasons." The Washington Post's Mr. Boswell ended his article with a quote from Mr. Kasten that in hindsight makes it sound as if the decision had already been made before today's announcement:
"'There's a future in place here now,' Kasten said."
Stan Kasten's role in shaping that future will reportedly end when this season does.