Washington Nationals news we ignored last week: D-Backs’ interest in Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo; Bryce Harper’s Harambe bat sticker...

We tried our best to avoid this first story while the Washington Nationals were still active in the postseason last week for a couple reasons: 1. We figured most of the responses would be some variation of “consider the source” in spite of the fact that Jim Bowden does appear to us to still have sources around the majors, and we don’t dismiss what he says because he says it, and B. We thought it didn’t make a whole lot of sense that Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo would leave the nation’s capital.*

That being said, Bowden, the former General Manager in D.C. and current ESPN analyst and MLB Network Radio host, did report last week that Rizzo was atop the Arizona D-Backs’ list as they searched for a new President of Baseball Operations:

“According to a source close to the Diamondbacks ownership ....Mike Rizzo, the Nationals GM, is at the top of their list to be their next President of Baseball Operations and [they] plan on asking permission from the Nationals at the conclusion of the Nationals post-season. I asked Rizzo about it before the game and he said ‘I'm focused on winning this series and nothing else.’ Out of respect to him I didn't push the issue. Rizzo has 2yrs left on his GM contract with the Nationals.”

Washington picked up the two-year option included in the two-year extension Rizzo signed in 2013, so he’s under contract with the Nationals through 2018.

Rizzo declined to respond to questions about the report after the word came out from Bowden:

The D-Backs announced today that they hired Mike Hazen away from the Red Sox after he spent one year as the GM in Boston, naming him their new GM and executive VP.

Would Rizzo actually consider leaving Washington? We’d guess he’d say something about the job not being done yet in D.C., but we’ll have to wait and see.

In other super-fun news we did our best to ignore this past week:

Did you see the sticker Bryce Harper had on his bat knob during Game 5 of the NLDS?

That’s right, Harper was “rocking” an #RIPHarambe sticker on the knob of his bat. That. Is. So. Harper.

Now somebody just post a comment about Harper concentrating on his swing instead of bat stickers and I think we can call this a day...

[ed.note - “ * = We did use 1. and B. on purpose for the sake of funnies in the first paragraph. Let’s all wait together and see if anyone corrects us on that before they read all the way to the end here.”]