Washington Nationals expected to bring entire coaching staff back in 2019...

Both Washington Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez seemed confident when they spoke at the end of the regular season that the first-year skipper’s coaching staff would return intact for the second year of his 3-year/$2.8M deal.

“I think they’ve grown a good cohesion in what they’ve tried to do,” Rizzo told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman in September.

“I like the work ethic,” he added. “It’s really second-to-none of any coaching staff I’ve been around. I like the communication skills, and I like the trust factor between the players and the individual coaches.”

“I want them all back,” Martinez said.

“They worked their butts off all year long, and they’re really good. And they’ve been very positive. They’re a big part of keeping this aloft, they really are.”

According to a report by Washington Post writer Chelsea Janes this morning, the Nats will, in fact, bring Martinez’s staff back.

Citing a “person familiar with the team’s plans”, Janes reported that, “Martinez’s entire 2018 coaching staff will return next season,” adding that the, “team had decided as much by the end of the regular season.”

Hitting coach Kevin Long, pitching coach Derek Lilliquist, bench coach Chip Hale, first base coach Tim Bogar, and bullpen coach Henry Blanco all joined Martinez’s staff after he’d been hired last October, and the lone holdover from previous coaching staffs, veteran third base coach Bob Henley, will all be back in D.C. in 2019, according to the report.

Though the season didn’t go as anyone in the nation’s capital wanted it to go, Martinez was happy with the fight the Nationals put up down the stretch in spite of the final results.

“Unfortunately we’re going home and not playing in October,” Martinez said after a loss in the season finale left the Nationals 82-80 overall, “but I’ll reiterate I’m proud of the boys.

“This could have went really bad a couple months ago, and they kept it together and they played hard. They played really hard the the last few months and it’s been fun. I enjoyed it. My first year as a manager is over, but I’m looking forward to my second.”