Before last night’s matchup with the New York Mets was postponed by inclement weather in the nation’s capital, Washington Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked at length about his thoughts on what went wrong this season and how the club will build and add to the core in the clubhouse to try to get back in the postseason mix in 2021.
“I think our core of guys that we know right now are coming back, you can build off of that,” Martinez said, hours before news of a three-year extension that will keep him on the bench in D.C. broke. It was made official this morning.
“Obviously we have some young talented players who are going to help us next year and help us in the near future, but in addition, we’ve seen some guys that we’ve brought in that we really like that also could help us next year, and I don’t know what their situation is, because they’re free agents, but we have a couple few guys that we really like and we like what they do.
“With that being said, I know come Monday or Tuesday [GM Mike] Rizzo and I will start having conversations on how this thing is going to play out this winter, and who we feel like could help us that’s out there, and Rizzo will get to work and do his due diligence on players, and see if we can form a really strong roster to compete again next year. But the guys that are here that I know that are coming back — look I say this all the time, I think we’ve got one of the best starting pitchers in the game still, and with those guys going out there it gives us a chance to win every game, so I’m excited about that.”
There will be some tough decisions for the club and some of the players who have to make choices about what to do going forward, and Martinez said he’ll lobby for those players he thinks can help the team win, some of whom were a part of the 2019 championship roster.
“I always fight with Rizzo for the guys that I want,” he said. “But that’s the beauty about him and I. We have some unbelievable conversations together so we’re going to do everything we can to get this right, we always do. And he does a great job on bringing players that he thinks will fit knowing my style of managing, knowing our style of playing, the kind of players we like, we try to find those players that we know are going to fit, not only on the field, but also in the clubhouse.”
The players on the current roster who are not part of the core but hope to be have three more games this season to impress the Nationals’ brass.
Some of them are in the lineup today for the first of two with the Mets in D.C.
HERE’S THE NATS’ LINEUP FOR THE 1ST OF 2 TODAY WITH THE METS:
GUESS. WHAT. DAY. IT. IS.#Scherzday // #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/DZgs8QM80N
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 26, 2020