The REAL Issue With The Washington Nationals Is OWNERSHIP!

The REAL Issue With The Washington Nationals Is OWNERSHIP!

Dave Martinez and Mike Rizzo, they were a little bit of a problem. Well, let’s talk about the problem and that’s ownership. [Music] You are Locked on Nationals, your daily Washington Nationals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. And thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get to your podcast. And yes, I’m your host Ryan Clary. You can catch me on Twitter, Ryan Clary1. And of course, again, thank you all for making Locked on Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. Later on in today’s program, we will be getting into just some future faith with the Washington Nationals. Where are you in this and how do you feel about the future of the Washington Nationals after moving on from Dave Martinez and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo? And in that second segment, I want to jump into the differences of the 2010s and now with this ownership group because the differences, they are there. We’ll have that discussion for you later on in today’s program. But we start off with discussing the main problem and again that is this nationals ownership group and it is not even closed. But today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel and right now new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Nationals ownership. It’s a problem. In fact, it is the problem here in Washington DC. Mike Rizzo had his faults. Dave Martinez had his fault certainly. But right now, we have to focus in on another main issue that has kind of been lost in the shuffle these past few days, and it is the Washington Nationals ownership group. If you look at what has gone wrong with this team, we can point to many different things. We can point to player development that has been an issue. We can talk about the onfield decisions and the game-to-ame management by Dave Martinez. That has been an absolute issue. We can talk about the pretty poor coaching staff. That is also an issue. But where does ownership fit in this? Because I’ve always been a believer that discipline starts at the top. And really, if you’re talking about any management out there in any organization, the owner and the CEO, they are the ones who kind of at times seem to just sidetrack a lot of these things. the Nationals ownership group with the learner family. How can you not think to yourself that they are checked out at this point? How can you not think that this ownership group is competent in any way, shape, or form? They’re not. This ownership group finally out of nowhere has come up and they have decided that they are the ones going to fire Dave Martinez. They are the ones who are going to fire longtime president of baseball operations Mike Grizzo. And I happen to slightly agree with those. But then it’s now time for the learners to look themselves in the mirror and figure out what they are and what they have to improve. They can’t fire themselves, but they can improve. Jeff Pass was on the radio yesterday and he said it best just to kind of put things in perspective. This is what he had to say. Quote, “When your highest paid player is retired and your second highest paid player is a Blue Jay, it’s fair to ask, what are you trying to do here?” So, learner family, what exactly are you trying to do here? Because Washington DC, this is a top 10 market in sports. This is a market where you are expected to spend in free agency. This is a market where you are expected to win baseball games. And by the way, you had a decade long run of it that we’ll get into later on in the show today. But the inability to spend in free agency this past off season is jaw-dropping. It is absolutely jaw-dropping. And obviously Mike and Jeff Passen actually said it again on the radio yesterday because he asked someone within the Nationals organization this off seasonason and said, “You guys are going to go after Alex Bregman, right?” And he goes, “No chance. We have the budget for one year of Alex Bregman to spend overall. So you resign Trevor Williams, you sign Colin Poche, you sign Lucas Sims, and you sign Jorge Lopez. Three or four of those guys are no longer with this team. Three of them. Your three main acquisitions from I’m trying to improve this bullpen, they are gone. Trevor Williams is out of this starting rotation and he should be. This is an absolute mess. And while some of the mess may have just been cleaned up with Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez, the mess, aka the ownership group, is still here. What they have to do going forward is very clear to me. If you are going to be allin, which by the way, you can make the case that these moves over the last 48 hours kind of indicates that they could be back all in on this thing. But if you are going to be allin, you have to improve. And in order to improve, you have to start spending money. You have to start going out there and finally signing free agents again that aren’t just Jorge Lopez, who was DFA in the middle of last season, and Lucas Sims, who was a borderline 4A player, and Jorge and Jorge Lopez, Colin Poche, who was fine at one point in time, but not here in DC. The Nationals need to start spending money and forget free agency for a second. If you want to operate as if you are the Tampa Bay Rays, as if you are a team like the Oakland Athletics, then start investing in analytics. Start investing in resources to help your team win every single day. This past week, Spencer Newsbomb of the Washington Post, he had a story come out that we talked about at a pretty lengthy segment there this past week, and it was about how the Nationals have not been able to invest in any way, shape, or form to help this team better. And in that one specific example that Spencer gave was this hitting technology that 25 of 30 MLB teams have. One of those five teams that do not have that are the Washington Nationals. Why is it Mike Grizzo saying, “We don’t really need it. We don’t need this.” Okay, maybe, but I doubt it. What I’m willing to bet is it’s probably ownership. One thing that this ownership group has lacked over the last 48 hours and really the last few seasons is any sort of accountability. They have fired Mike Rizzo. They have fired Dave Martinez. And maybe those decisions were right. I agree with them in principle. But also, it would be nice to have someone from this ownership group come up, answer some questions, and face the music. Because while you can sit there in your layer of darkness over the last few days and last few seasons, this team has been a mess. This has been an absolute mess. And this team really has no sense of direction. And that starts at the top with this ownership group. When are they going to come out and take some accountability? I’ve always talked about this in really every step of the way. This ownership group, they’ve had their moments of doing pretty well, but these past few seasons, they have put on a clinic of what not to do as far as owning a baseball team. They have floated a sale out there saying, “Well, we’re probably going to sell the team. We’re going to explore a sale.” Then Ted Leonis has been publicly interested in this team. Then all of a sudden a year goes by and we’re like, are they going to sell the team? And then all of a sudden they’re all the way back in and they’re saying we’re not going to sell this team. Mark Learner this off season talks to Barry Feluga of the Washington Post and says once Mike Rizzo says we’re ready to spend, that’s when we’ll spend. Wrong. You know for a fact that Mike Grizzo was going into this team this off season saying, “We got to spend some money.” And I’m willing to bet that the Learner family at the top, they were probably sitting there saying, “That’s cute. We’re not going to spend in free agency. We’re not going to go after Alex Bregman. We’re not going to go after Max Freed. We’re not going to go after Corbin Burns.” And so the Nationals didn’t. this ownership group. They are the problem. They are the problem right now in DC. And the fact of the matter is this. Mike Rizzo, the game may have passed him. I kind of believe in that. I subscribe to it. Dave Martinez may not be the best manager out there. He might be average at best, but this ownership group, they are going to have to look themselves in the mirror and they are going to have to say, “We can make a difference.” And we have in the past and we’re going to have to do this right here and right now. Start spending money in free agency in analytics and really in any way, shape, or form. Next, let’s get into the differences that we have seen these past decade from this ownership group and a decade in the 2010s where they were dominant. What’s different? We’ll have that for you after this. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf in the green, or high stake soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. And yes, you are already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? And with FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. And I’ve been using FanDuel to track my favorite matchups. And the app keeps it fresh with a new daily promotion and fun ways to bet. It’s easy to use the payout and makes even regular season games feel like a mustwatch event. Whether I’m placing a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel makes it like I’m part of the action. So, are you new to FanDuel? FanDuel customers and new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. Thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. And yes, if you have not already, check us out wherever you get your podcast on Apple, Spotify, and of course the video version over on YouTube. Again, we are part of the Locked on Podcast Network where it is your team every day. Speaking of your team every day, learners, this is your team every day. this team called the Washington Nationals. You own them. This is your team. I want to get into the clear differences between the 2010s and now. The number one clear difference is that this team and this ownership group invested in free agency. Let’s take a look back at 2012 when the Nationals finally broke out and really just did what was best for this team. They had a payroll which was right around below average at that point. Sitting in the 20s, they were at $81.3 million to open that 2020 or 2012 opening day payroll. And then next season after they won 95 games in 2013, they had the 12th highest payroll. In 2014, you look at this team and they had the ninth highest payroll. In 2015, you had the sixth highest payroll. In 2016, you had the sixth highest payroll. 2017, the ninth. 2018, this national team had the fifth highest payroll. And then in 2019 when he won the World Series, the seventh highest payroll. Looking at the Nationals in 2020, the 12th highest payroll. 2021, this national team, believe it or not, had the ninth highest payroll entering opening day. This winter gets tricky. 2022, the worst team in baseball, the Washington Nationals had the 19th highest payroll, and so on and so forth. And since then, the Nationals have been bottom of the barrel. bottom six to seven each of the past few seasons here. And right now the Nationals, they have the 23rd highest payroll entering this season on opening day. Invest, invest, invest. Now, what is the difference? Because we talk about the Learner family. This ownership group has been here since the late 2000s when they bought the team from Major League Baseball. And with this in mind, at one point in time, they spent what is gone. Well, the head of this ownership group is the late great Ted Learner. Ted Learner passed away a few years ago. He gave up the principal title later on in the 2010s to his son Mark. And now Mark runs this team as a CEO alongside his family as well. and they have this board of trustees within the family and they are the ones who run this team. This ownership group is not the same as the 2010s. The head of it was Ted Learner. This was his baby. This was the guy who helped bring the team to DC. This was the guy who wanted to see a team coming to DC because he was a baseball fan. He was a baseball fan through and through and he wanted to see a team in his hometown in Washington DC. He helped get them there. He helped get this team to a World Series title in 2019 and his leadership really paved the way to great success in the 2010s for the Washington Nationals. The difference is now is this in-house fight and the dysfunction of this team just reeks at this point in time. It reeks. The word that you could just pinpoint the Washington Nationals at this point is you look at them and you look at this dictionary and you’re like, what word describes them? Dysfunction. This is a dysfunctional team from top to bottom. And something that we mentioned in the first segment, which in really the last few days of just how shocking these decisions were to move off of Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez, the word that we were all saying is again dysfunction. And how did we get here? How did the Nationals get to this point? Well, they got to this point by not knowing what they are doing and not knowing whether they are going to sell. There is no plan in place. And in the 2010s, the Nationals had a plan. They rebuilt. They stunk in the 2000s. They built up draft capital. They built up their player development. They spent in free agency. You went and got your clubhouse leader with Jason Worth. You went out there and you got your Adam Maro. You went out there and you spent on a Sai Young winner with Max Scherzer and you developed guys like Juan Sodto and Anthony Rendone and made savvy trades like Trey Turner. And while some of those things may be relevant now because you traded Juan Sono and he got a ton back for him that likely will never happen again, you sit here today twiddling your thumbs wondering how could this team be better and what did we do in the 2010s that we aren’t doing now. Number one is spend in free agency and also number two is player development. The development has not been there. But you also wonder to yourself, while we just kind of sit there and say, “Well, that’s on Mike Grizzo.” And it is on Mike Rizzo. He should develop players. We can talk about bad ownership, the Oakland A’s have bad ownership. They still develop talent. The Tampa Bay Rays, terrible ownership, one of the best teams as far as development goes. The difference is those teams have a plan and they know what they are. The Nationals do not. This is a team that had an identity of consistently being top 10 in payrolls and developing talent and having a good president, but now you have none of those things. You have not developed talent. You have a couple of guys here and there, but not at the rate that you should be. You do not spend money. You’re in the 20s as far as your payroll goes. Should be better. Where is the plan for this team? The Nationals in the 2010s, again, they had a plan. You bring in Jason Worth to be that veteran leader. You overspend, you spend the losing tax on a guy who’s pretty damn good and have him come here into DC and hopefully he changes the culture. And he did. Where is the plan, learners? Where is it? because I cannot find one anywhere I look at this point in time. I cannot find a plan and I cannot figure out what exactly your plan is because this bullpen or not even this bullpen the prospects that we have, they’re good. You’ve got Travis Core, I think he’s a blue chip prospect. Outside of that, you don’t really have much. Brady House still prospect, but still he’s good. But we’ll see what happens in the majors. So, where is the plan? I can’t recall a plan at this point. And never forget that right now, the issue, the issue is this Washington Nationals ownership group. And it’s a joke. This team has fallen so far off that it’s really hard to watch with this ownership. It’s hard. And a lot of people out there, while we can dance and say we fired Davey, we fired Rizzo, we’re ready to move on, we’re ready for a fresh start, the ownership, that’s not a fresh start. And if I were to hit the reset button on any of those three things, it would be by far and away this ownership group. So, what’s your future faith in the Washington Nationals? Do you feel good? Let’s jump into that next. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had a service emergency like a burst pipe. 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Thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. Check me out over on Twitter, Ryan Clary1 and also look up Locked on Nationals wherever you get your podcast as we are part of the locked on podcast network where is your team every single day. What kind of faith do you have in this ownership group getting it right? My faith on a scale of one to 10 is at like a 3.5. I’m at a 3.5 right now for this ownership group in getting back on point. I do have faith in the fact that they did have a player development issue and they did address that issue. I think that with Depardalo, the new interim GM, Spencer Nusbomb of the Washington Post, and we’ll get into this much further on tomorrow’s show, but they now have a direction in place like they are saying that they want to go all in on analytics and it’s going to be used on a day-to-day basis in which it has not been used going forward. They address that. I think that’s a good thing. They address Dave Martinez and they have Miguel Cairo as the interim manager at this point. I think that’s somewhat of an answer. It’s not the long-term answer, but the expectations for this team at this point are slim to none. We’re not expecting a winning team. We don’t expect this team to make a push for October baseball. We have very minimal expectations at this point in time. But then it comes to the free agency portion, the investing portion which starts at the top with ownership. If this ownership wants to make analytics work or if you just want to have a good team again, then they have to invest in ways that they have not invested these past few seasons. If you are going to become an analytical team, invest in the resources. Invest in an analytics department. Invest in the latest, coolest, best technology out there to help your team, like a pitching lab, like a hitting lab, in which again 25 of 30 teams have, yet you don’t. Now, Mike Rizzo said that they are going to be getting it sometime soon a few weeks ago. I don’t know if he was just saying that, but I would like to think that this ownership group is not lying about that and that they are going to get this because again 25 to 30 MLB teams have it. You should have it also. It helps the key word moving forward for this ownership. While we’ve also said dysfunction is the main word to describe this ownership. The next one, not to describe it, but the memo that you should be putting on the clubhouse and inside that learner suite at Nationals Park is invest. They need to invest time. They need to invest money and they need to invest resources into this team. And my faith of that is again at like a 3.5, maybe if we’re feeling lucky, a four or maybe a 4.5, but it’s not above that 50% threshold at this point. My faith in this ownership is slim. It’s really slim at this point. And if you hit a home run on your next president of baseball ops and if you hit a home run in your analytics department and you completely transform this thing, which is possible, by the way, then we’re talking then we’re talking about a much better product that can develop. And if this team and this new front office in the future can really show them that they can develop talent, then maybe this learner ownership group decides, you know what, it’s time to spend in free agency. But I’ll see it when I believe it. The faith that I think the fan base has in this team and really within this ownership group is not very high. And why would it be? this team and this ownership, they have not invested in you, the fans. They have not been in any way, shape, or form hands-on with this team these past few seasons. And it’s been noticeable. You see the onfield product. You see the steps back that this team has taken. And maybe we find out with these moves that change is going to happen and that they are finally going to be back all in on this team and then we can kind of just say fine and have them have their way and see what they can do. But right now my faith is slim to none with this team. So thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. On tomorrow’s show, we have a new front office kind of. It’s going to be heavy on analytics, which I love. What’s the direction of this front office? And what are some changes that you want to see and what are some changes that we will see? We’ll have that discussion for you on tomorrow’s locked on nationals. But until then, the Nationals, they are in St. Louis tonight. You do play baseball. It’s going to be interesting to see what this team does and how they respond. But of course, we are covering the big news of the week with Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez out as longtime president and manager of this ball club. I will catch you guys on the flip side. Have a good one. Go Nats.

While Davey Martinez and Mike Rizzo had their faults, let’s talk about the real big issue… THIS OWNERSHIP GROUP! They can’t hide much longer as fans want answers, and they also want results. What is Ryan’s big issue with the Lerner’s? We also jump into the difference between the 2010’s, and 2020’s. How did the Nats fall so far in such a little amount of time?

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