I have come around on Davey Martinez as manager of the Nationals.
I’ll be the first to admit I was not a fan of Dusty Baker’s dismissal after back-to-back division titles with 95- and 97-win seasons, let alone Martinez’ hiring to replace Baker.
Yet Martinez won me over this season, somewhere between the questions of spring training, the abysmal early going, and the conclusion of the Nats’ eighth consecutive winning season at 93-69, third-best in the National League, with the fifth postseason berth in those eight seasons.
It’s hard to tell exactly when it was in this most topsy-turvy of all 15 seasons Nationals fans have enjoyed since baseball returned to the nation’s capital after a 34-year absence. But why it was has become overwhelmingly clear since the All-Star break, maybe a little bit before.
Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell wrote years ago that baseball managers fall into four categories: The “Little Napoleon” is a feisty, passionate, hard-nosed competitor, like Earl Weaver or Billy Martin. The “Tall Tactician” is a scholarly, data-driven leader, like Davey Johnson or Tony La Russa. The “Peerless Leader” is a disciplined, dignified man of character, like Frank Robinson or Buck Showalter. Finally, the “Uncle Robby” is the empathetic, easygoing, “player’s manager” like Tommy Lasorda or Baker.
Anyone who has followed the Nats this season can easily tell Martinez falls firmly in the final category. His players love him. Why? Because he loves them. That was clear from the darkest days of the season when pundits in Washington were unsure whether Martinez’ job was any more secure than that of anyone in the current presidential administration
But through it all, Martinez’ message was consistent: “I believe in these guys.” And he did.
He believed in guys like Brian Dozier and Yan Gomes, who struggled early in the season, and responded to their skipper’s patience by heating up at the plate. He believed in Ryan Zimmerman, who played fewer games than in any season since 2005 because of plantar fasciitis, yet contributed key hits in the September stretch run. He believed in Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto and Adam Eaton, who were consistent throughout the season, but needed to power through the team’s inconsistent early play.
He found a role for 36-year-old Howie Kendrick, coming off an Achilles tendon tear and still physically limited, who would still hit .344 with 17 home runs. He also found one for castoff Gerardo Parra, who was hitting .191 before launching a game-winning pinch-hit grand slam May 11 against the Dodgers, then went on to become organizer of the “Dugout Dance Party” home run celebration, and who made “Baby Shark” a dance craze in the stands at Nationals Park, even among fans older than 4.
He even believed in his bullpen, which had baseball’s highest ERA all season, through various personnel changes, but still held together through the final stretch of a 16-11 September that saw the Nats nail down the top wild card spot in the National League.
It would be hard to find many who believed in this team on the night of on Sept. 3 after the bullpen gave up five runs in the top of the ninth inning to give the New York Mets a 10-4 lead. But Martinez did, even as the ballpark crowd dwindled, and TVs and radios switched off across the region. Aside from Kendrick pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s spot, Martinez made just two substitutions in the lineup, sending in Zimmerman to hit for Matt Adams and then Michael A. Taylor to run for Zimmerman. The guys Martinez believed in the whole game came through, and the Nats won 11-10 on Kurt Suzuki’s three-run homer.
Even through the Nats lost the next four games after that comeback, it can be viewed as a crucial moment in the season. Because Martinez believed in them, the Nats never gave up. Even after the division title was lost, with red hot teams breathing down their necks, the Nats found their poise and took care of business in the season’s final week, winning eight in a row.
These were the first meaningful late-September games ever for the Nats. Their previous four division titles were all clinched early in the month. This was the first time they needed to keep playing hard until the final weekend. But they weren’t tight, and they responded in big moments, like Trea Turner’s sixth-inning, go-ahead grand slam Sept. 24 against Philadelphia, the shot that put the Nats in the postseason.
You can chalk this all up to Martinez’ faith in his players and theirs in him.
Some say a wild card game is just a play-in game. Maybe it is. But it’s the postseason, and more importantly, it’s an elimination game, something the Nats have lost in each of their last three tries.
We know that Martinez believes in his players, and they believe in him. Do you believe?
