Nationals, Dave Martinez agree to contract extension, one year after World Series triumph

News of Martinez’s extension was first reported by MLB Network.

Rizzo and Martinez were expected to speak with reporters Friday night after a game against the New York Mets. But because the game was postponed by rain, the pair will not address the media until early Saturday afternoon. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader starting at 3:05 p.m.

Martinez, who turns 56 on Saturday, is finishing his third season in Washington. He will now become the first Nationals manager to return for a fourth year. His first campaign ended in disappointment and raised doubts about his ability to stick with the team. The second was the title season. And now, in the middle of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Martinez is shepherding his club to the quiet end of a down year.

Washington is 198-183 in his tenure, not counting the 12 wins that delivered a championship. He has gained the trust of his players, including a core of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner and Juan Soto. He and Rizzo have developed a strong relationship that often includes spending hours in his office after games. They see themselves as a pair, and Rizzo expressed as much when he received his extension.

“My plan is and my preference is to not pick up the option and to go well beyond that,” Rizzo said of Martinez on Sept. 6. “That’s the plan going forward, to see if we can get something done negotiating a longer-term deal with him.”

“I love working with Riz,” Martinez said later that same day. “Being a part of this organization means a lot to me and my family. So, yeah … if we could get something done, that’d be awesome. I want to be here. I think we have a bright future here.”

In the 20 days since, Martinez offered little insight into the negotiations. He figured Rizzo’s extension meant his was in the plans. He joked that it would be nice to have it worked out “sooner rather than later.” One obvious deadline was Sunday, with the Nationals set to face the Mets in the season finale before splitting for the winter.

But Martinez otherwise left it to Rizzo, the owners and his agent, a disconnect he mastered in 16 years as a player. He doesn’t pitch himself or put private matters in the open. He would rather provide a sort of stability the Nationals have never felt.

They have had eight managers since coming to Washington in 2005. Before Martinez, none of the first seven made it three full seasons. Early in 2021, assuming the schedule starts on time, Martinez will pass Manny Acta and Davey Johnson for most games as a Nationals manager.

In 2018, Martinez’s first year, his team played beneath the cloud of Bryce Harper’s pending free agency and finished 82-80. In 2019, the Nationals got off to a 19-31 start, Martinez heard frequent calls for his job, then they rebounded for one of the biggest turnarounds in baseball history. Then their shot to repeat was complicated by the novel coronavirus pandemic. This year, filled with injuries and underachievement, has not gone well.

But through it all — the early failures, the title run, this trying summer — Martinez has been unshakably positive. He has stuck to his mantra to “Go 1-0 today.” He often mentioned the postseason, saying hurt players could return then, even as the odds flirted with zero. Earlier in the year, as the pandemic raged through the sport, Martinez was emotional, almost crying, while describing his players as not athletes but husbands and fathers. He then was similarly vulnerable during a news conference about social justice issues and the Nationals choosing not to play Aug. 27.

“You’ve really seen him take a big step as a leader this year,” reliever Sean Doolittle told The Washington Post in mid-September. “That goes a long way in the clubhouse, and everyone in there has noticed. He stands up for us. That matters.”

That echoes the reasons the Nationals hired Martinez in October 2017. As a longtime bench coach and Joe Maddon’s right-hand man with the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays, Martinez built strong ties to players. He was once in charge of stirring more fun into the Rays’ clubhouse. He helped Maddon and the Cubs snap their World Series curse in 2016. Then he broke off on his own, tried to make it in Washington and has.

A ring and this extension are proof.