Jim Riggleman shocked the Nationals team and front office when he announced that he was resigning following Thursday’s walk-off win over the Mariners.
It was a move that seemingly came out of nowhere, but one that Riggleman had actually been thinking about for quite some time.
Riggleman’s reason for resigning had to do with the fact that the front office of the Nationals would not give him a multi-year contract. He did not want to manage on a year-to-year basis; instead, he wanted some job security. When he went to Nationals GM Mike Rizzo and demanded that the team picks up his option for 2012, Rizzo refused to negotiate at that point in time. As a result, Riggleman decided that it was in his best interests to leave.
In this situation, both sides are in the wrong.
First, Rizzo should have not kept Riggleman on such a short leash. Without guaranteeing him a contract, it put pressure on Riggleman to do too much right now. Of course, Nationals fans do not expect them to win the World Series, but the team is currently over .500 for the first time this late in the year since 2005. This should have warranted at least a confirmation from Rizzo to Riggleman that there would be a contract extension.
With the team’s success to this point, there is no reason why Riggleman should not have been given at least a one year extension. The team is doing better than it was without Riggleman, and it seemed that Riggleman was making a difference.
Riggleman, however, is in the wrong for leaving his team at this point in the season. It is understandable that he was not pleased with not receiving a contract extension, but it was the wrong thing to do to leave the Nationals. They are currently 38-37 and have won 11 of the last 12, with sweeps of the Cardinals and Mariners in this span.
A manager leaving a team midseason usually does not end up well for the team. A manager is supposed to be the one who the players can trust to always be there for them. The Nationals now  have to try and move on from losing their leader and the one that they thought they could trust to always be there.
The Nationals are currently 8.5 games behind the Phillies in the tough NL East. The Nationals are nowhere near ready to contend for a playoff spot, but a .500 season was a possibility with Riggleman. Now that he has departed, it will be interesting to see if the Nationals players can come together as a team and achieve their goal of being a .500 team or, perhaps, even competing for a playoff spot into September.
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Jim Riggleman photo credit: Kevin Dietsch via UPI.com
