WASHINGTON - It’s been one month since the Washington Nationals fired longtime General Manager Mike Rizzo and Manager Davey Martinez, creating a chaotic past 30 days with minimal highs and many lows.
The past 30 days was a low point in the Nationals rebuild as the team sits in last place of the NL East and rising stars saw significant struggles. Here's a timeline of last month's events.
What we know:
On July 6, the day of the firings, Mike DeBartolo was named the interim general manager. Two days later, Miguel Cairo was promoted to interim manager. Under Cairo's helm, the team possesses a 7-15 record, tied for the second worst total in the league with the San Francisco Giants.
Cairo saw a 1-5 record before the much-anticipated All-Star break, which included the 2025 MLB Draft, Homerun Derby and All-Star Game that featured James Wood and MacKenzie Gore.
On July 13, the Nats selected Eli Willits, a 17-year-old shortstop with the first overall selection of the draft. Ethan Petry and Landon Harmon followed in the day one selections.
The selection of Willits and Harmon on day one proves to believe the Nats are not ready to compete in the coming years. Willits is the third-youngest player to be drafted first overall and Harmon projects as a long-term investment as he was also selected out of high school.
On July 14, The Derby served as a coming out party for Wood as he gained recognition for his 24 first half homers. He saw a first round elimination, depositing 16 balls over the fence.
On July 19, the Nats signed Willits with an $8.2 million signing bonus, the third highest high school signee in league history. The team signed 18 of their 20 draft picks.
The next day in the Mid-Summer Classic, Gore shined with a scoreless fifth inning, inducing three straight groundouts to division rival Franscio Lindor (Mets) at shortstop. Wood saw one at-bat in which he grounded out in the eighth inning.
As the team sits at the bottom of league standings, it was evident trades were coming to reload the farm system. They acquired ten prospects in exchange for six players from July 26 to 31.
The Nationals dealt:
Amed Rosario, Kyle Finnegan, Alex Call, Luis Garcia, Andrew Chafin and Michael Soroka.
Six of the acquired players landed in the Nationals’ MLB Top 30 Prospects List.
In return, they received: Clayton Beeter (No. 24), Browm Martinez, Jake Eder, Sam Brown, Christian Franklin (No. 11), Ronny Cruz (No. 13), Josh Randall (No. 23), R.J. Sales, Eriq Swan (No.12) and Sean Paul Liñán (No. 10).
Dig deeper:
It is not certain whether the termination of Davey Martinez positively or negatively affects the team's performance, but for now the numbers convey a telling tail. Gore and Woods’ production has declined drastically since the departure of the 2019 World Series champion manager.
In five starts dating back to July 9, Gore holds a 1-4 record. He hurled 21.2 innings to a 9.82 ERA only punching out 17 batters, thus posting his highest ERA and lowest strikeout total over a five game stretch in his tenure with Washington.
Wood has struggled immensely in his last 20 games, as the big lefty has just one big fly in 77 at-bats. His batting average dropped 32 points, now at .256 due to a total of nine hits in the cold stretch.
Along with the struggling All-Stars, the team has seen a significant performance decline. The pitching staff has allowed the second most earned runs, 137, and hits, 238, in the MLB. While the offense has the second worst batting average, .231, and runs scored, 87.
The Source: All statistics in this article comes from ESPN, Statmuse, FanGraphs and FOX 5 reporting.