Mike Rizzo Gets Mixed Reviews As Nationals GM
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Pregame Pepper: Tarik Takes The Cake
Less than 24 hours after Framber Valdez broke the Comerica Park piggy-bank, Tarik Skubal delivered another body blow to the Tigers’ treasury.
Backed by take-no-prisoners agent Scott Boras, he won the most outrageous case in the history of baseball arbitration.
In his last season of arbitration eligibility, he’ll earn $32 million, the most ever for an arbitration-eligible player. The Tigers had countered with an offer of $19 million — an 87 per cent raise in sync with other top fifth-year pitchers.
Boras won the case by comparing his client not to previous arbitration winners but to salaries given to other pitchers in the bloated free-agent market. Consecutive Cy Young Awards helped Skubal’s case immensely but may have pushed him out of the Detroit, which now may be forced to trade him.
David Price previously held the record for pitchers and Juan Soto for position players.
Had Detroit even offered Skubal $25 million, it would have been a 146 per cent raise over the prior year’s salary, according to the respected and reliable Baseball Trade Rumors.
Now that the whole world knows what the 29-year-old pitcher will earn, every pitcher and his brother will want even more — sending the salary spiral beyond the stratosphere and greatly increasing the chances of a December lockout that will last until payrolls are capped for the first time.
Moral of the story: publicizing salaries was the worst decision in the history of baseball. Even worse than the Manfred Man, interleague play, endless playoff, or Home Run Derby to settle extra-inning All-Star Games.
Leading Off
Assessing Mike Rizzo’s long tenure as Nationals’ head honcho
By Andrew Sharp
In rebuild mode for four-and-a-half seasons, Washington Nationals ownership should give its new head of baseball operations Paul Toboni enough flexibility to sign a top free agent — if not now, soon. Toboni already has traded All-Star lefty MacKenzie Gore for five prospects, none of whom is widely described as “can’t miss,” a clear sign the rebuild continues.
On July 6, 2025, Mike Rizzo was fired after nearly 17 years as head of baseball operations for the Nationals. His teams improved from 59 wins in 2009, his first year at the helm after three seasons as an assistant GM, to a team-record 98 victories and a division title in 2012.
Rizzo teams went on the win three more division titles by 2017 and, famously, won the World Series in 2019. The COVID-shortened season prevented the Nationals from reaping the benefits in attendance. From 2012 to 2019, his Nats won more games than any team except the Dodgers.
Then team management went into full rebuild mode in 2021 with as yet no sign of results on the field.
So how should the Rizzo era be judged?
Rizzo became the Nationals’ interim general manager in March 2009 after Jim Bowden resigned amid an investigation about team scouts and executives accepting kickbacks from bonuses promised to Latin American signees. Bowden, never charged, said he had done nothing wrong.
Twenty of the 25 players on the 2012 roster were drafted or acquired under Rizzo. Prominent contributors were first baseman Adam La Roche and outfielder Jayson Werth, signed as free agents, pitcher Gio Gonzalez and outfielder/first baseman Michael Morse, acquired in trades.
After signing Max Scherzer before the 2015 season, the Nationals won three of the next four N.L. Eastern Division titles. Although the team lost in the first round of the playoffs each time, you can’t lose in the post-season without getting there.
So after missing the playoffs in 2018, Rizzo made sure he had added parts before and during the 2019 season, which of course ended in a World Series victory. Kurt Suzuki was acquired, as he had been in 2012, to shore up the catching. So was Yan Gomes. Howie Kendrick came back from a serious injury. Asdrubal Cabrera, who had contributed in 2014, was picked up on waivers in early August. Daniel Hudson was added to the bullpen.
Giving Rizzo less than an “A” grade for his 2009 to 2019 tenure would be ignoring the results. Not all of his or any general manager’s trades or free agent signings are winners. Some are clearly good and some are so-so. Rizzo seems to have avoided trades that ended up as short-term disasters. The trade that acquired Trea Turner, for example, as well as pitcher Joe Ross, was unequivocally good for the Nats. Outfielder Steven Sousa Jr. was all it cost.
General managers are almost always involved in free-agent signing, if not with the dollar amounts. The Nationals and Rizzo get credit for signing Werth to give the franchise credibility that led to building a winner. The same holds true about sustaining success in signing Scherzer to a seven-year deal.
The seven-year, $245-million contract given to Strasburg after the 2019 season is another matter. How much Rizzo had to do with that in terms of length and dollars is unknown. What is known is Scott Boros, Strasburg’s agent, had a working relationship with principal owner Ted Lerner, so Rizzo might well have been only tangentially involved. Obviously, Strasburg’s injuries ended his career. His contract was guaranteed and the team had no insurance coverage on it. Ouch.
Rizzo can’t really be given too much credit for using the No. 1 picks in the draft on consensus choices Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010, as crucial as they were. Both got record-shattering signing bonuses.
One reason Rizzo kept the team on top was the Lerner ownership family’s willingness to support a team payroll that ranked in the top in all but one season from 2014 to 2021. Another was Rizzo’s willingness to trade prospects for players who would have an immediate impact.
Future Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray was traded to the Tigers for pitcher Doug Fister, who helped the Nationals for one season. Lucas Giolito, a first-round draft pick who continues to have a decent career, was traded for Adam Eaton, who helped the Nats win the championship in 2019 but was gone soon after.
Those are prime examples of the long-term risk of short-term gains. Ray will still be in the majors next season as will Giolito. The two pitchers who were traded with Giolito were in the majors this past season, too.
By 2019, the Nationals farm system ranked near the bottom in terms of major prospects. Recognizing this and knowing that the Nationals lineup was aging fast, Rizzo began a 2021 trade-deadline dismantling of what was left of the World Series champs. Although the team was hovering around .500, fans knew Scherzer was going to become a free agent. Clearly, he was going to be traded to a contender. The shock was that Turner, still under team control through 2022, was sent to the Dodgers with Scherzer.
In quick succession, Rizzo traded Gomes and regular second baseman Josh Harrison to the Athletics. Backup catcher Drew Millas was the only return worth mentioning. Then Kyle Schwarber, who just set a team record for homers in a month, was sent to Boston for a pitcher who didn’t pan out. Daniel Hudson was traded to the Padres for Mason Thompson, whose career was derailed by arm woes.
At first, it looked like the Scherzer/Turner swap might work out immediately. Josiah Gray, and all-star pitcher in 2022, and catcher Keibert Ruiz were the return. Of course, injuries to both have cast doubt on their futures.
After falling to last place in 2021 and with 2022 not looking much better, Rizzo pulled off a trade that even now seems to have been the best he could have done under the circumstances: superstar Juan Soto, represented by agent Scott Boras, turned down a lucrative long-term offer from the Nationals. With a year left before he reached free agency, Soto was traded along with first baseman Josh Bell to San Diego. The return was massive: Gore, shortstop CJ Abrams, outfielder James Wood (all three already All-Stars) outfielder Robert Hassell III and top pitcher prospect Jarlin Susana. First baseman Luke Voit was a throw-in.
Still, after improving from a disastrous 55-107 in 2022, the Nationals stalled at 71 wins in 2023 and 2024, then fell back to 66-96 in 2025 -– last place in the N.L. East for the fifth time in six seasons. They were the worst team in the majors aside from the horrible Rockies.
So ultimately, Rizzo’s performance since 2019 must be graded as no better a “C-,” although ownership’s apparent reluctance to spend shares blame.
Andrew Sharp is a SABR member who was written and edited dozens of bio and games project stories. He lives in central New Jersey but was raised in the D.C. suburbs. He blog about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Fans Love To See History Made at the Ballpark
By Dan Schlossberg
As an adjunct professor at the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) at North Jersey’s Bergen Community College, I give four hour-long lectures every spring called “Baseball Ironies and Oddities.”
Fellow author Jayson Stark, a long-time friend, shares my curiosities and writes reams about them every week.
And most of the members I met in SABR, the esteemed Society for American Baseball Research, love this timeless trivia — especially if they wind up witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event like the only inside-the-park home run in All-Star history [by Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki in San Francisco at the 2007 game].
A Facebook friend called Baseball Nut was kind enough to publish this pertinent chart:
Let’s make some additions:
Grand slams in a game hit by a pitcher: 1 (Tony Cloninger)
Grand slams yielded in an inning by the same pitcher: 1 (Chan Ho Park)
Pitchers who allowed four consecutive home runs: 7
Current managers who yielded four straight homers: 1 (Craig Stammen)
Hall of Famers who hit into four double-plays in one game: 1 (Joe Torre)
Players whose last at-bat produced a triple play: 1 (Joe Pignatano)
Trades involving managers only: 1 (Joe Gordon for Jimmie Dykes)
HR king traded for batting champ: 1 (Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn)
No-hitters by the Mets: 1 (Johan Santana)
Teams that never had a losing season: 1 (Milwaukee Braves)
Could a whole book of baseball rarities result? I actually wrote one called Baseball’s Memorable Misses — originally entitled Baseball Zeroes — that documented dozens of doozies that never happened (though most fans think they did).
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, Sports Collectors Digest, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Beltran’s Influence on the Mets
Newly-minted Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran will wear a Mets logo on his Cooperstown plaque . . .
The only other Mets in the Hall of Fame gallery are Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza . . .
Beltran, also expected to join Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine in the Mets Hall of Fame this summer, will also have his No. 15 retired by the team . . .
Beltran was a Mets mainstay from 2005-11 and is now a special assistant in the club’s front office . . .
He was actually Mets manager for 77 days during one off-season before the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scandal forced him to resign . . .
Though not a member of the two Mets teams that won world championships, he’ll be around to watch the 40th anniversary of the last time the team won the World Series (1986).
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
May I add to the rarities list: Pitchers he gave up a home run to the first batter they faced in a game and then retired the next 27 hitters in a row. 1 (Robin Roberts, Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, May 13, 1954 vs the Cincinnati Reds. Bobby Adams hit the homer.