John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The Washington Nationals have set off a few landmines along the way, but the search for a new manager will officially end this morning with the introduction of Dusty Baker to the local media.
Baker, 66, has managed three teams, and he lead all of them – the Giants, Cubs and Reds – to the playoffs in a 23-year managerial career. He was fired by the Reds at the end of the 2013 season, and his hiring by the Nationals spares Major League Baseball the embarrassment of not having an African-American manager for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Baker’s hiring came after the team broke off negotiations with former Padres manager Bud Black, who, according to several media reports, had been offered the job ahead of Baker. Negotiations with Black apparently became sidetracked over both the amount of money being offered and the length of the deal. The Nationals would not guarantee more than two years to Black.
“It was another example of the Lerner family lowballing a manager financially,” says Todd Dybas, the Washington Times’ Nationals beat reporter.
The Nationals owners have developed a reputation for being tight with the salaries they pay their managers. In 2011, then-manager Jim Riggleman quit in the middle of the season because the team refused to give him a contract extension.
The team fired manager Matt Williams last month, determined to hire someone with more managerial experience for 2016, and both Black and Baker fill that requirement. But Dybas tells WMAL the Nats didn’t initially seem to realize that with experience generally comes a higher price tag.
“You’re going to have to pull out some funds that are market value for those people, and to think that those dynamics don’t apply to you is the major error that we’re talking about here,” he says.
The Nationals and their fans are hoping the rough patch is over now, and that Baker can turn his focus to baseball.
“He definately is old school. The players that I talked to who have played for him point out that mentality, but they also say that it’s been successful for him,” said Dybas.
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