Riggleman quits, feels Nats not committed to him

June 23, 2011|Joseph White, AP Sports Writer

Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman watches his team during the… (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt )

Jim Riggleman felt he deserved better. He had essentially become a permanent interim manager for the Washington Nationals, a franchise that has spent much of its time trying to become relevant. Once the club was ready to be a contender, he sensed he would be shunted aside for the next best thing to come along.

So he took a stand Thursday morning, telling the team it was time to act. He wanted his contract option picked up for next season, or he would quit.

A few hours later, he did just that, abruptly leaving one of the hottest teams in baseball in a move so unexpected that the front office initially wasn’t prepared to say would manage the next game in some 24 hours. The news turned the clubhouse mood from festive to stunned just minutes after the final out of a sweep of the Seattle Mariners, and players boarded the buses in the bowels of Nationals Park for a six-game road trip without the leader who had them playing so well.

“It’s been brewing for a while,’’ Riggleman said. “I know I’m not Casey Stengel, but I do feel like I know what I’m doing. It’s not a situation where I felt like I should continue on such a short lease.’’

Bench coach John McLaren will manage the Nationals on a short-term basis, starting with Friday’s opening game of an interleague series against the Chicago White Sox, according to a club official who informed The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday night because a formal announcement had yet to be made.

But first there was the obligatory two-sides-of-the-story from GM and manager, and not all the words were charitable. General manager Mike Rizzo even released a pointed statement saying he “was always taught that one of the cardinal rules of baseball was that no individual can put his interests before those of the team.’’

“Jim told me pregame today that if we wouldn’t pick up his option, then he wouldn’t get on the team bus today,’’ Rizzo said. “I felt that the time wasn’t right for me to pick up the option, and certainly today’s conversation put to me in the way it was put to me, you certainly can’t make that decision in a knee-jerk reaction. It’s too big of a decision.’’

Riggleman’s version of events was slightly different. He said he requested that he and Rizzo have “a conversation’’ about his contract when the team arrived in Chicago. Regardless, Riggleman said he would have resigned had that conversation not resulted in some sort of contract security.

“I just felt if there’s not going to be some type of commitment, then there obviously never will be,’’ Riggleman said. “I’m just not the guy that they thought they could move forward with.’’