Hire Mike Rizzo

(Photo of TV by Nationals Enquirer Staff. Thanks for everything, Mike, now here's your pink slip.)

"I am no help on the GM subject."
(Stan Kasten, via Yahoo Sports, 8/19/2009) 

Fire Mike Rizzo? What?

Just when you thought it was safe to remove "Acting" from Mike Rizzo's job title...the Nats are about to remove Mike Rizzo from the job?

According to Gordon Edes of Yahoo Sports, Rizzo is about to be shown the door:

Multiple sources insisted Tuesday that the Nationals are on the verge of announcing that Arizona Diamondbacks vice president Jerry DiPoto is about to be named Nationals GM, replacing Rizzo, who has been interim GM since replacing Jim Bowden earlier this season.

"It could happen in the next 24 hours," insisted one major league executive who said he had it on good authority that DiPoto, the former reliever who has overseen Arizona’s pro scouting the last four years, will be hired by Nationals president Stan Kasten.

What else does Mike need to do?

He's been under the microscope of a seven-month job interview, handed a mop and told to clean up Jim Bowden's mess. It really started with his key role in the organization's slash-and-burn and relocation of the entire Dominican operation back in February on the heels of the the Rijo/Smiley Fiasco; he capped it off in his role as lead negotiator in the Strasburg Highwire act. 

He stepped into a maelstrom, with limited authority, and has slowly but surely managed to right the ship.

Our biggest quibbles haven't been with the moves he's made (although, for the record, we're still barely lukewarm on the Milledge/Hanrahan for Morgan/Burnett deal), but the moves he hasn't made: failing to deal Willingham and waiting too long to deal Nick Johnson before the trade deadline; holding onto Guzman after floating him through waivers; botching a chance to cut ties with Kearns AND save 3.4 million in the process after AK cleared waivers and was claimed.

Boz captured this snapshot of the Strasburg negotiations, Rizzo going toe to toe with Satan himself:

"Wow," murmured Rizzo in disbelief, fresh from days of negotiations, including a shouting match between him and Boras filled with words that always get you ejected. Kasten simply listened to that one in awe: "A classic confrontation. I felt like a proud papa." 

Sounds like a ringing endorsement from Proud Papa Kasten. Chico Harlan noted early this morning that a move for DiPoto would come as a shock to current Nats FO employees:

If DiPoto obtains the job, it would shock many employees in Washington's current front office, many of whom had assumed that Rizzo's performance in recent weeks -- especially with Strasburg -- would all but guarantee him the job. Kasten, after the Strasburg negotiations were completed, joked with Rizzo that he had just dispensed the largest sum of money in amateur history. "That's going to look great on your resume," Kasten said in jest.

So what happened, Stan? It doesn't add up.

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Comments

[NTPNate]

So Rizzo whiffed on Kearns and Guzman, sold short on Milledge and Johnson and gets the unqualified Nats Enq endorsement for... moving and spending record amounts of someone else's money?

I just switched apartments, can I be an Assistant GM?

[The Nationals Enquirer]

Nate: Yes, and Yes. But you're underestimating the importance of 'moving and spending record amounts of someone else's money'!

When can you start, BTW?

[Andrew Stebbins]

Look, when Mike Rizzo was given the title of acting GM the Nats had no other internal candidates. Now, after interviews with several very bright baseball men (including Rizzo) they seem to have reached a decision. That must mean they've found something better in their eyes...and what's wrong with that?

[The Nationals Enquirer]

Andrew: Hard to argue with an exhaustive search resulting in the best candidate for the job getting the job. And we hope that's what happened here.

Hopefully it's just the timing that's wrong.

All signals yesterday seemed to point to Rizzo as the choice until the Edes column dropped late.

It's unclear what else Rizzo needed to do - from where we're standing it seems like he earned the job since taking the mop when Jimbo left.

[ckstevenson]

Kearns, Guzman and holding on to Nick I definitely view as mistakes. We assume it was Rizzo on those, though they smell a bit like the way things have worked for the Nats in the past so I wonder about Kasten's involvement.

I love the Milledge-Hanrahan/Morgan-Burnett deal. I think Milledge is a bust, not enough power to play the corner OF, not enough D to play CF.

Cleaning out Bowden's crapfest I think was nearly deserving enough of the job. Add the other wiley moves plus how the Strasburg thing went down and I view him as a winner.

If they are hiring DiPoto, it better be because he's better than Rizzo. And if he's better, we may be getting a fantastic GM.

Let's all hope

[L Street]

How can you ask someone to do all the things that Rizzo has done for the Nats, and quite successfully, and then can him? Couldn't fire a worthless GM like Bowdin but can get rid of someone of value?

I think that this is either a big misinformation campaign by the Nats or ...

Stan Kasten is leaving his day-to-day operations role, Rizzo takes that, and DiPoto replaces Rizzo.

[v roe]

if the nats lose this bright young gm, it would be a huge loss for this orgainization, and another teams gain as he certainly will surface in that roll within a year.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

The only thing we can be sure of is this:

The Nats won't say boo about final GM choice is until next week - well after Strasburg's Coronation Friday night. Team needs to milk the goodwill for all they can get...

Edes-Rizzo might turn into another Rosenthal-Manny though. The only thing wrong might end up being the timing.

But we hope not. We're pulling for Mike Rizzo here at Nationals Enquirer.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

...and then, there's this from Nationals dot com's Bill Ladson. Nats set to name Mike Rizzo GM on Thursday.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090819&content_id=6507838&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was

But I read it on the internet. Should I believe it or not?

(congrats Mike, you deserve it.)