Written by Ian Casselberry at Bloguin
The Washington Nationals were almost certainly going to hire an experienced manager after striking out with first-time skipper Matt Williams for the past two seasons. That appears to be exactly the direction general manager Mike Rizzo is taking.
According to the Washington Post‘s James Wagner, the Nationals are expected to hire Bud Black as their next manager. Since MLB prefers teams not to make big announcements during the World Series, this might not become official until next week. Even with the Postreporting this news and the series taking Thursday off for travel between Game 2 and 3, it appears that the Nationals will hold off on introducing Black until next week at the earliest.
Black managed the Padres for eight-plus seasons, getting fired this past June after a disappointing 32-33 start that placed the team fourth in the NL West. Expectations were high after an offseason flurry of trades that added Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, Justin Upton, Derek Norris and Craig Kimbrel to the roster, while James Shields was signed as a free agent. Yet the Padres could never really get into the playoff race and general manager A.J. Preller decided a managerial change was necessary.
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