Ex-Mets, O’s manager set to take over in Washington
The Nationals agreed to terms with Davey Johnson to become the team’s new manager, general manager Mike Rizzo said Saturday on Fox. The 68-year old Johnson, who previously served as a special assistant in Washington’s front office, will take over for Jim Riggleman, who abruptly resigned after a victory over Seattle on Thursday because of a contract dispute with management.
Rizzo made the announcement during Fox’s national broadcast of Saturday afternoon’s game at the Chicago White Sox. Johnson’s hiring was first reported Friday night by ESPNChicago.com. Johnson was not in the dugout for Saturday’s 3-0 loss. Rizzo denied multiple reports that Johnson will begin his tenure Sunday in Chicago, saying only that Johnson will meet with the current coaching staff in Anaheim, Calif., where Washington starts a three-game series Monday against the Angels. Interim manager John McLaren will remain with the organization, Rizzo said.
Rizzo also said that Johnson’s hiring — once the final details are hammered out — is only for the rest of the 2011 season. After that Johnson will be a candidate for the job if he chooses or will serve on the search committee that will select the manager for 2012.
| The Johnson file |
| » New Nats manager Davey Johnson has managed four major league teams over 14 seasons and won division titles in New York, Cincinnati and Baltimore. |
| » Johnson has a career record of 1148-888 as a manager and a .564 winning percentage. He led the Orioles to consecutive American League Championship Series appearances in 1996 and 1997. |
| » Johnson also had a 13-year major league career. Eight of those seasons were spent with Baltimore, which reached the World Series four times during his time there, winning championships in 1966 and 1970. |
“Davey’s been a guy that I brought in as my senior advisor to the [general manager] two years ago,” Rizzo said. “He’s been a great sounding board for me, a great mentor in many ways for me. He’s one of the guys with the best baseball acumen that I’ve ever been around. So we’re fortunate that he was so close and so available for us. We’re looking for him to take this thing and hit the ground running.”
Johnson has managed four major league teams over 14 seasons and won a World Series title with the New York Mets in 1986. He has also managed the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Mets won two National League East titles during Johnson’s seven years in New York and never finished lower than second place. He had Cincinnati in first place in the NL West in 1994 before the rest of that season was canceled because of a players strike. The Reds won the division the next season. He then jumped to Baltimore, where the Orioles made consecutive appearances in the American League Championship Series and Johnson was named AL manager of the year in 1997. He finished a mediocre 163-161 combined with the Dodgers in 1999 and 2000, and the team did not reach the playoffs. Johnson has not managed since.
[Johnson is] going to manage the team through [2011]. We’re going to re-evaluate after the season,” Rizzo said. “Davey will be a part of the re-evaluation process. We’re going to do a manager search. He’ll be part of the manager search. He’ll be one of the candidates for the manager search. And we’ll see what happens after that. But Davey is going to be in the organization for a long, long time.”
