The Nationals announced Wednesday morning that they have agreed to a multi-year deal to keep Mike Rizzo on as the team’s president of baseball operations and general manager.
The two sides had reportedly been close to a deal since last month after manager Dave Martinez inked a two-year contract extension. Rizzo told The Sports Junkies last week he "definitely" wanted to return. Specific details of the deal – including the length of the contract – were not disclosed Wednesday, but it had been understood Rizzo was seeking an extension of a similar length to the one Martinez signed on Aug. 22.
(Rizzo spoke with The Sports Junkies on Wednesday morning about the deal he signed. Find that here.)
The 62-year-old Rizzo, one of the longest-tenured heads of baseball operations in the league, has been at the helm in Washington since 2009, and helped build the Nationals’ memorable 2019 World Series team before orchestrating a rebuild years later, which included trading Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, and Trea Turner.
Now, Washington appears to have plenty of young talent on the rise once again, as Rizzo has helped acquire and develop the likes of C.J. Abrams, Keibert Ruiz, Lane Thomas, MacKenzie Gore and Josiah Gray. Beefing up the organization with young talent was enough to inspire confidence in ownership that Rizzo was the right man to continue on with the job.
“We are once again hard at work to build a championship contender in D.C. We now believe we have the beginnings of a roster filled with promising young players and exciting prospects at nearly every position,” owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. “While we once talked about winning World Series rings for our baseball-loving fathers, Mike’s family and ours now look forward to winning even more rings for our children and grandchildren — and, of course, for every other Nationals-loving fan and family everywhere. We are excited about our future.”