After the Washington Nationals announced a contract extension for manager Dave Martinez, the thinking was an extension for general manager Mike Rizzo was coming next. And there was a report 10 days ago that his "well-deserved extension will soon become official." But then there was no official announcement.
When asked by The Sports Junkies about the status of his own contract, Rizzo said the big news was getting Martinez "signed and sealed and extended for a long period of time," which he called his "goal all along."
"Like I said a couple of weeks ago, I'm [Martinez's] boss and I wanted to get that thing done so, appealed to the ownership and we got it done, so that was an important thing," Rizzo said during his weekly appearance Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
The general manager, addressing the reports on his contract, added that he sees "reports on a lot of things, my personal business and baseball business, and you just have to take that stuff with a grain of salt. You guys have known me a long time I've never worried about my contract situation, I grind it out every day, I come to work every day, I've got assignments and things I have to accomplish every day and we're doing our business as usual.
"And I just want to grind this thing out and get it through this rebuild and put a championship-caliber club on the field again."
So does he want to sign an extension with the Nationals?
"Oh, definitely," Rizzo told the Junkies. "This has been my home for 17 years, and we brought this thing from below expansion franchise... I’ve been here since ’06 and plan on being here for a long time beyond that."
The Junkies follow up by asking Rizzo if he expects an announcement before the end of the regular season. But the GM said, "You’re talking about things I don't discuss. We never discuss what we’re doing as far as negotiations and contracts and that type of thing so we're not going to start now.
"I’ve been a GM here for 15 years and I’m happy here. I see big things happening for this team, and I’m certainly glad that Davey’s around for it, and I certainly want to be part of the next championship club."
As far as the rebuild goes, Rizzo feels like the club is "ahead of schedule."
"I really like where that Double-A club is where a lot of prospects [are]," he said. "The last three drafts have really impacted us positively as far as our farm system. I like the young group of players at the big league level. I think we're gonna have an increase of wins from 55 to wherever we end up this year, which I think is a positive aspect of the rebuild. And when. you look at the six, seven players that are gonna be crops group of the team that we already have along with the impact players that we have in the minor leagues that are not far away from the big leagues, you can only be happy about the way the rebuild has gone.
"And since July of '21 when we started this rebuild you have to see the light at the end of this tunnel because I think that we're ahead of our schedule where we were on our first rebuild in '09, '10 and '11."
One recent piece of news around the club was the resignation of Johnny DiPuglia who had been the international scouting director for the Nationals and had been with the organization since 2009. Rizzo told the Junkies that DiPuglia's departure was a mutual parting with both sides expecting to remain friends.
“Change is good and a lot of times change is good," Rizzo said. "Johnny and I go way back, we're still best friends and that'll never change. When reports come out and it says a 'mutual resignation,' I think you can believe it. Johnny and I are warriors from a long time ago... I think that his resume speaks for itself.”