Nationals prove themselves highly dysfunctional winners by firing Baker

Over the last six seasons, the Washington Nationals have won four division titles, emerging as the class of the NL East. The nation's capital hasn't seen this kind of an excellent on-field product since Walter Johnson.

That doesn't mean it's all wine and roses in D.C.

On Friday, in a surprising and poorly-handled move, the Nationals changed course yet again by firing manager Dusty Baker after his consecutive division titles.

"I'm surprised and disappointed," Baker told USA Today's Bob Nightengale shortly after news of his dismissal was announced.

You're not the only one, Johnnie B.

"This was a pure baseball decision," general manager Mike Rizzo said. "Our goal is to win a world championship."

Huh?

Baker was specifically hired to win, and he did that 192 times in Washington. This year, he led the Nats to 97 wins despite injuries to multiple stars, and he got the boot because his players didn't get the job done in October.

This all proves the Nats are merely dysfunctional winners who want the glory, but pick and choose where and how to actually chase it, while (poorly) masking their own problems behind another departed skipper.

Hiring what will be your eighth manager in the last decade - and fourth in the last seven years - isn't how you reach that goal. It's a sign of organizational dysfunction, and the players will surely see this.

Baker was the steady hand that fixed a ship that had its hull ripped out and thrown in a wood chipper by former skipper Matt Williams in 2015. Williams had proven totally incapable of guiding the Nationals during his two-year run, and left behind a legacy of Bryce Harper getting choked in the dugout on his watch.

Baker was brought in to win, but also to put an end to the dysfunctional unit the Nationals had become. He did the latter to perfection. The title didn't come because October is weird sometimes - and while it may be fair to criticize him for past managerial errors, these two years in Washington were hardly his fault. Last week's Game 5 loss wasn't on him.

And yet, that was enough for the Nats to let him go and paint themselves into a corner.

All this hiring - and firing - of Baker, Williams, Davey Johnson, and others has done is expose the Nationals for what they are, which is a crew without a clue in the front office, from Rizzo, on up to the Lerner family.

To be clear, the Lerners have spent money to win - on Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, and Daniel Murphy. Kenley Jansen almost bought in but turned down their dollars to go back to L.A.

Where have the star-blinded owners not spent money? To fix the holes not filled by stars on their roster - namely, the bullpen.

Give Rizzo credit for making some nice, cheap bullpen upgrades this summer via trade, but it shouldn't have come to that. When David Robertson, now an October star in New York, was available via trade for some lint in the clubhouse dryer and the cost of his salary, the Lerners wouldn't cut the check. Greg Holland, who led the NL in saves this year? Same deal. Nice commitment to winning there.

It doesn't stop at players either. Remember, the Nationals only hired Baker after Bud Black was offered the job but walked away when ownership low-balled him.

What a lovely message that sends to potential managerial hires.

Now, two years after that botched hiring, Baker's gone in another messy circumstance. Bryce Harper may follow him out the door in 2018 - and if he does leave for added stability, after playing for his fourth skipper in seven years, who could blame him?

Maybe it will take Harper leaving for the Lerners, Rizzo, and the rest of the Nationals to finally look themselves in the mirror and realize how badly they screwed up this golden goose. Judging by how the Nationals handled Baker's dismissal, it won't happen today.

In the end, Baker - a respected baseball figure likely headed to Cooperstown - did his job, and all he got in return was the chance to be another victim of the Nationals' reality as an unstable franchise.

Dusty Baker deserved better.

The Washington Nationals didn't deserve him.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)