A Mike Rizzo Team We Could Remember

The Washington Nationals ended the 2009 season much as they began it, the worst team in baseball.  Yet here in DC dogged faith abounds in new GM Mike Rizzo.  After signing Stephen Strasburg and becoming GM, he has  put together much of the personnel to build the organization.  But what of the major league team in the 2010 season?  It’s his team now.  Will he have a budget to field a respectable team in 2010?

The question of financial commitment confronts many of the GMs meeting this week.  Which ones really have the backing to build a competitor?  With revenue sharing teams can spend much less and field a marginally competitive team while ownership walks off with a tidy profit.  They can keep trotting out the same old promise every off-season.  “Success is just around the corner.”  But every April the same-old, same-old trots out to their positions on opening day.

Jim Bowden belonged in that group, but does Mike Rizzo?  The Nationals spent big money on Stephen Strasburg, but is he really the promise of something new?  Fans are anxious for the day he takes the mound in Washington.  We have seen too many seasons when the only talent to push Ryan Zimmerman at Nationals Park was the Pope or “Opera in the Outfield.” 

The Nationals carry over a payroll of around $40 million in commitments.  They dropped $20 million from what it took to produce the worst team in baseball.  For a paltry $35 million increase–a total payroll of less than $80 million–Mike Rizzo can put a competitive team on the field in DC, one that will overshadow the three sopranos.

When Mike Rizzo travels next month to Indianapolis for baseball’s 2009 winter meetings, he will be completely in charge.  He will have a budget for filling the large and gaping holes in the Nationals roster, but will it be enough?

The team needs a quality starter, dependable closer, a middle infielder and a right fielder who plays good defense and can hit.  Everyone in Washington believes there will be pitching help and someone new in the middle infield.  But the team was so bad in 2009 it is doubtful a competitive team can be built that easily.  A longer shopping list is a must.  Fans don’t expect an NL East Champion, but when you are as bad as the Nationals getting to .500 is a big step forward.

I would have four names at the top of my list if I were going to Indianapolis with Rizzo.  I would want Marco Scutaro to be my shortstop, Jason Marquis to head my rotation, Raphael Soriano to close and Rick Ankiel in right field.  There is nothing magical about those four names.  They are just the best examples available that meet the crying needs of a team too painful to watch often in 2009.

After more than forty years of hapless baseball by the old Senators and three recent ones, the fans of Washington, DC deserve more than excuses and shell games?  Excuses would have us believe Elijah Dukes will put in a full season or play with focus for the time that he is healthy.  Shell games project Mike Macdougal as the 2010 closer despite his inability to put together more than partial seasons in that role heretofore.

I don’t mean to demean either player.  Each has talent and could play an important role, but Washington baseball fans endured four seasons of listening to Jim Bowden put Rosy Scenario’s name in half the roster slots.  If Mike Rizzo is to retain his credibility, he needs to stop the charade.

He has one type-A free agent he can sign and it should be a middle infielder.  He needs three strong players to fill in behind him.  Giving Rizzo a budget to fill the holes, to field a reasonably competitive team would send a great signal to DC fans.  The era of Bowden and false promises would be at an end.  No more snake charming feats of magic that vanish before the kids are out of school.

Mike Rizzo needs the latitude to build a real baseball team, not just one that turns a profit for the Lerners and Stan Kasten.  It needs to be a team that remains competitive through the long hot months of July and August.  And if the ghosts of the Senators are truly to be exorcised, Rizzo’s team has to last through Redskins training camp.  That would be baseball history, something not seen in more than forty years.  It would be a Mike Rizzo team locals would remember.