Acta Out, Riggleman In: Breaking Down The Nats Managerial Change
It took a little bit longer than expected, but Manny Acta is officially no longer the manager of the Washington Nationals, as first reported by ESPN Deportes and confirmed by the Associated Press. It was certainly time for the Nationals to make the switch: between a downward spiral of poor performances, color commentators (usually some of the game's biggest cheerleaders) questioning the team's effort, local media fondly reminiscing about the old manager, the dismissal of the team's pitching coach, and the jettisoning of several underperforming players, there was simply no one left to take the bullet for the team's recent run of form. That the Nationals (aside from Ryan Zimmerman, who'll be in St. Louis for the All-Star Game) will get a full three days to digest the change helps to explain the timing.
In a blunt email sent to Nationals ticket holders this morning, the organization admitted that they "have tried to work through this period with patience and focus but now we are faced with mounting losses which are beginning to take a toll on our entire roster."
"Clearly, some changes are required," the letter said in reference to Acta's dismissal.
On the bright side, we can finally stop arguing about when Acta will be canned and start picking apart the new guy -- former bench coach Jim Riggleman, who will coach the team on an interim basis. Upon his introduction at a news conference this morning, Riggleman struck a positive chord and praised the work that Acta had put in over the last three years in developing the team's core talent.
"I do think we're very close to bearing the fruits of three long years of effort," Riggleman said. "Let's not gloss over [what we've done]! For me, the highlights of our first half of our season hasn't been wins or home runs, it's been the maturation."
But Riggleman remained grounded, as well. "I am not satisfied with the way we play the game at times," the new manager added, "but the effort as far as the hustle and preparation is there. Certainly the way we play the game needs a lot of work."
So what is Manny Acta's legacy? In the dugout, Acta reminds this writer of another manager, Terry Francona, who similarly struggled with a few young and inexperienced Phillies teams in the late 1990s before moving on to Boston, where he won the World Series in his first season and then added another title three years later. Both Francona and Acta have a very relaxed, patient attitude -- as the Post notes, Acta "saw no correlation between yelling and winning" -- toward what is happening on the field. It's an attitude that can work wonders with clubs that have boatloads of talent and will, but not so much with a team in desperate need of discipline. While Acta seems like a fantastic manager to play for, he was always going to have difficulty corralling this team of inexperienced, error-prone fielders and young pitchers with such a stoic attitude in the clubhouse.
Where Manny goes from here will be interesting to watch. It's hard to imagine, with his personable demeanor, that he won't find work somewhere at least as an assistant coach -- or even in another managerial job after the fire dies down (something at least one of our readers can envision as well). Acta is, after all, barely more experienced than most of the current Nats roster: when he was hired, Acta was the youngest manager in the bigs. He's still only 40 -- incredibly young for a major-league skipper with two-plus years under his belt.
For his part, Acta is handling his dismissal with class -- something not very surprising for a manager that, despite having a team widely ridiculed and losing almost every night, never once lost his cool.
"I thank the Nationals for giving me this opportunity, and I'm sorry that things didn't work out as expected," Acta told ESPN Deportes.