John McLaren

The Nationals have named an interim manager to replace Jim Riggleman, who abruptly resigned yesterday afternoon due to a contract dispute, in time for today’s game against Chicago — John McLaren is the club’s manager for the time being. The 59-year-old McLaren, who served as bench coach under Riggleman, has managerial experience, going 68-88 over the course of two seasons under his watch, and has 23 years of coaching experience with several clubs in the major and minor leagues.

There’s still plenty of speculation about who will take the job on a permanent basis — lots of people appear to prefer former Orioles skipper Davey Johnson for the gig, though.

For his part, Riggleman has, well, gone a bit gonzo after leaving the job yesterday. The former manager celebrated his resignation with “some beautiful young ladies” and “an adult beverage” at Caddies in Bethesda, said that Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell’s “opinion is so non-respected around that ballpark that I shouldn’t even be mentioning his name,” and dismissed his critics thusly: “You know what, some of these people who question what you do can’t even spell manager, never mind act like one, you know?”

So, you know, he appears to be taking it pretty okay.