‘The foundation of this rebuild is solid,' Mike Rizzo says after firing
'I hold my head up high for the standards that we have developed here,' Rizzo said Wednesday during his weekly interview with the Sports Junkies on 106.7 the Fan. 'Remember, we took over from MLB and this place was a circus act. I did it my way for 17 years. The Lerner family allowed me to have the keys to this franchise and build it and develop it in my personality, and the way I wanted to do it. My goal was always to achieve greatness.'
The Nationals, who also fired manager Dave Martinez on Sunday, won four division titles and made five playoff appearances under Rizzo's watch, and they captured their first World Series title in 2019, but six losing seasons have followed. Rizzo said he was 'a little surprised' but not 'shocked' by the timing of Sunday's dismissals, which came a week before the MLB draft. He also said the Nationals are 'really close to winning, and winning for a consistent period of time.'
'The rebuild is taking longer than anybody wants it to, but the foundation of this rebuild is solid, it's strong,' Rizzo said. 'The person that steps in here is going to see the [cupboard] is full. You've got some good service time to build around. … The next step for them is to add to that core and get more really, really good players. Get a deeper lineup, get a deeper roster and be able to withstand the rigors of 162 games in 185 days.'
Rizzo said he met with ownership at least one a week since he was promoted to general manager in 2009. When they delivered the news that he was fired, he told them he still believed he was the best person to lead the organization to another championship.
'I still believe in the talent of this team,' said Rizzo, who declined to say which player he would have selected with the No. 1 pick in Sunday's MLB draft. 'We have a lot of good young players, we just don't match up with the big boys of the National League and the depth of good players.'
Asked whether he felt handcuffed in his ability to add to the team's depth in free agency by ownership's tight budget in recent years, Rizzo didn't assign blame.
'The secret of being a good executive and a good general manager is you do the best you can with what you have,' Rizzo said. 'We've all gone through this, whether you're in baseball or in life in general, you do the best with what you have. In ownership's eyes, we didn't do enough with it, so they made a change.'
Since his firing, Rizzo, 64, took advantage of the rare time off during the summer to take his young son to the pool and story time. He suggested that he's not yet ready to retire.
'I think I would like to lead another organization,' Rizzo said, 'and hoist a trophy one more time, and to do it with the right ownership group and the right mindset for an organization. I think that would appeal to me. I'm certainly not going to be egotistical enough to think that people are going to be throwing job offers at me, but my résumé and my personality and my background are pretty well known. If I fit the right criteria for some ownership group, I would be honored to continue to join the fraternity of general managers.'
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