On Saturday, the Nationals made an obvious decision, exercising the two-year option they held on general manager Mike Rizzo's contract. Rizzo's tenure has largely been a success: he's led the Nationals from a lengthy rebuild to four consecutive winning seasons and counting. But rather than restate his record and all that jazz, let's mark the occasion by looking at his five best and worst moves.
Rizzo's five best
1. The draft. Is this cheating? Probably. But under Rizzo's watch, the Nationals have selected Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, and Lucas Giolito. Quibble all you want with how much credit Rizzo should receive for those picks -- or for grabbing a pair of generational talents, and two others who went later than expected -- but it's impossible to rank this collection lower than first.
2. Acquiring and extending Gio Gonzalez. Believe it or not, there was a time when Gonzalez was viewed as fool's gold. The argument went that Gonzalez was a Coliseum creation whose poor strikeout-to-walk ratios would catch up with him in time. So much for that. Gonzalez finished third in Cy Young voting in his first season on the East Coast, and has since been a quality mid-rotation starter. Oh, and by the way, he's locked into a contract that caps his earning potential at $12 million and could keep him in town through the 2018 season. Derek Norris, a solid backstop, was the best player Rizzo gave up. You'll take it.
3. Acquiring Denard Span. Similar to the Gonzalez trade, at least in the sense that Span's contract made this sweet deal even sweeter. Span was the total package: a cheap, in-his-prime center fielder who could bat leadoff and add value on the basepaths. Alex Meyer's big-league story is unwritten, but how often can you land a player like Span straight-up for a prospect who is years away from the majors?
4. Acquiring Joe Ross and Trea Turner. You could argue this is a premature ranking -- and there is obvious forecasting involved -- but think about it this way. At the cost of Steven Souza Jr. (who had no place in the Nats' lineup) and a low-level pitcher, Rizzo added two near-ready talents: a mid-rotation starter in Ross, and a quality shortstop in Turner. This one should only look better with time.
5. Acquiring Wilson Ramos. A steal from the minute the trade was made. Though Ramos has been limited by injuries -- last year was only the second time he had broke the 400-plate appearance threshold in a season -- he's produced more than not when he's been healthy. That Rizzo netted Ramos for Matt Capps -- a reliever who made fewer than 50 appearances in Washington and lost effectiveness almost immediately after leaving -- was and remains nothing short of a coup.
Rizzo's five worst
1. Hiring Matt Williams. Maybe this is too harsh, but Williams did nothing well for the Nationals. He was an unskilled tactician who had well-documented issues within the clubhouse. The one positive here is that Williams should have plenty to learn in preparation for his next managerial run.
2. Acquiring Jonathan Papelbon. It's possible that without Williams as the skipper, the Papelbon trade doesn't look so bad. A superior manager might've gotten Drew Storen's cooperation, or could've prevented the Bryce Harper choking incident by making it clear that such acts wouldn't be tolerated. Perhaps this ranking buys into the narratives surrounding the Nationals' 2015 second-half collapse too much, but the issues here go well beyond Papelbon's on-the-field results.
3. Extending Ryan Zimmerman, and 4. Signing Jayson Werth. We'll lump these two together as the cost of doing business. Zimmerman had been a highly productive before injuries and the yips forced him to miss time and move across the diamond to a less-demanding position. Werth, meanwhile, was the Nationals' first big free-agent signing and the author of their first memorable postseason moment. The bad news is that neither is too productive anymore, and that both are due a lot of money before their contracts expire: Zimmerman has more than $60 million coming his way through the 2019 season, while Werth is owed $42 million through the end of next year.
5. Trading Nate Karns. Yeah, this one is pretty minor. And hey, that's part of why Rizzo kept his job -- because it's tough to find five legitimately poor moves that he made during his time in charge.
