Washington Nationals Dave Martinez Is A Good Manager

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The Washington Nationals signed Asdrubal Cabrera to be the last man off their bench. It’s not a flashy move, but it’s a smart one – which might be the hallmark of a Dave Martinez team.

The Washington Nationals do not use their bench very often – or all that well. For a National League manager from the Joe Maddon coaching tree, Dave Martinez is remarkably static in how he runs his ballclub. He bunts more than most. He rarely double switches, pinch runs, or installs defensive replacements. He more-or-less runs the same lineup out there regardless of the circumstances.

He doesn’t have much use for his bench outside of spotting his starters. While, yes, that is, in part, the purpose of bench players, teams like the Cubs and Dodgers find ways to utilize all 25 men on the roster. Martinez uses his roster in basically just the one way.

What most fans see, therefore, is a guy who’s not all that captivating of a speaker, who can’t seem to push the right buttons in his bullpen, and who doesn’t see the writing on the wall when his lineup needs a change.

But given the lack of depth he’s had with this roster, I think it’s fair to wonder if Dave Martinez might be – bear with me – a good manager. Some of the choices Davey has made regarding his pitching staff have boggled the mind. It’s been bad. People have lost their jobs over it. When the Dave Martinez era is over, his tactical acumen with the bullpen will be one of the touchstones.

Still, I’ve been wondering for quite some time now if Martinez might actually be a sneaky good manager. There’s an x-factor at work here and it all starts with his relationships with the players. Watch how they greet him after a home run. Sometimes it’s a hug, sometimes it’s a ribbing, sometimes it’s a quick conversation. Point being, Martinez has a report with every offensive player on this team.

Communication is always a factor, one of the first things called out in success and failure, nebulous and omnipresent and abstruse: it matters. Davey appears to excel in this regard. It’s fair to wonder if part of the good vibes in Martinez’s clubhouse is possible because of the clarity he offers his players in their roles. Clarity is great, but he also gives them something even rarer in sports: security.

(Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images) /

The Platoons

The closest Martinez comes to roster creativity is in a couple of regular platoons. Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki split duties behind the plate 55% to 45%. Gomes catches Strasburg and Corbin, Suzuki catches Scherzer and Sanchez, and they mostly divvy up whoever slots in as the fifth starter.

Gomes fell onto an all-time skid at the plate this year, just recently showing signs of coming back to life. Nobody told Martinez, who runs him out there with regularity regardless. To his credit, Gomes has outperformed Suzuki by just enough to justify his usage: 0.6 bWAR/0.3 fWAR to 0.4 bWAR/0.2 fWAR.

At first base, Martinez utilizes more standard splits. Before plantar fasciitis ruined Ryan Zimmerman, he was the unequivocal starting first baseman, with Matt Adams taking tough righties and a couple of times a week. Since Zimmerman is no longer ambulatory, Martinez starts Adams religiously against righties, and Howie Kendrick gets the charge against left-handers.

If Adams can’t go – ticky-tack injuries have taken their toll on Big City this year – Gerardo Parra has stepped in ably with13 starts at the position while looking the part defensively (1 DRS in 96 innings, 9.8 UZR/150).

Kendrick spells Dozier at second about once every two weeks. Again, consistency has been key here for Martinez, who stuck with Dozier when the rest of the DMV insisted he was washed.

On June 1, Dozier showed up slashing .209/.299/.362 with 7 home runs and 16 RBIs. Maybe because Dozier is making $9 MM, maybe Martinez is a true believer – either way, he kept trotting him out to the keystone almost like he didn’t know there was another option. Dozier’s numbers now look about what you’d expect from him after 2+ months of .278/.391/.525, 9 home runs, 24 RBIs.

Rightly or wrongly, Martinez doesn’t let a measly thing like performance get in the way of his platoons.

In the outfield, however, there are no platoons.

(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

The Stalwarts

Adam Eaton plays everyday in right field. He bats second. End of story.

The closest the Nats come to a platoon in right is calling Eaton “Spanky” when he hits the other way and “Mighty Mouse” when he pulls the ball. He sits about once a month, usually against a tough lefty, but that’s less of a rule now that Gerardo Parra has taken the backup spot from Michael A. Taylor.

In center, Victor Robles sees more variance than most. When Taylor was with the club, Robles played some right field. This little bit of creativity didn’t go that well, as Robles seemed lost in right even as he found his footing in center. When Taylor was exiled to Harrisburg (where, sad to say, he belongs), Robles turned into the best defensive centerfielder in the game.

Offensively, the 22-year-old Robles bats eighth, though he’s one of the few names Martinez doesn’t write in permanent marker: leadoff 3 times, second 23 times, sixth 3 times, seventh 18 times, eighth 28 times, and ninth 24 times.

But even that much variance is misleading. He mostly hit ninth at the beginning of the year when Martinez wanted to ease him in. (That’s also partially why he bunts so friggin’ much.)

Martinez moved him up to second during the dark period when some combination of Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, and Juan Soto were on the shelf. With most of the major players healthy now, Robles mostly banks on batting in front of the pitcher.

Parra gets the nod in center when Robles needs a breather – about twice a month. It’s not a ton of rest, but hey, at least it’s something. Everybody needs a day off every now and again, right?

Wrong.

If healthy enough to play, Soto, Rendon, and Turner play. They play left, third, and short. They bat cleanup, third, and leadoff.

That’s a pretty nifty-lookin’ .394 OBP Soto’s rockin’ – might could try batting him second, you might say. No. He bats cleanup.

He’s fast as they come, but that .477 slugging suggests Turner could give it a go as a middle-of-the-order bat (.345 OBP). No. Turner bats leadoff.

Maybe Martinez has his studs in the wrong spot (Soto should absolutely bat second), but he definitely has them in their spots. I’m willing to bet this is something his player’s value.

If there is a wildcard on the Nats’ roster, it’s Parra. The 32-year-old DFA claim serves many masters: he’s the fourth outfielder, primary left-handed pinch-hitter, home run dance captain, and clubhouse spirit animal (a baby shark).

More often than not, the Nats starting lineup will read Turner-Eaton-Rendon-Soto-Adams-Dozier-Gomes-Robles. Parra, Kendrick, and Suzuki swap in here-and-there as the primary bench players. These roles are about as fixed as any top-11 in the majors.

So what the hell are they going to do with Asdrubal Cabrera?

(Photo by Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The 12th Man

The final roster spot allotted to position players has been a rotating cast of injured veterans (Zimmerman), non-effectual miscast backups (Taylor, Wilmer Difo), top prospects rushed into action (Carter Kieboom), and benchwarmers that Davey treats like stepsons (Jake Noll, Andrew Stevenson, and most-commonly, Adrian Sanchez) – which is to say he doesn’t know what the hell to do with them, so he ignores them.

It’s no secret that the Nationals have done a poor job of building depth as an organization. Martinez might be the perfect man to manage the Nats, because he doesn’t know what to do with a full roster. With an already-shortened 4-man bench, one would think each guy could have a role. Not so. Not the 12th man.

More from Call to the Pen

Heading into the dog days of August, it’s probably not reasonable to assume that Turner/Rendon/Soto will continue to play each and every inning. As I’ve written about before, their inability to replace Turner when he went down early in the season already may have cost them their shot at the playoffs. But to not even have someone on the roster capable of spelling Turner is borderline negligent.

Enter Asdrubal Cabrera. The Nats scooped up Cabrera as soon as he became available in what is exactly the kind of move I’d been hoping they’d make all year. I know, I know, that’s pathetic. Cabrera does not move the needle. He might not even, like, help. But it’s still a good move.

He can hit from both sides of the plate, and there’s a comfort level in DC from the half season he spent as a Nat in 2014 (and we thought he was washed then).

Not for nothing, he can capably spell Rendon or Turner should they need it. God willing, they won’t. But if the Nats stars, in fact, turn out to be human, and they need a day of rest sometime over these final 50 games, Cabrera is now the best option on the roster.

By September, Kieboom might be ready and then it’s kind of a moot point, but he’s not coming up now, which is why snagging Cabrera on the cheap makes sense. He started 63 games at third base for the Rangers this season. Kendrick, the lone backup for Rendon before Cabrera, has 33 career starts at the hot corner.

He’s not a shortstop anymore, but he hasn’t been nearly as horrible as you might expect (-5 DRS, 5.7 UZR/150). More to the point, the man has started over 1,000 games at the position in his career. He can handle a spot start.

If Turner or Rendon goes down for any significant amount of time, the Nationals are probably screwed anyway. But in the meantime, Cabrera gives them a capable bench bat who won’t be cowed by the moment.

Cabrera bagged 0.7 fWAR over the first half of the season with the Rangers. He’s produce plus fWAR for every season of his 13 season career. The list of offensive players on the Nationals worth negative fWAR in 2019 includes, Zimmerman, Taylor, Difo, Kieboom, Sanchez, and Noll. Stevenson has been worth 0.1 fWAR.

Martinez isn’t about to start pinch-running with Stevenson, or using Taylor as a defensive replacement, or double-switching Kendrick into the outfield. He’s gonna set him lineup and let the kids go play. But Cabrera is the exact type of player that he knows how to use. They’ll talk about it, and by the end of week one, Cabrera will likely know his role.

Next. Nats DFA Tony Sipp. dark

When the bullpen blows a lead and the Nats find themselves needing a big hit in the 12th, and the Washington Nationals need a professional at-bat, they won’t have to turn to Adrian Sanchez. They’ll turn to Davey Martinez, because he’s the guy this team trusts to make the decisions. Whatever he decides at the moment, his players are sure to understand the thinking behind it, because he’ll do what a good manager would do, and tell them.

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