What is going on in the National League East? For the second time this week a NL east manger has resigned. A few days ago Edwin Rodriguez said goodbye to the Florida Marlins and yesterday Jim Riggleman said good-bye to the Washington Nationals. To be fair both teams do not have a great history of being good organizations, but we have to wonder if these manager are putting themselves before their team.
Granted, this is a tough one to judge, as I am not on the ground in Washington DC observing this team day to day. The word I hear is Riggleman has been trying to have a conversation with his boss about a new contract. Riggleman is in the last year of his deal and the club had an option for next year that they had yet to pick up. This situation was allowed to fester and finally Riggleman decided enough was enough and pushed his way out.
Sure we could blame the management for allowing this situation to get this far and sure when a guy has to manage guys making millions of dollars he has to have the full backing of the ownership and management. That goes far beyond words, it goes by actions and I can see where Riggleman was feeling uncomfortable leading his team without such backing from his management.
However in the end being on a team is all about sacrifice. Guys have to sell out for their team and I do not like this trend of mangers quitting before the All Star break or really while a season is underway. Those are the kinds of things that should happen in the off season so the players and the team can move on.