Nationals Skipper Blames Players Instead of Coaches for Brutal Offensive Slump

The Washington Nationals offense has been the worst in the league over the last couple of weeks, and manager Dave Martinez has passionately defended his coaches as unrest grows.

Entering play on Saturday, the Nationals had a team wRC+ of just 71 over the last 14 days.

That is the worst mark in the league by a fair margin.

Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post recently shared a lengthy response from Martinez after being asked how much of the recent struggles are to be blamed on the coaching staff.

"It's never on coaching. It's never on coaching. Coaches work their [expletive] off every single day. We're not going to finger point here and say it's on the coaches. It's never on the coaches. They work hard," Martinez stated.

Darnell Coles is Washington's hitting coach, a job that he has held since 2022.

He had a 14-year MLB career and played even longer overseas, so he is someone who knows what it takes to last in the league.

He has been a coach since 2014 and a hitting coach specifically since 2018.

In his one season in charge of the Milwaukee Brewers offense, they were a top-10 group in baseball. He left for the Arizona Diamondbacks the year after that in 2019 and hasn't been able to lead another top group.

That isn't all on him, though, as he has not had the best rosters to work with in that time.

Chris Johnson started his coaching career in 2023 and has been an assistant for the Nationals since last year.

Johnson is very early into his career but also played in MLB for eight seasons, so he has also been around the block.

It would be unfair to hold these two completely accountable for the struggles of Washington as of late, since this is still a young team and growing pains are expected.

There is also no denying that they have to be better than they have been.

Players like Robert Hassell III, who has really struggled in the past two weeks, should have a bit of a pass. He's a rookie and adjusting to the MLB game.

On the same hand, veterans like Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe don't have an excuse to be playing as poorly as they have.

"Sometimes you got to put the onus on the players. They got to go out there and they got to play the game. And play the game the right way. We can't hit for them. We can't catch the balls for them. We can't pitch for them. We can't throw strikes for them. They got to do that," said Martinez.

The Nationals have actually had a few flashes of potential this season, so it's not all bad.

They were sitting around .500 for much longer than expected.

Still, the wall has hit them and they look like a rebuilding squad once again.