Washington Nationals Manager's Absurd Quote Could Make Seat Even Hotter

The Washington Nationals are struggling right now, losing seven in a row and eight of their last 10 games as things start to bottom out following a semi-promising start.

Now falling ten games below .500 and sitting far and away dead last in runs scored across Major League Baseball over the last two weeks, frustrations are starting to boil over in the nation's capital.

When that happens, it's easy to point the finger and say it's this person or that person's fault, but the truth is that when a team is playing bad, it's a collective effort and things are not working because the organization as a whole is not working.

That didn't stop Nationals manager Dave Martinez from declaring after another loss to the Miami Marlins on Saturday his confidence that the blame does not fall on the coaching staff in any way, shape or form.

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"It's never on coaching. It's never on coaching," Martinez said. "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.

"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."

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Martinez is not wrong in the sense that his players need to do the basic things required for success in Major League Baseball, but to put the blame for struggles solely on the players and not on coaching at all is never a good look for any coach in any sport.

This is a Washington team which is one of the youngest in all of baseball and has an extremely unseasoned core which though the wins have not come in bunches, has shown a ton of promise.

Martinez and his staff of course are not entirely to blame for the way the team has played as of late. However they are not blameless as well, and turning over blame onto a group of young players while entirely absolving the coaching staff is not the way to go about things.

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There was already the potential for Martinez to have a warm seat this season.

Since delivering the franchise's first-ever World Series in 2019, this is a team that has not won more than 71 games and has finished last place four times with the potential chance to do so again this year.

Martinez just poured gasoline on an already flammable situation, and though things could still turn around, he certainly has not done himself any favors in terms of job security.

This will be a quote that sticks in fan memory for the foreseeable future, and something Martinez should absolutely regret his phrasing of.

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