Our source has told us that Mike Rizzo has made his decision on who will be the 6th full-time manager for the Washington Nationals and that person is __________________; however, the official announcement won’t happen today and might not happen tomorrow as the World Series starts on Tuesday which would mean this official announcement could take until after the World Series ends.
Our source has said repeatedly it’s Bud Black and just waiting for the contract to be negotiated and signed. The buzz last night was that today would be the day that Bud Black would be named as was strongly hinted by this Tweet:
Bud Black is lead candidate to replace Matt Williams and could be offered deal as early as tomorrow. Dusty Baker only other candidate left.
— Jim Bowden⚾️ (@JimBowdenGM) October 26, 2015
Jim Bowden did not want to make any guarantees so he used words like “could be” and “lead candidate”.
Fans are a little frustrated and our source has backed what Jim Bowden tweeted just that it takes time and the team does not want to announce during the World Series:
@GoingDeepNats @NattiPatti he said Black; he said Baker; he said Martinez still in it. I saw all that last night w/his name as source.
— baseballsusan.bsky.social (@edit_susan) October 26, 2015
Time marches on and unless you see Baker or Black interviewing for one of the other openings, nothing is a done deal until the ink is on the paper and the team calls it “official”. What could change the timing would be if Baker or Black felt compelled to interview for another job as they are the two remaining candidates.
We were looking for smoke emanating from Nats Park to see if we could spot gray smoke, white smoke, or any other sign like the Vatican uses and we got nothing, but we do know that Mike Rizzo is a big fan of Dominican cigars!
Mike Rizzo lights up ceremonial cigar when he hires the new manager. Looking for the gray smoke! #Nats #BetOnBlack pic.twitter.com/i2F5ZRYf2i
— Talk Nats (@TalkNats) October 26, 2015
If you would like to get to know the 2 managerial finalists better, here is a nice piece in this weeks New Yorker on Dusty Baker: http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/dusty-and-jimi and here is the piece we did on Bud Black: http://www.talknats.com/2015/10/24/meet-bud-black-as-a-nats-managerial-candidate/
We will give updates if anything comes up like a surprise announcement at midnight!
UPDATE: 10/28/15 9:30PM: James Wagner looks to making this official:
