Nationals record with Mike Rizzo as GM: 827-759
Oakland over the same time: 797-790
Tampa Bay over the same time: 826-762
Yea, imma stick with Rizzo taking a bottom feeding, consecutive 100 loss team and turning them into perennial division champs.
(Swapped this over from Fire Martinez)
In those ten years the Nats spent $1,197 million in payroll (25 man roster per COTS), the Rays spent $667 million, and the As spent $703 million. I'm pretty sure that the Rays and As could have won more than 827 games had they been given an extra half billion in payroll to spend. This is the thing that is so laughable about Rizzo's reputation, he built this team by spending huge amounts of the Lerner's cash, not based on some mystical brilliance.
What's worse is all of the money Rizzo has tied up in the future, he has committed the Nats to $235 million for 2019 and beyond, most of that is Scherzer but a lot of it is Zimmerman and Strasburg. In contrast the Rays have $42 million and As $37 committed. Any GM taking over for Rizzo is going to be severely limited in what he can do based on so much money already tied up (not saying it will be this off season).
With all of the expiring contracts the Nats will be about $65 million under the cap for 2019, and with a 50% penalty they will almost certainly spend somewhere below that amount (in AAV). But in order to get top quality free agents to come here Rizzo is going to need to offer multiple year deals. So I would expect the Nats to add $200-250 million in payroll for 2019 and beyond. Which is great if it works out, great that our owners will spend that much and that there will be no rebuilding phase. But this is extremely high risk, a couple more bum contracts along with the often injured Zim and Stras could put the Nats into an MLB version of salary cap hell.