Who knows? Maybe this has been simmering since the decision to go with Matt Williams instead of Dave Martinez? MW was a Rizzo hire, right? Arizona connection? Maybe the owners say, had the team gone with Martinez, we would now have an experienced guy who is current in how to manage, the clubhouse would have been sorted out, and we would not be rolling the dice in Byrce's last year.
If that is the case, then the stuff with the Boras clients might have been more the last straw but not the root cause.
I agree. I think this is a much larger issue. I think a lot of it has to do with the events of this offseason. It was obvious the Nationals needed bullpen help, and Rizzo, allegedly, had deals in place for Robertson and/or Holland, but ownership vetoed them. They then went with the Boras client, Wieters.
Two months into the season, Rizzo basically has the "see I told you" card to pull on ownership. Wieters was hitting okay, but it was obvious his defense was poor behind the plate. On top of that, the bullpen was hot garbage. The Learners looked foolish. So they agreed to go into the luxury tax to fix the problem. Rizzo traded for three really good relievers. He, essentially, put together the best team that has ever been in DC and built it around Dusty Baker's shortcomings as a manager.
So when the Lerners see Dusty make stupid mistake after mistake in the playoffs, they start to second guess some things. And yes, I understand that the bats didn't perform and Gio crap the bed. But the bottom line is that the Nationals would have won had any halfway decent manager been the Nats' manager. It didn't take anyone skilled to see Scherzer was gassed after the 6th inning of Game 3. Or that using Sammy Solis was a terrible idea. But Dusty didn't even bother and the Lerners decided that scrapping a manager with a history of playoff failures was easier than scrapping half a team with a history of playoff failures. Besides, that will happen after next year's NLDS exit.