Rizzo: Baker deserves to return as Nationals' manager

Two seasons. Two division titles. That's what Dusty Baker has accomplished since becoming manager of the Washington Nationals, which president of baseball operations and general manager Mike Rizzo thinks are deserving reasons for the skipper to return in 2018.

"Dusty's a Hall of Fame manager. He's a guy who's done a great job for two years for us here. He deserves to manage the Washington Nationals again," Rizzo said on MLB Network Radio on Wednesday. "He's a guy that's endeared himself to me. We respect each other and I respect him to the utmost. And a guy who has done everything he needs to do to manage in the future."

The Nationals signed Baker to a two-year agreement in November 2015, and even though the 68-year-old manager has said he wants to return next season, he's still without an extension.

"Why not? This is what I came here for," Baker told Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post in June. "I didn’t come for two years. I came to win back-to-back titles."

The Nationals are 186-126 under Baker, but were ousted from the playoffs last season during the division series by the Los Angeles Dodgers.