Nationals GM explains Baker decision: 'Winning division titles is not enough'

Dusty Baker won't be the man to lead the Washington Nationals to their first postseason series win.

Despite managing to a 192-132 record with Washington over the last two seasons and earning back-to-back division titles for the first time in team history, the Nationals announced Friday they wouldn't bring Baker back in 2018. General manager Mike Rizzo, who publicly stated exactly one month ago that Baker "deserves" to return in 2018, appeared to suddenly reverse course Friday as he spoke with reporters.

"We've come such a long way ... winning a lot of regular season games and winning division titles is not enough," Rizzo said regarding the surprise decision, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post.

Hired prior to the 2016 season, Baker became the seventh Nationals skipper of the past 10 years, joining Frank Robinson (2002-06), Manny Acta (2007-09), Jim Riggleman (2009-11), John McLaren (2011), Davey Johnson (2011-13), and Matt Williams (2014-15). Like his long list of predecessors, however, Baker failed to bring postseason success to Washington D.C., and the Nationals were twice bounced in the National League Division Series in his two years at the helm.

Rizzo referred to letting Baker walk as "one of the most difficult decisions" he's had to make as GM, though he stressed the ruling had nothing to do with contract talks going south.

"This was a pure baseball decision. Our goal is to win a world championship. ... This had nothing to do with negotiations, dollars," Rizzo added.