The Nationals can no longer pretend that everything is okay
A dam broke at Nationals Park on Saturday afternoon when Dave Martinez lost his cool.
He said something managers shouldn't, at least according to the unwritten rules of clubhouse decorum that require blame be shared or shouldered, but never assigned.
Because when Martinez said his coaching staff is not to blame for the Washington Nationals' recent futility, he nodded to an 'us' and a 'them' dynamic, a line between coaches and players — a division between one group trying with all its might, and one group failing the other. Many of his players were unpleasantly surprised by the message, according to people familiar with their thinking. Martinez insisted publicly he did not mean to call them out and that he remains firmly on their side.
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