The Nationals extended Mike Rizzo’s contract through the 2020 season:

After an offseason of uncertainty, President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo will lead the Nationals beyond this year. In a move that showed nearly unprecedented awareness of optics, and turned a spring of internal unrest into a newfound sense of stability, the Nationals signed Rizzo to a two-year extension that will keep him with the team through 2020. His contract was set to expire on Oct. 31. The World Series is scheduled to end a few days after that.

Rizzo is the fifth-longest tenured general manager in the majors. Only Yankees GM Brian Cashman, Rangers GM Jon Daniels, Royals GM Dayton Moore, and Pirates GM Neal Huntington have served longer in that position for their current teams.

I like Mike. He built a Nationals team from also-rans into perennial contenders. While some wonder what will happen if Bryce Harper leaves, there seems to be a good pipeline of talent coming from the minors. That’s not easy to do when a team is playing well and drafting at the ends of rounds. While I have heard criticism of the Jayson Werth deal, the point of that contract was to show others that the team was serous about winning. It’s one of the few deal that contained value beyond what the player did on the field. Rizzo also seems to know when to let a player go, as he did with Jordan Zimmermann.

Rizzo’s weakness comes with his field managers and closers. I don’t quite understand the two-year manager window, or what he wants from his field skipper. Davey Johnson and Dusty Baker were good picks, but despite success they were both let go. Rizzo wanted Matt Williams, and Matt was clearly not a manager who dealt with adversity well. Then again, the players are more important than the manager, and on the player level, he’s been very good. He does seem to prefer a veteran closer to giving the ball to someone young and allowing him to learn on the job. No one is perfect.