According to ESPN, Manny Acta has been fired was manager of the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
The Nationals were blanked by the Houston Astros on Sunday 5-0 to go into the All-Star break with the worst record in the league at 26-61.
“I thank the Nationals for giving me this opportunity and I’m sorry that things didn’t work out as expected. It’s normal for the manager to pay the price when the team is not doing well,” Acta said.
Although not confirmed, Jim Riggleman is the leading candidate to take over as manager for the remainder of the season.
WFAN is also reporting and confirming the news.
In three seasons at the Washington helm, Acta posted a 158-252 record. His best season came in his first when the Nats finished 73-89, but they slid to 59-102 last year. Washington was on pace to win only 48 games this season.
There were several rumors floating a month ago that Acta was being fired, so this comes as no surprise. Acta was the third base coach for the New York Mets before becoming the Nats’ manager, and he is good friends with Omar Minaya.
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Best of luck to Manny in his future.
Manny, and perhaps nobody else, could survive the well-intentioned but dismal reign of Jim Bowden. Bums, social misfits, and marginal players were the order of the day.
I agree that it would have been tough for any manager with the performance of the front office. However, no real surprise that the manager gets the blame. Easier to replace him than 25 players.
Now I worry that the nats will improve and out-do the Mets for 4th place.