It’s uncertain for how long, but at least for now, Manny Acta is still the Washington Nationals’ manager.
A FoxSports.com report said on Saturday afternoon the Nationals were planning to fire Acta and replace him with bench coach Jim Riggleman in the next several days, but Acta and Riggleman both said this afternoon they didn’t know anything about the report.
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Acta was laughing and talking with team president Stan Kasten and acting general manager Mike Rizzo before the game, and Kasten, in a roundabout way, addressed the report without diffusing it.
“I’ve been asked a variation of that question by some media outlet almost every day since the first week of the season. And if I had a policy of talking about personnel, I’d have to do that story every single day, so I don’t,” Kasten said. “Having said that, I can confessed to you how perplexed I am by this season, this team and the things that are going on. And our record is real trouble for me, every single today. … I’m troubled by everything, and we continue to look for solutions. Have I thought about every possibility? Of course I have, as has Mike, as have our owners. It’s something that, we’re certainly not satisfied with our record. Far from it. We’re distraught over it, and we’re going to continue to consider anything we need to do to make it better.”
Later, Kasten said: “I think you all watched the game last night, and you watched us lose a game, and if you listed the reasons for why we lost the game, I don’t think the manager would be anywhere on your list of reasons. So it’s hard dealing with that. And yet, we have a record of 16-43, which is, to me, inexplicable. So that’s how I feel.”
Asked if he supports Acta as manager, Kasten said:”We always support everyone here, and we always will. We’re all in this together, trying to win everyday, trying to turn it around, and we’re going to continue to try it. We know the future is bright, but we’re not going to wait for the future to get here. We’re going to do everything we can to speed it up. We’ve done that with kind of a frenetic movement of personnel pieces in the early part of the season. We’re going to keep searching for the solution until we find it.”
