Riggleman gets Nationals managing job for 2010

WASHINGTON (AP)—Jim Riggleman opened his first news conference in 10 years as a full-fledged, full-time, full-titled major league manager—no “interim” tag to be found—by saying he didn’t want to list the people he needs to thank, lest he forget someone.

And then, not surprisingly, the man who will manage the Washington Nationals in 2010 proceeded to list those people: his family; the team’s owners; president Stan Kasten, GM Mike Rizzo and their staffs; current players; players he worked with in the minors; Whitey Herzog, who brought Riggleman to the majors as a coach years ago.

On and on. Clearly, Riggleman is grateful to be a skipper in the majors once again.

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“My feeling was, if there was some divine intervention that came upon me that said, ‘You will never manage again,’ then I would have got out” of baseball, Riggleman said Thursday, when the Nationals officially announced he would remain in their dugout. “I wanted to stay in the game, because I still wanted to manage. So if I would have strongly doubted it would ever happen, I would not have continued. And you had to wonder as the years went by.”

Neither the Nationals nor Riggleman’s agent—who said he had to sign a nondisclosure agreement—would say anything about the terms of the deal.

Still, next season will mark his first since 1999 with a managing job in spring training. That was his final year with the Chicago Cubs, one of three other clubs he’s managed.

“Now he’s got his whole opportunity to kind of start from Day 1 and be like, ‘OK, this is how it’s going to be,”’ Nationals pitcher John Lannan(notes) said.

Riggleman was promoted from bench coach to interim manager midway through last season, replacing the fired Manny Acta in July. The Nationals were 26-61 (a .299 winning percentage) at the time and went 33-42 (.440) under Riggleman. While they finished with a majors-worst record of 59-103, there was a sense that his pregame fielding drills and postgame clubhouse talks were helping the young players on a rebuilding team.

“We turned to Jim Riggleman for some stability to right this ship, and he did what I thought was a masterful job in very trying circumstances,” Rizzo said. “He gave us a sense of balance not only in the dugout, but also in the clubhouse. We went back to the roots of the game.”

A year ago, Riggleman found himself in a similar situation with the Seattle Mariners, who fired their manager during the season and gave him the position on an interim basis. He was a candidate to stay on there, too, but didn’t get that job.

This time, Washington’s search began with Riggleman having an inside track— and taking advantage.

“He had a four-month interview,” is the way Rizzo put it.

“You can know about people, and hear what you hear about people, but watching him work on a day-to-day basis, I knew we had something here that could be a long-term answer for where we’re trying to be,” Rizzo added.

The team compiled a list of 18 candidates for the managing job, narrowed that to 10, then conducted interviews via telephone or face-to-face.

The only finalist Rizzo discussed in detail Thursday was former Rangers and Mets manager Bobby Valentine.

“Very knowledgeable. Very attractive candidate,” Rizzo said. “But just wasn’t the right guy for me at this time.”

In addition to his time with the Cubs and brief stint in Seattle, Riggleman managed in the majors with the San Diego Padres. He has a .444 career winning percentage across 10 seasons, with only one finish as high as second place.

Riggleman’s best season came with the 1998 Cubs, who were led by NL MVP Sammy Sosa’s(notes) 66 homers and went 90-73 to make the playoffs as a wild card. But Chicago went 67-95 to finish last in 1999, and he was gone.

Now not only does he have a managing job, but it’s the one he treasured the most: Riggleman grew up in nearby Rockville, Md., rooting for the old Senators.

“Just couldn’t end up better for me,” he said.

NOTE: Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman(notes) won his first Silver Slugger on Thursday, a day after receiving a Gold Glove for the first time. “I take a lot of pride in what I do, and it’s nice to get honored for it, especially when I know how hard it is to win these,” said Zimmerman, who hit a career-high 33 homers with 106 RBIs and had a 30-game hitting streak in 2009.