The

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

are an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

franchise based in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

They are members of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(NL) East Division in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). The team began playing in as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, then known as the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...

. There have been 18 different

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

in the franchise's history. The team has played its home games at the

Nationals Park Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.), Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals. Since its completion in 2008, it wa ...

since 2008. The Nationals are owned by

Ted Lerner Theodore Nathan Lerner (October 15, 1925 – February 12, 2023) was an American real estate developer and managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. He was the founder of Lerner Enterprises, the largest private landowne ...

, with Mike Rizzo as their

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. The Expos' first manager was

Gene Mauch Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005) was an American professional baseball player and manager who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (, ), Pittsburgh Pirates (), Chicago Cubs (� ...

, who managed for six seasons.

Felipe Alou Felipe Rojas Alou (born May 12, 1935) is a Dominican former professional outfielder, first baseman, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He managed the Montreal Expos (1992–2001) and the San Francisco Giants (2003–2006). The fir ...

is the franchise's all-time leader in regular season games managed (1,408) and regular season game wins (691).

Jim Fanning William James Fanning (September 14, 1927 – April 25, 2015) was an American-Canadian catcher, manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. Often called "Gentleman Jim", Fanning was the first general manager of the Montreal Expo ...

is the only Expos manager to have gone into the post-season.

Buck Rodgers Robert Leroy "Buck" Rodgers (born August 16, 1938) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Los Angeles / California Angels for nine seasons during ...

and Alou are the only managers to have won the NL

Manager of the Year Award In Major League Baseball, the Manager of the Year Award is an honor given annually since 1983 to two outstanding manager (baseball), managers, one each in the American League (AL) and the National League (baseball), National League (NL). The winne ...

with the Expos, in and respectively.

Karl Kuehl Karl Otto Kuehl (pronounced "keel"; September 5, 1937 – August 6, 2008) was an American professional baseball player and a scout, farm system official, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. He also was the co-author of two books on th ...

, and

Tom Runnells Thomas William Runnells (born April 17, 1955) is an American former infielder, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Biography Runnells attended the University of Northern Colorado and originally signed with the San Francisco Giants ...

have all spent their entire MLB managing careers with the Expos/Nationals. After

Manny Acta Manuel Elias Acta (born January 11, 1969) is a Dominican former professional baseball manager who is currently the bench coach for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has formerly served as a broadcast analyst for ESPN and ESP ...

was fired during the season,

Jim Riggleman James David Riggleman (born November 9, 1952) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) manager (baseball), manager and bench coach who coached with several teams between 1989 and 2019. During his playing career, Riggleman was an infield ...

, the bench coach, was named interim manager to replace him, and was promoted to the position full-time for the season. After Riggleman resigned during the season and John McLaren ran the team for three games as an interim manager, the team hired veteran manager

Davey Johnson David Allen Johnson (born January 30, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played as a second baseman from through , most notably in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty t ...

, who had previously served as an advisor to Rizzo. Johnson led the team to the

National League East The National League East is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. Along with the American League Central, it is one of two divisions to have every member win at least one World Series title. After having internal, informal divisions for ...

title and the franchise's first playoff berth since moving to Washington and was 2012's NL Manager of the Year, but the team did not advance past the

2012 National League Division Series The 2012 National League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2012 National League Championship Series. The three divisional winners and a fourth team—the winner of a one-game Wild Car ...

. Johnson retired after the season. Matt Williams took over in , leading the team to another National League East title that season, and was 2014 NL Manager of the Year, but the team did not advance past the

2014 NLDS The National League Division Series was two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2014 National League Championship Series. The Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and St. Louis Cardinals (seeded 1–3 bas ...

, and Williams was fired after an unsuccessful second year in .

Dusty Baker Johnnie B "Dusty" Baker Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and Manager (baseball), manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers. D ...

managed the team in and , leading Washington to consecutive National League East titles, but the team did not advance beyond the NLDS in either season and Baker's contract was not renewed after the 2017 season. The Nationals hired

Dave Martinez David Martinez (born September 26, 1964) is an American professional baseball coach and former outfielder who is the manager for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay ...

in October 2017 to take the helm in ; along with leading the team to its first

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

championship, Martinez has the most victories as a manager since the team moved to Washington.

Key

Managers

''Notes: Managers from 1969 through 2004 are of the Montreal Expos; those from 2005 to the present are of the Washington Nationals. Statistics are correct as of the end of the

2023 Major League Baseball season The 2023 Major League Baseball season (MLB) began on March 30. The 93rd All-Star Game was played on July 11, hosted by the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington, with the National League winning, 3–2. The regular season e ...

.''

Notes

* A running total of the number of managers of the Expos/Nationals. Thus, any manager who has two or more separate terms as a manager is only counted once. *

Frank Robinson Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935 – February 7, 2019), nicknamed "the Judge", was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams over 21 seasons: the Cincinnati Reds (1956–196 ...

was inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

in 1982 as a player, but was never inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager.

References

;General * * ;Specific {{Montreal Expos

Managers Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

Washington Nationals managers