FLUSHING, N.Y. - Nationals manager Matt Williams decided against speaking on his future with the organization following today's season-ending 1-0 loss to the division-winning Mets.
"I'm with (general manager Mike Rizzo) in that everything will be evaluated," Williams said. "So we'll get home and evaluate everything."
Given the chance to defend himself further and asked how much he would like to return as Nationals manager in 2016, Williams simply responded "It'll be evaluated."
Those were Williams' final official words following a frustrating season where the Nationals fell woefully short of the highest expectations. They finished 83-79, 13 wins worse than last year's National League East winning run.
"I think we're all disappointed in the outcome," Williams said earlier in his press conference. "It provides fuel. It provides fire to everybody to understand where we're at now and to look forward to getting back to where we want to be. Again, it's a long grind of a season. There's 162 of them and when it's all over, it all, as we've talked about, happens very abruptly. So time to reflect, time to evaluate and move on from there."
Williams dealt with countless injuries throughout the season, which erased large chunks of the season for some of his key veterans including Jayson Werth, Denard Span, Ryan Zimmerman, Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg.
"The whole experience, for me, is I'm proud of the guys for fighting," Williams reflected. "I'm proud of them for the way they went about it. We had some things that went sideways in that we had a whole bunch of injuries and there's not much you can do about that except adjust and move on. There's gonna many days to evaluate that and think about that. Right now, I'm proud of them. I'm proud of the way they fought."
Bryce Harper, who gave Williams a vote of confidence three weeks ago, was asked again for his opinion on the skipper's future.
"I think Matt has done a great job," Harper said. "That's up to management. I think I have a pretty good relationship with Matt. I've always supported what he does and how he does it. He's very good with hitters and things like that, with me he is. That's what Rizzo is going to take care of and the organization is going to take care of. That's all up to them."
As far Harper, he went 1-for-4, finishing the season hitting .330 and falling short of a batting title, which Miami's Dee Gordon won with his .333 average. But with two outs in the ninth, Harper slapped a sharp grounder down the left field line and then narrowly slid in safely to wrap up his season with a double.
"Just tells you how he can lead a club and the way he plays can do that," Williams said. "He doesn't give up. None of them gave up. And I'm proud of that. We're all very proud of them for that."
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