Martinez's first goal: reaching out to roster to build relationships

A key component that new Nationals manager Dave Martinez believes is important to a successful and cohesive clubhouse is how players feel before and after games. How he interacts with those players on the roster can go a long way in the final product put on the field.

"I'm actually excited to talk to all of them," Martinez said. "To me, there are 25 guys on the roster, I utilize all 25 guys. the 25th man has an important job. He's going to be put in a moment where he's going to help us win an important game, so every guy on the roster is important. I can't wait to talk to all of them and pick their brains and see what they're thinking and see how we can improve every daily situation that we go through."

Martinez, 53, played in the majors from 16 seasons as an outfielder and first baseman. His longest tenures were with the Cubs and Expos (four seasons) and the Devil Rays and White Sox (three seasons). He has coached with Tampa Bay from 2008-2014 and most recently from 2015- 2017 with the Cubs.

He has a good amount of experience from the field and the dugout, but never as a manager. There is always the question of first-time managers and how it will work out. Martinez said his relationship with the players is very important to what he believes makes a successful team. That, in turn, reflects on the manager.

"Building relationships," Martinez said. "Communicating. Trust. Those are three things I've kind of instilled myself with. Let them know that I'm on their side. This is a partnership between all of us. They'll know that right away."

Martinez emphasized the importance of building those individual relationships. He said that he ran into the Nats closer Sean Doolittle before today's press conference. Doolittle is signed through 2018 with club options for 2019 and 2020.

"I talked to Doolittle," Martinez noted. "He showed up today and I talked with him for like 15 minutes and we had a great conversation. And I love some of the things that he was telling me, so I'll remember some of those things moving forward. I'll probably call him again in a couple weeks and whenever we're in the same state in the winter, we'll hang out, grab some dinner, some lunch or something."

Martinez inherits a successful club. His relationship with veterans like Ryan Zimmerman, Daniel Murphy, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Ryan Madson, Anthony Rendon and Doolittle, among others, will go a long way toward keep this talented group cohesive and on the same positive path forward following back-to-back division titles.

He said this weekend he will meet face-to-face with one of those other veterans in Scherzer.

"As soon as this day's over, my job is to get on the phone and get to know all the players," Martinez said. "I plan on flying to Arizona and going to Max's event Saturday just to meet with him."

Martinez gave some insight on what he would like the atmosphere in the clubhouse to be like. He said he wants his players to learn from a loss, but not dwell on it.

"I did something in Tampa when we were there," Martinez said. "I told the guys, within 15-20 minutes after a loss, I want the music on. We're going to forget about it. We aren't going to dwell on it. We've got another game tomorrow. They loved it. They bought in. It was done. We ate together for the most part after the game. It was over.

"We came back ready to play the next day. I think positivity., a lot of energy. Let them know that we care, even when they have a bad game and not a good game, let them know that we always care about them. You'll get the most out of every player."

This is an interesting point because in most major league clubhouses music on the speakers is usually only played after the team wins. After a loss, the clubhouse is usually extremely quiet.

The 2018 Nats will get the chance to experience what the Martinez style of coaching quickly when they convene in West Palm Beach in February. Borrowing again from a system that worked with the Rays and the Cubs, those days in South Florida won't be filled with working the players too hard on baseball related activities and getting them burned out.

"For me, this day and age, it's more about quality than quantity," Martinez said. "So we implemented a system where we get a lot done in a short amount of time and we get guys to get rest and also be able to do the things, more fitness stuff, more workouts, and incorporate that in there. Because the ultimate goal is to make sure that everybody leaves spring training healthy and ready to go. But we don't want to burn anybody out, either."

Martinez said he will lean on his veterans to get their work done, but also build camaraderie with events that involve the players' families and children.

"It's a long season, so you'll see some different things like Sundays, I call it Sunday Funday, where we'll show up a little later," Martinez said. "We might have a team family breakfast in the morning and have the kids out, have them run around a bit, and just kind of different things like that. Because I really believe that as much as we are away from our families, it's good to do some things with them through the course of the season so we'll implement a lot of stuff to make it fun for everybody."

President of baseball operations and general manager Mike Rizzo was impressed with Martinez even more than the first time they talked about the Nationals job four years ago. He said that since Martinez now has three seasons of playoff experience and a world championship, he has become a more accomplished candidate.

"When I went and visited Davey out in Tampa, it was really evident that this was a guy that we really, really liked and we really thought could do the job for us," Rizzo said.

The knowledge, wit and humor of Martinez stood out in today's press conference. It was the vibe one would imagine Martinez would want in the clubhouse where this news conference took place today.

"The one thing I can tell you is that I have a lot of high energy, positive energy," Martinez said. "I'm not a guy that's going to sit in the manager's office. I'm very hands-on. I love talking to players, I love conversations with players. It's my strong suit. I collaborate a lot with front office, Mike, ownership to get it right. I meant this sincerely - this is a big family. We're all in this together."