With the Washington Nationals off to a rough 13-17 start this season, after a disappointing 82-80 campaign in 2018, some changes should probably have been expected, and after the Nats avoided a sweep of their four-game set with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight, the team announced that they were letting second-year pitching coach Derek Lilliquiest go, replacing him with Minor League pitching coordinator Paul Menhart.
Lilliquist was hired as part of manager Davey Martinez’s staff after Mike Maddux left for St. Louis in the winter of 2017-18.
Menhart has served as the organization’s Minor League pitching coordinator since 2015, and worked in the organization for 14 seasons after coming over, “from Western Carolina University where he spent three years (2003-2005) as their pitching coach,” as the Nats noted in a press release on the changes this evening.