While the Phillies and Braves have battled their way to the best two records in the National League and the Mets have stayed in the news because of financial problems, the Nationals and Marlins made headlines this past week when both teams had their managers unexpectedly resign.

Florida Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez resigned last Sunday while his team was in the midst of a nine game skid that dropped them from second to last place in the division.

Rodriguez spent less than a year leading the Marlins as he took over last year when Fredi Gonzalez was fired. The Marlins season started off well enough but the team eventually faded with Hanley Ramirez struggling and Josh Johnson landing on the DL.

According to team sources, Rodriguez would have kept his job if he hadn’t resigned. That’s somewhat hard to believe given that Marlins owner Jeff Loria is known for rash moves including getting rid of Joe Girardi after he won NL Manager of the Year.

The Marlins quickly moved to bring Jack McKean, who guided the Marlins to a World Series title in 2003. McKean, 80, is the oldest active manager in baseball.

If the Marlins were caught off-guard when their manager resigned, the Washington Nationals must have been blindsided. In the midst of a nine game winning streak which got the team’s record over .500, manager Jim Riggleman resigned due to unhappiness with his contract.

Riggleman, who is more than 100 games under .500 in his managerial career, wanted to team to discuss his option for the 2012 season but GM Mike Rizzo declined his request.

While Riggleman simply wanted to ensure his future with the Nationals, he instead finds himself out of a job and is being called a quitter by some for leaving in the middle of the season.

GM Mike Rizzo has stated that Riggleman refused to get on the team bus unless his option was picked up, Riggleman said he simply wanted to talk about it.

Riggleman stated:

“I know I’m not Casey Stengel, but I do feel like I know what I’m doing. It’s not a situation where I felt like I should continue on such a short leash.”

Nats bench coach John McLaren will take over as interim manager but the team is expected to begin searching for its next manager during the season.

With Riggleman and Rodriguez resigning, Charlie Manuel is now the only manager in the division to be with his current team for a full season or more.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.