WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Nationals manager Davey Martinez got the text message notification at 3:30 a.m.

This was during a stretch of the regular season when the Nationals weren’t exactly setting the world on fire, and general manager Mike Rizzo had fired off a lengthy note of encouragement.

Martinez answered immediately, leading to a 3:30 a.m. exchange that went something like this:

Rizzo: “What are you doing up?”

Martinez: “What are you doing up?”

Martinez told his boss he’d just watched a replay of the previous day’s game and was thinking things over.

Rizzo responded, “I expected you to just get up in the morning and have this nice text.”

Martinez tells this story to try and help someone understand why he appreciates Rizzo so much.

“When you get an opportunity to do something that you love and to have a guy like that,” Martinez said.

He means a guy who always, always has his back. A guy who supports his manager completely and never loses sight of the big picture -- that is, the ups and downs of a baseball season.

“He’s just been so good to work for,” Martinez said.

This is a theme that extends up and down the Nationals’ masthead and around the game. Rizzo is among baseball’s most respected executives for his ideas, integrity and grit. Also important: he’s one of the most successful.

Since the beginning of the 2012 season, only the Dodgers have won more regular-season games than the Nationals. In a sport in which sustainable success is among the biggest challenges, they have averaged 91 victories the past eight seasons.

And in rallying from a 19-31 start in 2019, then coming from behind to win the National League Wild Card Game, the fifth and deciding game of the NL Division Series and Game 7 of the World Series, Rizzo finally has achieved the thing that had eluded him.

And in the manager’s office and the home clubhouse, the feeling of warmth and respect for him runs deep.

“It’s just the level of detail he goes about trying to see the game, trying to understand the game,” pitcher Max Scherzer said. “It's very important for this clubhouse to be able to engage him over different things and for him to be able to understand our viewpoint and communicate that to ownership, and he has done that time and time again.”

Rizzo is unlike other general managers in that he’s a frequent presence in the clubhouse and training room and on road trips. He eats meals around his players, especially during the tough times, when he believes they need his presence and support.

“The lower we are, the better I've got to be for everyone,” Rizzo said. “When you're losing, they need you to be there with that pat on the back. They need the reassurance and positivity. When you're on a roll, they don't need that. They know they're playing great, and they're feeling good about themselves.”

Because of this approach, the wall that sometimes exist between players and management simply is not there.

“He seems to try to be sensitive to what players want,” Nationals closer Sean Doolittle said. “He’s always talking to the guys and is very visible and very accessible. That’s the best way for him to develop a rapport with the players. We can be honest with each other.

“He wants to show that he's invested in his group, that he cares about the group and knows about the grind we’re going through.”

First baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the longest-tenured National, said: “He’s very loyal to the players. He understands that some years are going to start slow, some years are going to start fast.

“A lot of people, their first instinct [during tough times] is to fire someone. But none of them have a plan to do anything after that. You play for six months, and there's no way everything's going to be great for those six months. And I think when people panic, it makes it worse.”

This spring has been a bittersweet victory lap of sorts for Rizzo, who is celebrating his greatest professional moment while mourning the death Feb. 1 of his father, Phil, a lifelong baseball man himself.

Mike Rizzo’s first telephone call after Game 7 last fall was to his father.

“Dad, we did it!” he said.

Mike Rizzo said he’s warmed by the thought that his dad passed away after achieving a baseball man’s ultimate dream.

“He took a piece of that World Series trophy with him,” Rizzo said.

From his dad, Mike Rizzo learned some basic fundamentals about treating people a certain way and standing for the right things. Inside the game, that was Phil Rizzo’s reputation.

“We’re a competitive organization,” Mike Rizzo said, “but we're a loyal organization, and we do things with character and integrity. That’s really important to us.”

On a warm Florida morning, Rizzo is bouncing around practice fields watching Stephen Strasburg throw live batting practice here, Juan Soto smash line drives there.

He accepts congratulations from an endless string of fans who want him to know that delivering a World Series winner to the nation’s capital for the first time in 95 years has fulfilled plenty of dreams.

“To have your fingerprints on it,” Rizzo said, “and to be in charge and to have the honor of leading this franchise and this organization is so special.

“And because of the trials and tribulations we went through, it made it even more special.”

About that.

The Nationals were 19-31 on May 23. At the time, only one NL team had a worse record, and the idea that they would end up with a parade down Constitution Avenue seemed unlikely.

Rizzo held firm in his core belief in his team.

“I trusted the roster that we constructed,” he said, “I trusted the coaching staff that we had, and most importantly, I trusted Dave Martinez to guide us through this.

“I couldn't be more proud of Davey. Everybody in the world was shoveling dirt on us and shoveling dirt on him. He was still the same guy every day. He was still positive. He had the backs of the players.

“People ignored that we had a significant portion of our roster injured. What I’m proud of is you didn't hear one player pointing fingers. There was no anonymous quotes about anything. There were no clubhouse lawyers. That start just galvanized us and put a chip on our shoulder and gave us an 'us against the world' mentality. And it was something we really embraced. Everybody got healthy at about that time, and we took off.”

Rizzo has heard stories from fans all over the nation who became intrigued by the Nationals and their improbable quest, and how they went from nowhere to make the playoffs and then kept overcoming deficits.

“We had this game against the Mets in September,” Rizzo said.

On Sept. 3, the Nationals trailed, 10-4, in the bottom of the ninth and scored seven runs, including the final three on Kurt Suzuki’s walk-off home run. Rizzo remembered thinking, “Wow, you know, something's up here.”

And the real fun was just beginning.