So, the Washington Nationals have a new pitching coach and his name is Simon Mathews. That is right, only one T in Mathews. At 30 years old, he continues the trend of the Nationals hiring young. However, Mathews is deeply knowledgeable about the current trends in modern pitching. He is equipped to bring the Nats into the modern age of pitching.
Last season, the Nationals pitchers threw too many fastballs for a group without elite fastball quality. We wrote about that last season as the staff struggled.
Pitchers like Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker were throwing their low-90’s heaters over 50% of the time. Kyle Finnegan immediately becoming a better pitcher after throwing less fastballs was a bad look for the organization.
I think that will change under Mathews. There will be fewer fastballs, particularly 4-seam fastballs. The Reds went from 5th to 15th in 4-seam usage between 2024 and 2025. That is notable because 2025 was the season where Mathews came in as an assistant pitching coach. Hopefully we see a similar trend with the Nats.
The Reds really leaned into the 2 fastball meta last season. While they threw fewer four-seamers, they threw more sinkers. This is a trend we are starting to see around the league. Pitchers want to give hitters as many looks as possible and throw any pitch in any count. Nationals pitchers were too predictable in 2025.
Mathews comes from an analytical background. He has experience working in these so-called pitching labs and knows a lot on the biomechanics side of pitching. His Linkedin bio sums up a lot of this very well and shows off his new school style.
One thing that interests me is his experience in these pitching labs. Places like Driveline and Tread Athletics are taking over the sport. Players go there to improve their games in a scientific way. Pitchers can work to design new pitches or get advice on how to move a certain way to get more velocity. It is all the rage in this modern era.
Mathews has a ton of experience at these places. He was an online instructor at Driveline for a time. Mathews was also the director of pitching at Push Performance. Push is actually where Sean Doolittle used to train in off-seasons. Mathews also retweeted a video of Doolittle, so it is very possible that he remains on staff given their connection.
What these labs do is help players move in ways that help their performance. They use a lot of fancy cameras and knowledge of physics and biomechanics to help guys make the adjustments they need to make. Whether that is adding velocity or moving in a way that helps your arm hold up better. It is all about optimizing performance and making players as efficient as possible. That is obviously very useful for organizations as well.
In his lone season in Cincinnati, Mathews got results as well. Obviously you can’t give him all of the credit, but the Reds pitching got better in 2025. They posted a 3.86 ERA as a team, which is very solid, especially for a team playing in a hitter friendly park. It was actually the first time the team posted a sub-4 ERA in a full season since 2014.
Another skill I love about Mathews is that he is bilingual. He is fluent in Spanish, which really gives him an edge. This allows him to communicate with the team’s Spanish speaking pitchers, most notably closer Jose A. Ferrer. I am sure it is easier for those guys to learn and get better if they have a coach that speaks their first language.
Sure, the Nationals are not hiring big names with bags of experience, but that does not bother me too much. The staff that was just fired had a ton of experience, but they did not end up working out. We are seeing the Nationals go in a youthful direction and try to be on the cutting edge. It is a risk, but in my opinion it is a risk worth taking.
The Nationals are in a new era with Paul Toboni and Blake Butera. They are going in a different direction and Simon Mathews is just another example of that. As a younger guy myself, I love it. It is a young team that needs to find a spark. These new coaches have a chance to be a spark, or at least shake things up.
