For his first couple of hires, Paul Toboni has been leaning on people he knows. His first hire was Devin Pearson, the Red Sox scouting director he had a ton of history with. Now, it was reported that he has brought
Red Sox field coordinator Andrew Wright with him. Wright will be part of the front office in DC.
Toboni bringing people he knows with him is unsurprising. It is something a lot of people do when they are in this kind of position. You know what you are getting when you hire people you know. Paul Toboni has a big job ahead of him, so he needs people he can rely on. Pearson and Wright will do that.
Andrew Wright has an impressive background, so it is easy to see why Toboni brought him along. As field coordinator, Wright was responsible for setting the standard for player development. He was involved with giving coaches plans they could follow through on.
Interestingly, Wright also has a lot of experience in the Dominican Republic. Before joining the Red Sox, he was the Director of Baseball Operations in the Dominican for the New York Yankees. I wonder if Wright will go back to doing work in the Dominican, or have a role more similar to what he did in Boston.
Wright is probably not the last Red Sox employee to come to DC. All of this makes me wonder how heavily Toboni will lean on his Boston connections not only for the staff, but also with players. I would not be surprised if he signed a former Red Sox player or two.
A couple interesting, under the radar names for me are Dustin May and Danny Jansen. Both are free agents this winter and were acquired by the Red Sox while Toboni was there. Clearly these are two players people in that organization coveted and would fill needs for the Nats.
We talked about May a little while ago when discussing under the radar free agent starters. The 28 year old has shown nasty stuff, but has never been able to put it together due to injuries and inconsistency. He would be an interesting guy for the Nats to bet on. It would be like what they did with Michael Soroka last offseason, and that experiment ended up being fairly successful.
The other interesting name is Danny Jansen. He was traded to Boston in 2024, but was only there for half a season. We have talked about how dire the Nationals catching situation is. Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams just did not get the job done for the Nats in 2025.
Even if he is not elite, Danny Jansen would be a major upgrade on both of those guys. He is a patient hitter with solid power. That is why he posted a respectable .720 OPS despite a .215 batting average. Jansen walked 12.5% of the time and homered 14 times.
Defensively, Jansen is a mixed bag. His framing has not been very good the past couple years. However, with the challenge system, framing will not be quite as important. Jansen also struggles controlling the running game.
However, he might be the best blocking catcher in all of baseball. That is something the Nationals have not had in a long time. In 2024 and 2025, Jansen posted an elite 14 blocks above average. That is a very important skill, especially for a Nats pitching staff that can be wild.
May and Jansen coming to DC is far from a guarantee, but they are worth watching. It is also worth looking at the Red Sox staff for potential managerial candidates. The manager search has been very quiet, but that will not be the case for long. Guys like Ramon Vazquez and Jason Varitek could be guys to watch.
So far, it seems like Paul Toboni is sticking close to his Red Sox roots. This will be a trend worth monitoring in the offseason. Will Toboni continue to lean on his past or does he just want a core group in place before making his next moves?
