Nats fans have said a lot of things about owner Mark Lerner in recent years. However, one thing you cannot accuse him of is not picking a direction after firing Mike Rizzo. The Washington Nationals have gone all in on acquiring the brightest young minds in the baseball world.
Lerner has replaced a braintrust that was in their early 60’s with one that is in their early 30’s. In fact, the Nats POBO, GM and manager are all born in the 1990’s. You would have to think that this is the first time where
that has ever happened in pro sports.
We are going to take a look at some of the Nats new coaches and front office members and compare them to their predecessors. When you do a direct comparison, it is really jarring to see how much younger the Nats have gotten.
Old POBO/GM: Mike Rizzo, 64
As Nationals fans know, Mike Rizzo was the longtime GM and President of Baseball Operations for the Nats. He was a grizzled veteran, age 64 when he was fired back in July. Rizzo came from a traditional scouting background and could be described as an old school guy.
Rizzo was a third generation scout and the son of famous scout Phil Rizzo. He worked his way up the Diamondbacks organization before coming to DC. Rizzo was the head man in DC for 15 years. For most of that time, Rizzo did a great job.
He always had a great eye for a trade and made some shrewd free agent pickups. However, as the game moved into an even more analytical direction, Rizzo had a tougher time adapting. While Rizzo tried to evolve at times, at his core, Rizzo was always that old school scout.
He still had a great tenure as Nats GM, but it was time for a change towards the end. Rizzo will always be a Nationals legend for the teams he built in the 2010’s. The Nats needed something different though, and that is exactly what they have gotten.
New POBO/GM: Paul Toboni, 35 and Ani Kilambi, 31
The top of the Nats front office has gotten much younger. It started with Paul Toboni, who the Nats hired from the Red Sox back in September. As President of Baseball Operations, Toboni will be the man running the show. He does not have the GM title, but he is the head decision maker.
Toboni will be making those decisions with a different philosophy to the one Rizzo used. Given the fact that he is about three decades younger, that makes total sense. Toboni was raised into a very different baseball world than the one where Rizzo got his start. He is much more analytically inclined, and that has shown in his hires.
One hire where that definitely showed up was in his GM hire. Ani Kilambi rose through the baseball ranks in an R&D role. He was not a scout or a former player. Kilambi is part of the new school. At 31, he is very young, but has been working in baseball for about a decade now.
The fact that the Nats have a separate position for the GM and POBO is new as well. It shows that this will be more of a collaborative effort. However, the youth does not stop in the front office.
Old Manager: Davey Martinez, 60
The coaching staff has also gotten much younger. That starts with the manager. Davey Martinez was 60 years old when he got let go. He took a fairly traditional path to becoming a manager as well.
Martinez had a solid 16 year MLB career. After a few years in retirement, Martinez eventually got into coaching. He worked with Joe Maddon on the Rays and Cubs. As a bench coach for a highly successful manager, it was inevitable for Martinez to get a managerial job of his own.
Eventually, Martinez landed the role with the Nats. In his second year, Davey caught lightning in a bottle, winning a World Series. However, for a lot of his tenure, his in-game management was a bit questionable. He also had an old-school mindset, which you could see in his staffing choices.
Martinez’s run in 2019 will be looked back on fondly, but like Rizzo, you could tell the writing was on the wall by 2025. His comments about how the blame should never be put on the coaches felt like a final straw for the veteran manager. The Nats decided to go in a very different direction.
New Manager: Blake Butera, 33
The Nats went from an older manager in Martinez to the youngest manager in over 50 years with Blake Butera. Their paths to being a manager were also very different. While Martinez had a long MLB career, Butera’s career stalled out in the Minor Leagues.
After a couple years in the Rays system, Butera stopped playing and became a Minor League coach. At just 25, Butera was managing a Rays Single-A team. The former BC Eagle clearly had a lot of fans in the Rays organization to get that role at such a young age.
After a few seasons as a Minor League manager, Butera moved into a player development role. He was the senior director of player development for the Rays before taking the Nats job. It is clear that Butera will put a heavy emphasis on developing players at the MLB level, which has been an issue for the Nats lately.
To do that, he will have to lean on his coaching staff, which is also very young. When you just look at the ages of the two coaching staffs, it is really crazy how much of a 180 the Nats organization has done.
Old Pitching Coach: Jim Hickey, 63
Like most of the old regime, Jim Hickey was a grizzled baseball veteran. Hickey had been a pitching coach for a long time, most notably with the Rays. That is where he formed a relationship with Davey Martinez.
Hickey, who was 63 last season, had a lot of success with the Rays, but his time with the Nats was a mixed bag. He did not have the most talent to work with, which led to the Nats pitching staffs not being great. However, there were not enough developmental success stories while Hickey was in DC.
This past season was particularly frustrating. As the league cut down on 4-seam fastball usage, the Nats staff was pumping heaters. Mitchell Parker, who has a mediocre fastball, was throwing his 4-seamer 55% of the time. Like many of the Nats coaches, it just felt like Hickey’s philosophy was outdated.
New Pitching Coach: Simon Mathews, 30
On a very young staff, Simon Mathews is one of the youngest guys. After pitching at Georgetown University, Mathews had an unsuccessful Minor League career before getting into coaching.
Like so many modern pitching gurus, Mathews has exposure to these elite pitching labs like Driveline. He was actually the director of pitching at a lab called Push Performance. Mathews crossed paths with Sean Doolittle while he was there.
Then he joined the Reds organization. He was involved with their rehab process for pitchers. This is a useful tool given how often pitchers go down these days. Then Mathews became the assistant pitching coach in Cincinnati this past season, where the Reds pitching staff had more success than they have had in a long time.
Hopefully he can help some of the Nats pitchers as well. He is yet another analytical mind who is going to be doing things a different way. Hopefully we see the Nats cut down on 4-seam usage in 2026.
Old Hitting Coach: Darnell Coles, 63
Like the rest of the old regime, Darnell Coles was in his 60’s. He was a long time big leaguer who also had plenty of coaching experience when he arrived in DC. However, this hire always felt a bit weird because his previous hitting coach experience was not great.
Coles got fired by both the Brewers and D-Backs after up and down tenures at both places. He had some solid years, but he was never seen as an elite hitting coach either. However, his philosophy of putting the ball in play gelled with Davey Martinez.
His tenure in DC was very frustrating. It never felt like the Nats young hitters were developing properly. Guys like Keibert Ruiz and Luis Garcia Jr. never got to that next level with Coles. Even the Nats star hitters like James Wood and CJ Abrams went on these extended slumps where adjustments never seemed to come.
Like the rest of the old staff, Coles was an old school guy who did not seem to be able to adapt. He has landed on his feet with an assistant hitting coach job with the Braves. However, he was always under fire from the Nats fans and it was easy to see why.
New Hitting Coach: Matt Borgschulte, 35
Yet another coach in their 60’s is being replaced by a guy in their 30’s. Matt Borgschulte is the old man of this staff at 35 years old. He is also the most experienced of the group. Borgschulte was the co-hitting coach for the Orioles for a couple seasons before becoming the Twins hitting coach.
Borgschulte did an alright job in his one year in Minnesota, but after manager Rocco Baldelli was fired, he was not retained. However, Borgschulte is highly regarded around the league. Whenever you listen to him talk about hitting, it is easy to see why.
He has a big job ahead of him with plenty of young Nats hitters looking to take big steps. Hopefully he can unlock guys like Dylan Crews, Brady House and Robert Hassell. More established guys like James Wood, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile will also look to unlock a new level.
Wrapping up:
The Washington Nationals are all in on replacing guys in their 60’s with guys in their 30’s. It is a very fun experiment, and one that was needed in my opinion. Of course, there is risk in doing this, but the reward is high.
Baseball is constantly evolving, and the Nats are trying to be ahead of the curve. That is very exciting and something I have wanted to see for a while. Hopefully the Nats can be the smartest team in baseball with all of these young and talented minds.
