While there has not been much noise about the Washington Nationals managerial hunt, there are hiring being finalized around the league. One of those hirings has me very intrigued and has made me think
differently about candidates the Nats could look at. The Giants are closing in on a deal to hire Tony Vitello away from the University of Tennessee.
This would be an unprecedented move. No MLB manager has been hired directly from college before without experience in the pro ranks. So this would certainly be an outside the box hire for the Giants. However, Vitello is a winner who turned the Tennessee program from an afterthought to college baseball royalty. In 2024, he won the College World Series.
His charismatic presence and winning has clearly made him a sought after candidate. That got me thinking, could this be the start of a wider trend or is this a one time thing? Could the Nationals get in on this trend and if they do, who should they look for?
I will make this clear, it would be a big surprise if the Nats hired someone out of college, but with Vitello breaking the glass ceiling, anything is possible. If the Nationals were to go the college route, there are two outstanding candidates for me.
The first one would be Jay Johnson at LSU. He would be a very exciting appointment because it would reunite him with Dylan Crews. Johnson coached Crews to a National Championship at LSU in 2023. With Crews struggling in the MLB, maybe Johnson could be the guy to help Crews get his swagger back.
While Johnson has no professional experience, he has won everywhere he has been. He won at the University of Nevada before leaving for Arizona. Then he won at Arizona, even taking them to a College World Series before leaving for LSU. Johnson has taken things to the next level in Baton Rouge, winning two championships in four years.
Of course, this would be a risk, and an expensive risk at that. Johnson is the highest paid coach in college baseball, making over $3 million a year. To hire him, you would have to pay a buyout and make him a very rich man in DC. Even when Ted Lerner was running the show, the Nats were hesitant to pay managers, so this may just be a pipe dream.
Another coach in the SEC worth looking at is Wes Johnson at Georgia. Johnson has turned the Bulldogs program around in his two years in Athens. Unlike Vitello and Jay Johnson, he does have MLB experience.
Wes Johnson was actually the pitching coach for the Twins from 2019 to 2022. So Johnson knows the MLB game and has jumped from college to the pros before. He was the pitching coach at Arkansas before going to the Twins.
He seems more realistic than Jay Johnson, who seems pretty entrenched at LSU. I think Wes Johnson would be a solid outside the box candidate for the Nats to look at. He is a proven winner at the college level, a good pitching mind and has experience at the MLB level. Paul Toboni would be smart to give this guy a call. I would not be surprised if Wes Johnson is the next college coach to leave for the MLB.
Another outside the box candidate is Mark DeRosa. He does not come from the college game, but does not have a traditional background either. Of course, DeRosa has become a staple of MLB Network. His breakdowns are some of the best in the game and provide fans with great knowledge from a former player.
However, DeRosa does have some coaching experience. He coached Team USA at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. While they did not win, DeRosa was impressive and conducted himself well. Like Vitello, DeRosa has a natural charisma to him.
He also has a connection to the Nats. DeRosa was on the team in 2012, when the Nationals made the playoffs for the first time. He seems like a future manager, so the Nationals should look at making a swing for him now. The combination of Toboni and DeRosa would be a breath of fresh air in DC.
At the end of the day, the Nationals will probably make a boring hire. Maybe a former manager like David Ross or Brandon Hyde, or potentially a bench coach. However, if the Nats wanted to swing for the fences, there are some options available. It will be interesting to follow this managerial search and see what Paul Toboni decides to do.
