The offseason just started, but the Nats are already busy inking players to extensions. After extending Cade Cavalli at the end of the season, Paul Toboni gave Jacob Young a 4-year $23 million deal that has an option for a 5th year. The Nats center fielder took a big leap offensively, and now they are betting on Young to maintain that level.
Before 2026, Young was a defensive specialist, who offered little to no value with the bat. In 2025, he posted an OPS of just .583 and hit just two homers. Young was an elite defender, but that can only take you so far. We are seeing that now with Nasim Nunez. You have to be at least a respectable offensive player.
After 2025, Young knew that he needed to change things. He went to Driveline and worked on changing his swing path. Young was hitting ground balls at a 56.5% clip in 2024 and 2025. Even with his elite speed, you cannot make a living on infield hits unless you are Chandler Simpson.
Young was a very different hitter in 2026 though. He hit .252 with a .708 OPS and socked a career high 10 homers. Those offensive numbers will not knock your socks off, but for a defense first player, those stats are more than good enough. The power was the biggest surprise for most people. Young hitting homers was a novelty before this year, but in 2026, he got to double digits.
You have to give Young a ton of credit for putting in the work, but you also have to credit the Nats hitting coaches and the folks at Driveline. That ground ball rate went from 56.5% to 39.4%, which is a drastic decrease. His batted ball profile totally changed, and it made him a much better hitter.
To the extension itself, the deal is structured a lot like the one that was given out to Cade Cavalli. The Nats are buying out all of Young’s arbitration years and one of his free agent years. There is also an option to buy out a further free agent year at the end of the deal. That was the exact same structure as the Cavalli deal.
Credit to Talk Nats for being on this first and Andrew Lang for getting the structure of the deal. Clearly, this is an extension strategy Paul Toboni likes to use. It makes a lot of sense as well, as it is good for the player and the team. For the player, it gives them security and a chance to get back on the free agent market at a reasonable age.
Meanwhile, the team locks up the player for what should be their best years at a reasonable rate. Usually, a player’s best seasons are those arbitration years and their first couple free agent years. This structure allows the Nats to control the player for those years while not committing to them deep into their 30’s.
I wonder if there are other players who would be interested in that kind of deal. Daylen Lile is further away from free agency than Cavalli or Young, but I can see the Nats approaching him with a similar concept. For stars like James Wood and CJ Abrams, both sides would probably prefer a longer term and bigger money deal though.
Getting this done early sends a message that Young is part of the team’s plans and will not be traded. Young may get traded during the lifespan of this deal, but it will not be anytime soon. That makes things interesting for a guy like Dylan Crews.
We will dive into this further, but after this move, I wonder about his future. I am sure teams will start calling the Nats to sniff around on him. Overall, this is a solid deal for the player and the team. It makes sense for both sides. Jacob Young gets to secure generational wealth, while the team locks him up for the prime of his career.
