ORLANDO, Fla. – Though filling out what’s now a 12-man coaching staff has occupied the majority of Blake Butera’s time the last month, the Nationals’ new manager has also made a point to reach out to his entire roster of players and start to develop relationships with every one of them long before they report to spring training.

His biggest takeaway from those conversations? These players are extremely motivated to get better, and they’re ready to put in the work that will be required.

“Obviously, I didn’t get to talk to these guys until after I signed on for the job,” Butera said. “But I told (president of baseball operations Paul Toboni) right away: ‘Man, I was really excited about this.’”

The roster Butera inherits is one of the youngest and least experienced in baseball. It’s coming off a hugely disappointing season that included 96 losses, bottom-of-the-league rankings in a number of meaningful categories and the midsummer firings of their longtime general manager and manager.

Several players have acknowledged the team’s struggles in fundamental areas and a desire to clean that up, no matter their own personal accomplishments. And they quickly conveyed that message to their rookie manager.

ORLANDO – For the Orioles to make a huge splash in free agency, they might have to dip into agent Scott Boras’ pool of superstar talent.

They haven’t shown a hesitancy to talk about it.

Boras represents pitchers Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen and Tatsuya Imai and first baseman Pete Alonso, among many others, and the Orioles have made it known that they want a frontline starter and an impact hitter.

Has Boras noticed that Orioles president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias is more aggressive this offseason in his pursuit of Boras clients?

“You know, you gauge that by the notice of how they and their ownership respond to the offer exchanges that occur, and that varies in every market,” said Boras, who drew another big crowd to his annual Winter Meetings presser in the lobby at the Signia by Hilton Bonnet Creek.

Nationals open home schedule on Friday, April 3, against Los Angeles Dodgers 

Just in time for holiday shopping, the Washington Nationals today unveiled select giveaways for the 2026 season, featuring an array of exclusive bobbleheads, apparel and collectibles for fans of all ages. Single-game tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, Dec. 11, with early access for Season Plan Holders beginning Wednesday, Dec. 10.

Fans will have several chances to add to their bobblehead collections with a lineup featuring a number of powerful forces, including Nationals stars CJ Abrams, Daylen Lile and James Wood; Marvel’s Captain America; a Star Wars™ Day Nationals Grogu, and more.

Bobblehead giveaways:

·         Saturday, May 2 – STAR WARS™ Day Nationals Grogu bobblehead

ORLANDO – The Orioles went through a prolonged Winter Meeting phase when they sat out the big-ticket negotiation dance and settled for the occasional under-the-radar move and a Rule 5 selection.

One year, they drafted three.

Mike Elias arrived in the front office and spent his first Winter Meetings, less than a full month on the job, interviewing candidates for manager and other important positions in the organization. He had to build analytic and international scouting departments. Fielding a winning team wasn’t on the agenda.

The sessions this week aren’t guaranteed to bear fruit, but the Orioles have become the apple of everybody's eye. They've raised expectations to a level unseen in a long time.

They made a huge splash back in 2003 by signing shortstop Miguel Tejada, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player, to a six-year, $72 million contract at the Winter Meetings in New Orleans. 

ORLANDO, Fla. – Since his hiring two months ago to take over a Nationals organization that had become stagnant, perhaps the most intriguing question Paul Toboni had to face concerned a potential timeline for this organization to return to the prominent perch it once held.

The young president of baseball operations has been careful not to answer that question with any specifics, simultaneously referring to the talent already in place here and the need to think long-term. But his words and actions over the last week have seemed to tilt more in one direction than the other.

With Jose A. Ferrer traded to the Mariners for Harry Ford, with MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams very much drawing interest from other clubs, with little indication they intend to pursue top-tier free agents right now, the Nationals still appear to be prioritizing the long-term over the short-term.

“Building a team that becomes the envy of sport is an ambitious goal,” Toboni wrote in a letter to fans published by the team Monday. “Some days it will feel as if we’re moving quickly; others might feel like we’ve hit rush-hour traffic on the Beltway. There will be pockets of frustration. It will certainly take time, measured in years.”

Put another way: Toboni doesn’t seem to view his job as completing the rebuild former general manager Mike Rizzo began in July 2021. He seems to view his job as starting his own rebuild in December 2025.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Though they could still add a few more names in the next week or two, the Nationals’ 2026 coaching staff essentially is complete. It’s a group featuring a bunch of 30-somethings, most of them having never played in the major leagues, more than half of them having never coached in the major leagues.

Blake Butera, at 33 the majors’ youngest manager in more than five decades, has assembled a diverse staff that features a few experienced coaches but plenty of others who have taken a less conventional path to D.C.

The oldest member of the staff is 50-year-old Michael Johns, who becomes Butera’s bench coach after two seasons as first base coach with the Rays, for whom he also managed in the minors for nine seasons. The only others in their 40s are catching coach/run game coordinator Bobby Wilson (42), who spent the last five seasons as Rangers catching coach following a 10-year playing career, and assistant pitching/bullpen coach Dustin Glant (44), who has some minor league coaching experience but most recently served as pitching coach at Indiana University.

Besides Wilson, the only others to play in the big leagues were Sean Doolittle (39), who returns as assistant pitching coach, and first base/outfield/baserunning coach Corey Ray (31), who appeared in one game for the Brewers in 2021 before becoming a minor league manager in the Cubs organization.

The seven staff members who have coached in the majors before are Johns, Doolittle, Wilson, field coordinator Tyler Smarslok (33, formerly Marlins first base coach), hitting coach Matt Borgschulte (35, formerly Orioles and Twins hitting coach), pitching coach Simon Mathews (30, formerly Reds assistant pitching coach) and bullpen catcher/development coach Grant Anders (29, formerly Orioles development coach).

ORLANDO, Fla. – The deep pockets worn by the Orioles’ ownership group didn’t shrink on the trip to the Winter Meetings.

President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias met with the media earlier today in his suite at the Waldorf Astoria and confirmed that the club should be able to add an impactful hitter and frontline starting pitcher.

“Yes, I think so,” Elias said. “You look at our payroll as it stands right now and it’s still well below where we were at last year, and we’ll just consider opportunities as they come up and have those conversions with ownership. But we do have room for more moves, multiple more moves.”

Top starters don’t come cheaply, with Dylan Cease providing the latest reminder after accepting the Blue Jays’ offer of seven years and $210 million. Long-term contracts aren’t common in Baltimore, but Elias said length isn’t a roadblock.

“Trust me, we’ve offered them a lot,” he said, “and we’re absolutely willing to do that.”

ORLANDO, Fla. – As he officially completed his first trade as Nationals president of baseball operations Saturday, Paul Toboni didn’t pause to consider the significance of that moment for him. Not that trading Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for two young players, including top catching prospect Harry Ford, wasn’t a big deal. But in his mind, it was merely the final step in a process he believed made sense for his club.

Besides, Toboni had a more pressing matter to deal with in his backyard.

“This is going to be a little anticlimactic, I think, because it was,” he said. “Maybe it’s the amateur scouting background, but I think I’m just used to making those decisions and moving on. So, we made the decision, and I kept throwing Wiffle balls to my kid and had a conversation with Harry, talked to Jose.

“I think part of the reason why I had that reaction was because there was so much work done ahead of time. And that makes you feel really comfortable when it does get done like that. This is what we had planned out for weeks. If we are going to make a trade here, this is what we want. All that thought kind of had been done beforehand.”

On the flip side of those conversations were three players who weren’t expecting the news they received. Ford, in particular, took it hard.

ORLANDO, Fla. – New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz is acing his first Winter Meetings.

Albernaz came across as relaxed and prepared during his 20-minute media session this afternoon, eager to share information and toss out the occasional quip.

He confirmed that Ryan Helsley will be the closer rather than working multiple innings after signing a two-year, $28 million contract with an opt-out clause. He said the coaching staff is “pretty much done” but could have a fit for one more hire. The club is trying to figure out what that would look like or whether there’s a need. He feels “great” about the club as it’s presently constructed.

“We have a great young core and we have some really good veteran pieces around it, and our coaches right now, now that we’re almost in place, they’re having great conversations with them, start getting their plans going heading into spring training,” Albernaz said. “So I feel very good.”

The No. 1 strength cited by Albernaz is the team’s pure athleticism and the engines. He isn’t ready to talk about weaknesses based solely on what he’s watched on video and gathered through the numbers.

ORLANDO – Good morning from The Signia Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek on the property of Walt Disney World, site of this year’s Baseball Winter Meetings. Yeah, I won’t be using that full title again the rest of the week. You’ll just have to trust me when I refer to the event’s venue, a new one in the traditional rotation that for a long time included the nearby Swan and Dolphin Resort but has apparently grown too large for that place.

The meetings officially commence this morning, but pretty much everyone of consequence arrived over the course of Sunday afternoon and evening, getting themselves situated for the three-day event that concludes Wednesday afternoon with the Rule 5 Draft.

The venue is new, and most of the people representing the Nationals here are new as well. This is Paul Toboni’s first Winter Meetings as president of baseball operations, and he’s got several new lieutenants with him who we will be meeting in the coming days, including assistant general manager for player development Devin Pearson and assistant GM for player acquisitions Justin Horowitz. Both previously worked alongside Toboni with the Red Sox, with Horowitz making a stop with the Pirates in between.

Mike DeBartolo, who admirably served as interim GM from July through September before becoming Toboni’s senior vice president and assistant GM for baseball operations, also should be here.

That group already was busy before ever leaving D.C., completing a surprising trade Saturday that sent closer Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for catcher Harry Ford and pitching prospect Isaac Lyon. We are expected to speak to Ford today and get his first thoughts on the trade and the opportunity he’ll now get to become the Nationals’ catcher of the present and future.

ORLANDO – Time to get this party started.

The Orioles trickled into the Signia by Hilton Bonnet Creek and Waldorf Astoria yesterday for baseball’s annual Winter Meetings. They boarded early and later flights, escaping the cold back home and plunging into the Hot Stove.

President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias will sit down with executives and agents today in his quest to find more pitching and another hitter. He’s already had a fairly busy offseason by hiring manager Craig Albernaz and assisting in the construction of a coaching staff, trading for reliever Andrew Kittredge and outfielder Taylor Ward and signing closer Ryan Helsley. He’s also claimed catcher Drew Romo and outfielder Will Robertson for the 40-man roster and made a batch of moves aimed at improving the minor league depth.

We’d like to know just how much the Orioles are willing to spend in free agency. How far they can stretch payroll.

A starter is desired for the top portion of the rotation and a No. 1 like Framber Valdez is gonna cost them. Elias hasn’t spent more than $15 million on a pitcher, the contract given to veteran Charlie Morton last offseason. Tomoyuki Sugano received $13 million the previous month.

It’s easy for offseason waiver claims to slip through the cracks. 

Thaddeus Ward and René Pinto, claimed on the same day last November, didn’t end up seeing any major league playing time in 2025. Sam Hilliard, a claim in 2024, didn’t make an impact, either. 

Once in a while, though, an offseason waiver claim ends up contributing. 

Cole Sulser, claimed back in 2019, became part of a deal that netted the O’s a high draft pick and a couple of prospects. The same can be said for Bryan Baker, whose 3.73 ERA in Baltimore enticed the Rays to part with a high pick of their own. And, of course, how about the claim of Ramón Urías in 2020? The do-it-all infielder accumulated over 10.0 bWAR in his Orioles career. 

Baltimore is hoping that Drew Romo, recently claimed off waivers from the Rockies, falls into the latter category. 

Turns out Paul Toboni didn’t want to wait until he arrived in Orlando to make his first significant transaction running the Nationals. The new president of baseball operations got an offer he liked from the Mariners on Saturday and finalized a trade that sends Jose A. Ferrer to Seattle in exchange for top catching prospect Harry Ford and young pitching prospect Isaac Lyon.

And if you saw this one coming … well, congrats, because you’re the only one in the world who did.

When considering potential trade candidates off the Nats roster this winter, the focus seemed to be on guys who are a bit closer to free agency, such as MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams. Ferrer? He was under club control for four more seasons, a 25-year-old lefty with a dynamic arm who already flashed the potential to be an elite back end reliever during the second half of this season.

Why would a team prioritizing young players with plenty of club control trade away a potential building block like that? Because of what the Mariners offered back, specifically in Ford.

This is one of the top catching prospects in baseball, a first-round pick in 2021 who has ranked among the top 100 prospects in the sport the last three seasons, currently 42nd according to MLB Pipeline. He’s 22 years old, sports a .405 on-base percentage, .832 OPS and 92 stolen bases in 454 minor league games played over five seasons.

Flights will be landing at the Orlando airport all day and night as baseball executives, managers, scouts, agents, media and other personnel descend upon the Signia by Hilton Bonnet Creek and Waldorf Astoria for baseball’s annual Winter Meetings.

Be prepared to see the hotel referenced by multiple names. It’s already caused some confusion because it’s a combined facility with shared conference rooms. But it’s got to be easier than navigating the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, where employees at the front desk hand you a map, wish you luck and offer a small blessing as you walk away.

The agenda is pretty much the same, with only a few small tweaks.

Check into your room and quickly ascertain whether the Ravens-Steelers game is available to watch on television.

Find the lobby bar and quickly ascertain whether the Ravens-Steelers game is available to watch on television.

The Washington Nationals acquired consensus top-100 prospect catcher Harry Ford and right-handed pitcher Isaac Lyon from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for left-handed pitcher José A. Ferrer on Saturday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni made the announcement.

Ford, 22, is currently the No. 42 prospect in Major League Baseball, according to MLBPipeline.com, and the No. 74 prospect in the game, per Baseball America. He spent the majority of the 2025 season with Triple-A Tacoma, hitting .283 with 18 doubles, 16 home runs, 74 RBI, 74 walks, seven stolen bases and 68 runs scored in 97 games. He recorded a .408 on-base percentage and a .460 slugging percentage and struck out just 88 times in 458 plate appearances (19.1% strikeout rate).

Selected 12^th overall in the 2021 First-Year Player Draft out of North Cobb High School (Ga.), Ford made his Major League debut on Sept. 5, 2025 at Atlanta. On Sept. 11 against the Los Angeles Angels, he drove in the game-winning run with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 12^th inning. Ford appeared in eight games during his first Major League stint, going 1-for-6 (.167) with one RBI and one run scored.

Ford reached base in 28 straight games from July 18 to Aug. 30, the day he was called up by the Seattle Mariners. He also reached base safely in 23 consecutive games from April 9 to May 14 and was one of two Pacific Coast League players to record two on-base streaks of at least 20 games last season. Ford put together a strong month of May, hitting .411 (37-for-90) with six doubles, five homers, 20 RBI, 11 walks, one stolen base and 18 runs scored in 22 games.

A two-time participant (2023, 2024) in the All-Star Futures Game, Ford has hit .266/.405/.428 with 98 doubles, 10 triples, 52 home runs, 261 RBI, 348 walks, 92 stolen bases in 454 career Minor League games. Since the start of the 2022 season – his first full season of professional baseball - his 339 walks and .405 on-base percentage are second-best in all of Minor League Baseball. He represented Great Britian in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, hitting two home runs while going 4-for-13 (.308) with a double and four RBI in four games.

Yesterday, the Orioles made the following roster moves:

• Claimed OF Will Robertson off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• Claimed C Drew Romo off waivers from the Colorado Rockies.
• Designated 1B/OF Ryan Noda for assignment.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.

Though there isn’t necessarily any intent, the Orioles are trending toward hiring full-time managers with catching backgrounds.

That’s two in a row.

Brandon Hyde was a catcher at Long Beach State and in the White Sox’s system. Craig Albernaz developed a reputation as a plus defender with a cannon arm behind the plate at Eckerd College and in nine minor league seasons, the first eight with the Rays.

Hyde had Tim Cossins as his catching instructor and Fredi González and Robinson Chirinos as bench coaches before his dismissal on May 17. The revamped staff under Albernaz includes Joe Singley as field coordinator and catching coach and Hank Conger as bullpen coach.

Conger is the more familiar name to baseball fans after playing five seasons with the Angels and one each with the Astros and Rays. Singley is 28 years old, making him unique by coaching standards. He played at Coastal Carolina and began his coaching career at the school before working as Reds assistant catching coach and bullpen catcher for two seasons and Marlins catching coach, assistant catching director and bullpen catcher this year.

The Winter Meetings begin Sunday evening in Orlando, and that means a whole lot of news and rumors and major transactions to kick off the meat of the offseason.

Sometimes. But not most of the time.

Though the Winter Meetings do usually include a healthy dose of news, the event is never guaranteed to deliver the kind of blockbusters most fans and reporters crave. In today’s world of texting over face-to-face communication, there’s little urgency for general managers or agents to get things done during a frantic 72-hour window at a massive resort and convention center.

This has certainly held true for the Nationals over the years. They’ve made a handful of big signings or trades at previous Winter Meetings, but most of those more than a decade ago. And over the last five years, they’ve hardly done anything of real significance, a product both of the changing ways baseball transactions get made and the franchise’s changed objective to focus on long-term goals over short-term success.

Will Paul Toboni make big news in his first Winter Meetings running baseball operations? Stay tuned. In the meantime, let’s take a moment to look back in time and recall the handful of big-time signings and trades the Nationals have made at the annual offseason gathering. …

Whether you agreed with the decision to trade Juan Soto way back in 2022 or not, you understood the selling point of the move from the Nationals’ perspective. Yes, they had just dealt away a generational, homegrown, championship-winning player at 23. But in return they got five of the Padres’ top prospects, perhaps the most impressive trade haul in major league history.

And when three of those prospects became National League All-Stars within three years, with hope still for the other two guys to become permanent big leaguers at some point, it was hard to refute the logic.

But there was a second half to the equation. Yes, the Nats wanted as many of those prospects to develop into future stars and dwarf Soto’s value to the club. But then they wanted those players to become part of the franchise’s next championship-contending roster.

That, of course, has not happened yet. And now, with the front office that made that monumental trade no longer in charge, comes a question few could have imagined at the time: Might the Nationals trade one or more of the players they received in the Soto trade before actually winning anything?

It’s among the most intriguing questions of this offseason and one of the toughest decisions new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni must confront in the coming weeks.

Craig Albernaz is almost done reaching out to his players, one of the important tasks for any new manager. He’s going through the phone numbers, introducing himself and starting the bonding process that will carry over to spring training in a few months. He doesn't want to be a total stranger to them on the report dates. 

“I’m almost at the finish line,” Albernaz said last night as a call-in guest on the “Orioles Hot Stove Show” on WBAL Radio, which was broadcast live from Rye Street Tavern.

“It’s been awesome to connect with the guys. A lot of energy, a lot of focus work in the offseason. So it’s one of those things where, when you have those conversations, you can’t not be excited to get to spring training and get to work.”

Albernaz has watched president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias fortify the bullpen with set-up man Andrew Kittredge and closer Ryan Helsley and the middle of the lineup with power-hitting outfielder Taylor Ward. And there are more boxes to check.

“Real excited,” Albernaz said. “Mike and his group, they’re working to getting the team better and making these additions. When you add a right-handed bat and a presence in the lineup like Taylor Ward, how can you not be excited? And the same thing with Ryan Helsley. And the cool part with Helz is that, he was a high priority free agent for a lot of teams and he made the decision to choose us, and that’s something we don’t take lightly here. And I thanked him for it.”