Remodeled Nats acknowledge there's still plenty of work to do

Paul Toboni and Blake Butera each had attended several previous Winter Meetings in their roles with the Red Sox and Rays, respectively. Toboni had participated in high-level meetings in the organization’s suite, during which free agents were signed and trades were completed. Butera had met with fellow minor league managers and farm directors, and had even been one of the club representatives sitting at Tampa Bay’s table at the annual Rule 5 Draft.

Neither man, however, had ever been in these kind of positions of authority. Toboni had never been the one giving the final green light on a trade, nor led the meetings with top agents like Scott Boras. Butera had never been interviewed by reporters, nor asked to pose for photos with the likes of Terry Francona and Dave Roberts.

This week’s event in Orlando was both familiar and unfamiliar to the two 30-somethings now controlling the fate of the Nationals.

Asked if this feels different from his previous times attending the Winter Meetings, Butera smiled and said: “It does. One hundred percent.”

This felt decidedly different for the Nationals as a whole. The last time someone other than Mike Rizzo led baseball operations at the meetings was 2008. The last time someone other than Davey Martinez held a managerial press conference at the event was 2016.

And it’s not just Toboni and Butera. The front office has been revamped. Though there are some holdovers like senior vice president Mike DeBartolo, there are plenty more new faces in newly created roles like assistant GM for player development Devin Pearson and assistant GM for player acquisitions Justin Horowitz. Most are young, energetic and hope to bring their experiences working for other successful franchises to the Nats.

The coaching staff, meanwhile, has only one holdover from this season: Sean Doolittle, who returns as assistant pitching coach. There are 11 newcomers, including Butera, almost all of them under 40, almost all of them having never played in the majors, many of them having never coached in the majors.

Given all that change over the last two months, it was tough for the group that assembled this week to make significant decisions about the 2026 Nationals roster. They all admit they haven’t had enough time yet to really evaluate the players they now control.

Nobody wanted to say yet whether Luis Garcia Jr. should get a serious look at first base or remain at second base. Nobody was prepared to declare Brad Lord as either a starter or reliever. Nobody knew yet if Cole Henry or Clayton Beeter would be considered the team’s closer in the wake of Jose A. Ferrer’s trade to Seattle.

That, in part, probably explains the lack of transactions the team completed this week. Aside from the Ferrer-for-Harry Ford deal, which went down the day before everyone arrived in Orlando, the Nats selected one player in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft, then six more in the minor league phase. There were no free agents signed, major or minor league. There were no other trades consummated, big or small.

That’s not totally unusual. Rizzo’s teams often used the Winter Meetings solely to lay the groundwork for signings and trades that came days or weeks later. But Toboni had little choice but to do the same this time, recognizing he’s still very much in the evaluation stage of a daunting first offseason in charge.

The young president of baseball operations apologized for continually using the phrase “we’re being open-minded” when asked about specific possibilities regarding both players already on and not yet on the roster. But there’s truth to his vague answers, because he has to remain open-minded to all possibilities during this winter of major change.

Will MacKenzie Gore and/or CJ Abrams be traded? They might, they might not. Will the Nationals sign a veteran starting pitcher to provide some stability to an inexperienced rotation? Probably, but perhaps not. Will they acquire a first baseman? Yeah. Will they acquire a dedicated designated hitter? No. Will they bring in plenty of arms to fill out a thin bullpen? For sure.

In the strictest calendar sense, the Winter Meetings represent the midway point of the offseason, a little more than nine weeks removed from Game 162, a little more than nine weeks ahead of the start of spring training.

But for these Nationals, it really was the start of the offseason. They needed those first nine weeks to get their remodeled house in order. They’ll now use the next nine weeks to start adding furniture.