Because Paul Toboni had previously suggested he might wait a while to hire a general manager, Anirudh Kilambi had little reason to expect a phone call from the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations earlier this month. Besides, Kilambi was perfectly happy in his role as an assistant GM with the Phillies, leading their research and development team, helping supplement a big-market team with big-name stars and a deep-rooted desire to win a World Series now.
Toboni, though, was keeping an open mind all along on hiring a GM this winter, instead of waiting a year to fill that all-important No. 2 role in his revamped front office. And having met Kilambi a few years ago and having heard great things about him from others in baseball since, he decided to contact the Phillies two weeks ago and request an interview.
“We could’ve waited a year or evaluated for a year, but that wouldn’t have allowed for us to push forward at the rate that we would’ve wanted to in year one,” Toboni said. “And year one’s a really important year. Ani in many ways helps us with that, and obviously he’s going to help us way beyond that first year. … I was very comfortable keeping this vacant if we didn’t come onto the right fit. Ani just happens to be an exceptional fit for us.”
Barely two weeks removed from their first phone call, the Nationals officially hired Kilambi as their new GM, giving Toboni one of the sport’s brightest young data minds as his top lieutenant in a front office that bears very little resemblance to the one that had been in place since the franchise arrived in D.C. more than two decades ago.
At 35, Toboni already is the youngest president of baseball operations in the majors. At 31, Kilambi becomes the youngest GM. And that’s to say nothing of 33-year-old manager Blake Butera or the countless other under-40 executives and coaches the Nats have hired in the last two months to remake an organization mired in six consecutive losing seasons since reaching the ultimate peak in 2019.
“This is a very exciting group,” Kilambi said in an introductory Zoom session with reporters today. “I would say that my excitement is not about the age of the people who are working around me, but rather the ideas and the skills and the talents that everyone brings to the table. Ultimately, we want to surround ourselves with open-minded folks with great ideas about how to win baseball games, and they can come from all ages and backgrounds.”
Kilambi’s background is noteworthy. A native of the Bay Area who grew up a rabid Giants fan, he graduated from Cal-Berkeley a few years after Toboni, the two never crossing paths there but destined to work together more than a decade later.
Hired by the Rays in 2015 as an intern in their baseball research and development department, he worked his way up the organizational ladder, becoming director of decision sciences for a franchise that has long been an analytics trendsetter in 2021. The Phillies then came calling in 2022 with an opportunity to be one of their assistant GMs, overseeing the research and information departments of a ballclub known more for its old-school approach to roster-building.
Praised as one of the game’s best at identifying and developing lesser-known players into quality big leaguers, Kilambi worked for teams that made the postseason seven consecutive seasons, including one World Series appearance a piece for Tampa Bay (2020) and Philadelphia (2022).
The Nationals are hoping Kilambi can bring those qualities to a franchise that has long lagged behind others in data, technology and developing homegrown major leaguers. His method for achieving that goal?
“Can we acquire players who we identify more quickly than the industry, that we are more accurate on than the industry? Can we develop players faster than the industry?” he said. “And a lot of this comes down to a combination of urgency, competitiveness and just really sharp eyes for talent.”
Though he now holds the GM title, Kilambi does not hold the traditional GM role. Toboni calls the shots and has final say on all decisions. Kilambi is his right-hand man, working in conjunction with three assistant GMs: Mike DeBartolo (the most prominent member of Mike Rizzo’s front office to be retained), Devin Pearson and Justin Horowitz.
“I think the easiest way to think about it is that we’re going to be extensions of each other,” Toboni said. “As it relates to the role Ani’s going to be in, I think at a high level it just starts with being a key voice for the long-term strategy of the organization.”
Toboni was attracted not only to Kilambi’s data-centric background but also his humility and ability to work with others in an industry where that’s often more difficult than it sounds.
“Ani has a great ability to challenge and push us forward, but also not antagonize folks in the process. I think that’s really important,” he said. “Ani is really smart … but I think there a lot of really intelligent folks that struggle creating influence, because they lack humility or maybe fail to see the other side of an argument. But Ani’s a great listener and someone I think will do a great job relationship-building, building trust in all corners of the operation.”
Kilambi hasn’t had much time yet to do a deep dive on the Nationals’ major league and minor league rosters. But having worked for a division rival the last four years, he has a pretty good sense of the talent already in place and the possibility of more to come.
What really sold him on this career move, though, were the words he heard from Toboni about his long-term vision for the franchise. Not to mention what he heard from others in baseball about what the Nats are trying to build here.
“I wasn’t dying to leave the Phillies,” he said. “The Phillies have a tremendous organization. They’ve been really good to me and are building something great. But at the same time, as I learned more about the Nationals organization, and as I got the opportunity to speak both with folks within the organization and with folks I know in the industry who know folks who work here, I became drawn to the vision that Paul has proposed and to the group of folks that has been assembled here.
“Over the last two weeks, I had the opportunity to have a ton of conversations, do a ton of vetting, and that made me super-excited about the trajectory of the organization and the challenge ahead.”