Where can young Nats find clubhouse leadership?

There are tangible items on Paul Toboni’s offseason shopping list, specific pieces the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations needs to acquire before his roster is ready to take the field in 2026. First baseman. Starting pitcher. Multiple relievers. Perhaps another catcher.

There’s also an intangible item that should be high on Toboni’s list. It’s a little trickier to acquire, but it’s something that was sorely lacking on this team in 2025. Leadership.

We know the Nats had one of the youngest rosters in baseball this season, and likely will again next season. And we know there is some legitimate talent within that young core. But there really isn’t anyone at the moment who can set a positive example for all those young guys, both on the field and in the clubhouse. Someone who has been there and done that before. Someone whose actions and words carry real weight with teammates.

It was a major flaw of the roster Mike Rizzo built this year. As promising as James Wood, Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Cade Cavalli, Brad Lord, Jose A. Ferrer and Cole Henry were, they were kind of left to figure things out on their own. More than one player noted at season’s end the lack of “accountability” that was prevalent throughout the season.n

Sure, Davey Martinez and his coaching staff – then Miguel Cairo in the second half – provided leadership. But there’s only so much the adults can do. Every major league club needs experienced major league players who command respect from their peers, whether a perennial contender like this franchise had last decade or a rebuilding group like the one that has been here since.

That’s not to say there weren’t a few experienced players on the 2025 roster. There were. Josh Bell was in his 10th big league season, having previously played for two playoff teams. Paul DeJong was in his ninth season, having made the playoffs four straight years with the Cardinals. Nathaniel Lowe was in his seventh season and was only two years removed from a championship run in Texas.

But none of those guys really fit the desired description. Bell and DeJong, while highly respected, are soft-spoken and don’t really go out of their way to mentor younger teammates. Lowe, meanwhile, never gave the impression he was interested in leading and was unceremoniously dumped in August.

The situation was a bit better on the pitching side of the clubhouse, though that fell apart by midsummer. Trevor Williams, after signing his second two-year deal with the Nationals, viewed himself as the de facto leader of a rotation that took its cues from Patrick Corbin the previous three seasons. But after posting a 6.21 ERA and suffering a season-ending elbow injury, he had little-to-no role. The bullpen was supposed to be led by Kyle Finnegan and Derek Law, but Finnegan was traded on July 31 and Law spent the entire season on the injured list.

It's not impossible to lead when you’re either performing poorly or residing on the IL. But it’s not ideal.

There was another underlying factor that made it difficult for any of those players to truly take ownership of the clubhouse: All knew they were short-timers. Bell and DeJong signed one-year contracts. Williams had a rare two-year deal, but that didn’t make him part of the organization’s long-term plan. Finnegan and Law were pending free agents and likely trade candidates. Lowe at best was going to be here for two years, nothing more.

Words and actions carry a lot more weight when they’re attached to someone the organization has committed to long-term. Even more so when that someone has committed to the organization long-term.

It’s been a while since the Nationals made a long-term commitment to a player (aside from Keibert Ruiz’s eight-year extension, which at this point looks like a major mistake). The last free agent they signed to more than a two-year deal was reliever Will Harris coming out of the 2019 World Series. The last position player free agent they signed to more than a two-year deal? That would be Daniel Murphy on the heels of his dynamite 2015 postseason run with the Mets.

We don’t know yet how Toboni intends to bolster this roster in the coming months before everyone reports to West Palm Beach. Reading between the lines, he seems to be suggesting this is still going to be a young team that is more focused on building something successful in the long-term than the short-term. There haven’t been any real hints of serious pursuits at top free agents who will command contracts far beyond three years.

But that doesn’t mean the Nationals’ new brass can’t make leadership a higher priority than the previous one did last winter. It doesn’t necessarily have to come in the form of a $100 million deal. It could be a more calculated move to bring in someone who not only has experience, who not only has the right personality but who expresses a real desire to commit to this organization’s long-term benefit.

Some day down the road, we may talk about clubhouse leaders named Crews and Cavalli. But they can’t hold those roles yet. They need to establish themselves as quality big league players first before their opinions carry weight with teammates.

And, right now, what they and every other young player on the Nats roster needs, are a couple of veterans to show them how it’s done first.