The first free agent signed by the Nationals’ new front office is a former first-round pick who went to Japan to resurrect his pitching career.

The Nats are in agreement with left-hander Foster Griffin on a one-year contract that guarantees $5.5 million plus incentives, a source familiar with the terms confirmed. The deal, which was first reported by FanSided.com, is contingent on the 30-year-old passing a physical.

It’s a bit of an unconventional first foray into free agency for new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, though one that has become increasingly popular among other organizations willing to take a modest financial risk on former big leaguers who parlay success in Asia into major league offers.

Originally the 28th-overall pick of the 2014 Draft by the Royals, Griffin made his major league debut in 2020 and has made seven total big league appearances with Kansas City and Toronto, allowing six earned runs in eight innings. Released by the Blue Jays in November 2022, the 6-foot-3 southpaw then signed with the Yomiuri Giants and turned his career around.

In three seasons pitching in Japan, Griffin went 18-10 with a 2.57 ERA and 1.033 WHIP, working as a starter. The lefty peaked this summer, going 6-1 with a 1.62 ERA, 0.949 WHIP and 77 strikeouts in 78 innings, earning an NPB All-Star selection before being sidelined by a leg injury.

We’ll never know if there was a realistic chance of Josh Bell returning to the Nationals for another season, whether the new front office valued him the same way the previous front office did. Regardless, it’s too late now after the big slugger chose a new home for the 2026 season.

Bell agreed to a one-year, $7 million contract with the Twins, according to multiple reports Monday, taking his big bat and popular persona to Minnesota. The 33-year-old is expected to see time both at first base and designated hitter, bolstering a lineup that saw only one player hit more than his 22 homers this season.

The Twins become Bell’s seventh different club in seven seasons, a nomadic career he never desired but has been forced to accept due to a combination of trades and short-term contracts. Originally drafted by the Pirates in 2011, he spent his first five seasons in Pittsburgh, making an All-Star team, before he was traded to the Nationals on Christmas Eve 2020 for pitchers Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean (who recently returned to the Nats on a minor league deal).

Bell quickly embraced D.C. and expressed a desire to stay here long-term. But when the organization opted to tear down the remnants of its World Series roster and rebuild with younger players, Bell wound up on the trading block. He was paired up with star outfielder Juan Soto in the August 2022 blockbuster that brought five prospects to the Nationals, with Bell’s inclusion in the deal necessary to acquire pitching prospect Jarlin Susana.

Bell spent only two months in San Diego before becoming a free agent, and he proceeded to sign a two-year, $33 million deal with Cleveland … only to be traded to Miami during that first year. He was then traded to Arizona at the 2024 deadline before again reaching free agency last winter.

Why did it take two decades before the Nationals signed their first free agent from Asia?

“That market is a market that is built on relationships,” former general manager Mike Rizzo said. “You can’t go down there and just pick and choose a guy you want to scout and try and sign him. That market, I dabbled in it when I was with Arizona a few times. And here, we’ve tried at several Asian players. And it’s just … you’re always on the outside looking in, because you don’t have the network there, the groundwork there, that you need to have to create these relationships.”

Rizzo said this in January, shortly after signing Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a two-year, $3.5 million contract. It was significant news, not so much because of the actual player who was signed, but because it marked the first Japanese free agent signed by the Nats since they arrived in town in 2005.

Rizzo, of course, is no longer GM of the franchise. And in a bit of irony, Ogasawara made his major league debut (and trailed 4-0 before recording an out) hours before Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez were fired.

The left-hander went on to make one more start, then made 21 relief appearances in August and September, ultimately completing his rookie season with a gaudy 6.98 ERA and 1.552 WHIP. Paul Toboni’s new front office wound up removing the left-hander from the 40-man roster, outrighting him to Triple-A Rochester, where he’ll likely be the highest-paid player on the roster in 2026.

The Winter Meetings have come and gone, and not much has changed for the Nationals since they traded Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners last weekend before heading to Orlando.

We did, however, see some changes across baseball’s greater landscape, most notably the Orioles signing first base slugger Pete Alonso to a five-year, $155 million contract. That was one of the first major dominoes to fall this offseason, with many more now to follow.

New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni didn’t leave the Winter Meetings with a splashy free agent signing nor another trade completed. He used the week to lay down groundwork for the deals he’ll make between now and the start of spring training.

But with other moves from around the league, we can now speculate on possible avenues he could pursue to fill out the 2026 roster.

After Wednesday’s blockbuster news of Alonso signing with the Orioles, a train of thought led to the possibility of the first-ever trade between the Nats and O’s.

The Nationals agreed to terms on a 2026 contract with Josiah Gray on Friday, avoiding arbitration with the right-hander, who is attempting to make it back from major elbow surgery.

Gray agreed to a deal that will pay him $1.35 million, a source familiar with the terms confirmed, matching his salary from this season. The vast majority of players who are arbitration-eligible receive raises through the process, but he was unlikely to be awarded one because he did not pitch at all in the majors in 2025.

Had the two sides not been able to agree to a salary on their own, they would’ve needed to file for arbitration next month, submitting competing offers and then making their cases before a three-judge panel in February.

Gray joins catcher Riley Adams ($1 million) as players who have avoided arbitration with the Nationals so far. They are still attempting to work out deals with five other arbitration-eligible players: second baseman Luis García Jr., shortstop CJ Abrams, left-hander MacKenzie Gore and right-handers Jake Irvin and Cade Cavalli.

An All-Star in 2023 and the team’s Opening Day starter the following season, Gray hasn’t pitched in a big league game since April 4, 2024, after which he reported forearm soreness. Initially diagnosed with a flexor strain, he was back pitching in minor league rehab games two months later and appeared to be on the verge of coming off the injured list when he reported new soreness in his elbow following a June 30 start with Triple-A Rochester.

With a new president of baseball operations and a new manager, there were no shortage of Nationals-related topics to bring up at the Winter Meetings this week. Paul Toboni and Blake Butera were peppered with all sorts of questions during their three days in Orlando, and while some of those garnered the immediate headlines, a few more didn’t make the first cut.

With that in mind, let’s go back through the notebook and present Toboni and Butera’s thoughts on some other topics we didn’t get to earlier in the week …

* While we did print their answers to questions about the possibility of trading CJ Abrams, we didn’t get to the question of what position the new brain trust expects him to play if he’s not dealt this winter.

Abrams’ defensive struggles this season were well-documented. Of the 22 major league shortstops who played enough innings to qualify, he ranked 19th in Defensive Runs Saved (minus-6), 20th in Outs Above Average (minus-11) and 21st in Fangraphs’ all-encompassing defensive metric (minus-3.2).

Much of those negative numbers came during a particularly rough second half. After committing nine errors in his first 89 games, Abrams was charged with 13 over his final 53 games (including four during a five-day span in September).

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.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The new Nationals front office’s first Rule 5 Draft pick is an experienced right-hander with elite stuff and high strikeout numbers, but a penchant for walking batters at an alarming rate.

Paul Toboni and Co. decided to take a shot at Griff McGarry, a University of Virginia graduate who spent the last five seasons climbing the ladder in the Phillies’ farm system but never got a shot in the majors because of his inability to consistently throw strikes.

McGarry, 26, was selected with the third pick in this afternoon’s Rule 5 Draft, behind fellow righties RJ Petit (Rockies) and Jedixson Paez (White Sox). The Nationals will give him a shot to make the Opening Day roster, then hope to keep him on the major league roster the entire season without offering him back to Philadelphia.

“The stuff stands out, the velocity,” manager Blake Butera said. “I’ve also heard, even since we just took him, some people have reached out to say what kind of kid he is, what kind of worker he is. We’re just excited to get somebody with that kind of stuff, obviously coming from a great organization. And you build in the work ethic and the character, it seems like a pretty good fit.”

The good with McGarry: His mid-to-upper 90s fastball, and multiple sharp breaking balls, all rate as elite pitches according to advanced metrics. Across 287 minor league innings since 2021, he has allowed only 182 hits while striking out 420 batters. His 13.34 strikeouts per nine innings this season ranked fourth across the entirety of Minor League Baseball, and the Phillies named him their organizational pitcher of the year.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Though most mentions of the Nationals at these Winter Meetings have focused on the players they may be willing to trade, for the record they are in fact also looking to add players via free agency.

“Absolutely, and those conversations have been going for some days, weeks now,” president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said Tuesday evening. “But you know how it is: Once the Winter Meetings get rolling, especially day two, some of these deals start to come through. I will say it’s moving a little bit slower, for whatever reason. But we’ll see how these next couple days go.”

Tuesday saw major free agent news involving two other teams in the National League East. The Phillies re-signed Kyle Schwarber for five years and $150 million, locking the slugger up through his age-38 season. The Mets lost longtime closer Edwin Diaz to the Dodgers, who were willing to pay the soon-to-be 32-year-old $69 million over three seasons. And shortly before midnight, old pal Kyle Finnegan re-signed with the Tigers for two years and $19 million.

Whether those deals open the floodgates for others remains to be seen. The meetings conclude this afternoon with the Rule 5 Draft, so time is running out for teams to finalize deals before leaving town. Then again, the meetings often serve merely as a forum for executives and agents to meet in person and lay the groundwork for agreements that come later in the offseason.

Toboni and his new-look front office have met with several agents and discussed several free agents while here. They aren’t expected to get involved in long-term, high-dollar sweepstakes, but they acknowledge there are specific areas of need they intend to address via the open market.

ORLANDO, Fla. – For the second time in three years, the Nationals entered the MLB Draft Lottery knowing they were ineligible for one of the top picks. And for the second time in three years, they learned after the fact they would’ve emerged with one of the top picks if not for the event’s convoluted rules.

The Nats will hold the No. 11 overall pick in the 2026 Draft, a position that was already sealed but became official tonight with the completion of the fourth annual Draft Lottery at the Winter Meetings. But had they been eligible, they would’ve been awarded the No. 2 pick after their combination of ping pong balls was drawn shortly after the White Sox’s combination was drawn for the No. 1 pick.

According to Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper, the designated pool reporter witnessing the actual lottery held several hours prior to the televised event, the Nationals’ combination of balls actually came up in four of the first nine draws. Each time, they were ruled ineligible, and another draw was made.

Why were they ineligible? The rules MLB established when creating the lottery in 2022 say that no team may participate in the lottery three consecutive years, and no team that is designated as a revenue-sharing payor (as opposed to receiver) may participate in the lottery in back-to-back years.

Because the Nats won the 2024 lottery – securing the No. 1 pick they would use to draft shortstop Eli Willits – and because they’re considered a revenue-sharing payor, they were ineligible this year. Despite finishing with the majors’ third-worst record, they could only pick 11th in next summer’s Draft. (They will, however, hold the third pick from the second through the 20th rounds.)

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, 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. – 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 – 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.

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.

The first big domino to fall for the Nationals this offseason did so before next week’s Winter Meetings even officially started. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni didn’t wait to meet with other general managers face-to-face in Orlando to pull off his first trade as the new head of Washington’s organization.

Toboni decided to part ways with a left-handed pitcher, but it’s not the one you’re thinking of.

Jose A. Ferrer has been dealt to the Mariners for prospects Harry Ford and Isaac Lyon, the Nats announced this evening.

Ford is a 22-year-old catching prospect who made his major league debut this season with Seattle. He was the Mariners' No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline and their No. 6 per Baseball America. Pipeline has him as the No. 3 catching prospect in the sport and the No. 42 prospect overall. Baseball America ranks him at No. 74 in its top 100.

The 12th-overall pick in 2021 out of North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Ga., Ford hit .283 with an .868 OPS, 16 home runs, 18 doubles, 74 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 97 games with Triple-A Tacoma. He displayed a strong eye in the batter’s box by striking out just 88 times in 458 plate appearances for a 19.1 percent rate.

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.

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.

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.