Nats fans have said a lot about owner Mark Lerner in recent years. However, you can’t blame him for one thing: he didn’t choose a direction after firing Mike Rizzo. The Washington Nationals have done everything they can to acquire the brightest young minds in baseball.
Lerner has replaced a braintrust in its early 60s with a braintrust in its early 30s. In fact, the Nats POBO, GM and manager were all born in the 1990s. You’d have to think this is the first time this has ever happened in professional sports.
We’re going to take a look at some of the Nats’ new coaches and front office members and compare them to their predecessors. When you make a direct comparison, it’s really shocking to see how much younger the Nats have gotten.
Old POBO/GM: Mike Rizzo, 64
As Nationals fans know, Mike Rizzo was the General Manager and President of Baseball Operations for the Nats for many years. He was a grizzled veteran and was 64 years old when he was discharged in July. Rizzo came from a traditional scouting background and could be described as an old school guy.
Rizzo was a third-generation scout and the son of famed scout Phil Rizzo. He worked his way up through the Diamondbacks organization before coming to DC. Rizzo was the head man in DC for 15 years. For most of that time, Rizzo has done an excellent job.
He always had a good eye for the trade and made some smart free agent pickups. However, as the game moved in an even more analytical direction, Rizzo had a harder time adapting. Although Rizzo sometimes tried to evolve, at heart Rizzo was always that old-fashioned scout.
He still had a great tenure as Nats GM, but near the end it was time for a change. Rizzo will always be a Nationals legend for the teams he built in the 2010s. However, the Nats needed something different, and that’s exactly what they got.
New POBO/GM: Paul Toboni, 35 and Ani Kilambi, 31
The top of the Nats front office has gotten much younger. It started with Paul Toboni, whom the Nats hired from the Red Sox in September. As President of Baseball Operations, Toboni will be the man running the show. He doesn’t have the GM title, but he is the main decision maker.
Toboni will make those decisions with a different philosophy than the one Rizzo used. Considering he’s about thirty years younger, that makes perfect sense. Toboni grew up in a very different baseball world than the one where Rizzo got his start. He is much more analytical, and this is reflected in his recruitments.
One appointment where that certainly came to the fore was with his GM hire. Ani Kilambi rose through the baseball ranks in an R&D role. He was not a scout or former player. Kilambi is part of the new school. He is 31 years old and still very young, but has been working in baseball for about ten years now.
The fact that the Nats have a separate position for the GM and POBO is also new. It shows that this will be more of a joint effort. However, youth does not stop at the front office.
Old manager: Davey Martinez, 60
The technical staff has also become much younger. That starts with the manager. Davey Martinez was 60 years old when he was let go. He followed a fairly traditional path to becoming a manager as well.
Martinez had a solid 16-year MLB career. After a few years of retirement, Martinez eventually turned to coaching. He worked with Joe Maddon on the Rays and Cubs. As bench coach for a highly successful manager, it was inevitable that Martinez would be given a managerial job himself.
Ultimately, Martinez got the role with the Nats. In his sophomore year, Davey caught lightning in a bottle and won a World Series. However, for much of his tenure, his in-game management was a bit questionable. He also had an old-school mentality, which you could see in his personnel choices.
Martinez’s performance in 2019 will be looked back on fondly, but like Rizzo, you could see that the writing was on the wall in 2025. His comments about how the coaches should never be blamed felt like the final straw for the veteran manager. The Nats decided to go in a completely different direction.
New administrator: Blake Butera, 33
The Nats went from an older manager in Martinez to the youngest manager in over 50 years in Blake Butera. Their paths to becoming managers were also very different. While Martinez had a long MLB career, Butera’s career stalled in the Minor Leagues.
After a few years in the Rays system, Butera retired from playing and became a minor league coach. At just 25 years old, Butera managed a Rays Single-A team. The former BC Eagle clearly had a lot of fans in the Rays organization to be given that role at such a young age.
After a few seasons as a Minor League manager, Butera transitioned into a player development role. He was the Rays’ senior director of player development before taking the Nats job. It’s clear that Butera will place a heavy emphasis on developing players at the MLB level, which has been an issue for the Nats as of late.
For this he will have to rely on his technical staff, which is also still very young. Just looking at the ages of the two coaching staffs, it’s truly insane how much of a 180 the Nats organization has done.
Old pitching coach: Jim Hickey, 63
Like most members of the old regime, Jim Hickey was a grizzled baseball veteran. Hickey was a longtime pitching coach, most notably with the Rays. There he formed a relationship with Davey Martinez.
Hickey, who was 63 last season, had a lot of success with the Rays, but his time with the Nats was a mixed bag. He didn’t have the most talent to work with, which led to the Nats’ pitching staff not being great. However, there weren’t enough development success stories when Hickey was in DC.
Last season was especially frustrating. While the league reduced the use of four-seam fastballs, the Nats staff pumped heaters. Mitchell Parker, who has a mediocre fastball, threw his fourth cut 55% of the time. Like many of the Nats coaches, it felt like Hickey’s philosophy was outdated.
New pitching coach: Simon Matthews, 30
Within a very young staff, Simon Mathews is one of the youngest guys. After pitching at Georgetown University, Mathews had an unsuccessful Minor League career before entering coaching.
Like many modern pitching gurus, Mathews has been introduced to these elite pitching labs like Driveline. He was actually the director of pitching at a lab called Push Performance. Mathews crossed paths with Sean Doolittle while there.
He then joined the Reds organization. He was involved in their rehabilitation process for pitchers. This is a useful tool considering how often pitchers go down these days. Mathews then became an assistant pitching coach in Cincinnati this past season, where the Reds’ pitching staff had more success than it had in a long time.
Hopefully he can help some Nats pitchers as well. He is another analytical mind who will do things in a different way. Hopefully we see the Nats reduce their use of four seams in 2026.
Old hitting coach: Darnell Coles, 63
Like the rest of the old regime, Darnell Coles was in his sixties. He played in the big league for a long time and also had a lot of coaching experience when he arrived in DC. However, this appointment always felt a bit strange as his previous batting coaching experience wasn’t great.
Coles was fired by both the Brewers and D-Backs after being up and down at both spots. He had some solid years, but he was also never seen as an elite hitting coach. However, his philosophy of putting the ball in play resonated with Davey Martinez.
His tenure in DC was very frustrating. It never felt like the Nats’ young hitters were developing well. Guys like Keibert Ruiz and Luis Garcia Jr. never reached that next level with Coles. Even the Nats’ star players like James Wood and CJ Abrams went through these extended slumps where adjustments never seemed to happen.
Like the rest of the old staff, Coles was an old-fashioned guy who didn’t seem to adapt. He has found his feet with an assistant as coach with the Braves. However, he was always under fire from the Nats fans and it was easy to see why.
New hitting coach: Matt Borgschulte, 35
Yet another coach in his sixties is replaced by a man in his thirties. At 35 years old, Matt Borgschulte is the old man of this staff. He is also the most experienced of the group. Borgschulte was the co-hitting coach for the Orioles for a few seasons before becoming the Twins hitting coach.
Borgschulte did well in his one year in Minnesota, but after manager Rocco Baldelli was fired, he wasn’t retained. However, Borgschulte is highly regarded in the competition. When you hear him talk about hitting, it’s easy to understand why.
He has a big job ahead of him, with many young Nats hitters looking to make big moves. Hopefully he can unlock guys like Dylan Crews, Brady House and Robert Hassell. More established guys like James Wood, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile will also try to unlock a new level.
The Washington Nationals are all about replacing men in their 60s with men in their 30s. It’s a really fun experiment, and in my opinion, necessary. Of course, this comes with risk, but the reward is high.
Baseball is constantly evolving and the Nats are trying to stay ahead of the curve. That’s very exciting and something I’ve wanted to see for a while. Hopefully the Nats can become the brightest team in baseball with all these young and talented minds.
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