We've reached the final week of the year, so it's time to look back at the Nationals' most significant stories of 2025. We continue the series today with a breakout season by a former top prospect that was long promised …

James Wood’s major league debut on July 1, 2024, of course, was highly anticipated. At the time, he was the top prospect in baseball with a lot of expectations surrounding him. Not only was he one of the five prospects the Nationals got in return from the Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell in 2022, but the Rockville, Md., native had returned to play for his hometown team.

Sure enough, he impressed over his first three months in the majors, hitting nine home runs, 13 doubles and four triples with 41 RBIs, 14 stolen bases, a .264 average and .781 OPS in 79 games.

That set expectations sky high for him entering 2025, his first full big league season. And he delivered in the first half.

In his first 87 games through July 3, Wood slashed .294/.395/.563 with 23 homers, 19 doubles, 67 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. He posted a .958 OPS that ranked among the league leaders, while he was on pace for more than 40 homers, 120 RBIs and 100 walks for the season.

We've reached the final week of the year, so it's time to look back at the Nationals' most significant stories of 2025. We begin the series today by looking back at an active trade deadline for the Nats, who had an interim general manager in charge of making deals …

Mike DeBartolo had an unexpectedly busy summer. When Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez were relieved of their duties on July 6, the longtime assistant general manager was elevated to the interim GM role in place of Rizzo.

A week later, DeBartolo guided the Nats’ shaken-up front office through the MLB Draft, in which they used the No. 1 overall pick to select high school shortstop Eli Willits.

Then two weeks later, the interim GM had to navigate the trade deadline, one in which the Nats were expected to be very active.

But DeBartolo handled those challenges admirably. He did not shy away from drafting Willits, who some considered the best all-around player in the draft even at 17 years old, for underslot value to load up on other highly-touted prospects in subsequent rounds.

Foster Griffin’s baseball journey is not done yet. After only seven major league appearances across the 2020 and 2022 seasons with the Royals and Blue Jays and Tommy John surgery that knocked him out of the 2021 season, the former first-round pick took a chance at playing in Japan.

Signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball in 2023, the left-hander thrived overseas. He went 6-5 with a 2.75 ERA and 1.074 WHIP in 20 starts during his first season in Japan. He then followed that up with a 7-6 record and 2.93 ERA in 24 starts in his second season abroad.

Griffin’s third campaign in Tokyo was his best. He finished 6-1 with a 1.53 ERA and 0.966 WHIP in 17 starts, earning a selection to the NPB Central League All-Star Game. And perhaps most impressively, he allowed only one homer over 89 innings.

Across three seasons in Japan, he went 18-10 with a 2.57 ERA, 1.033 WHIP, 9.1 strikeouts and 2.0 walks per nine innings in 54 games.

That earned him the opportunity to return to the major leagues on a $5.5 million deal, plus incentives, with the Nationals that was made official on Monday. And with that new contract, comes the opportunity to be a starter again, this time in the bigs.

Merry Christmas to all and to all happy holidays!

As we wake up this morning to see what new things from our personal wish lists Santa left under the tree, there are still plenty of things on the Nationals’ wish list that need to be checked off before the start of the next season.

To be sure, it has been a busy offseason for the Nats. Paul Toboni was hired as the new president of baseball operations at the end of the regular season. He has made numerous hires to fill out his restructured front office, including Anirudh Kilambi as the general manager to work directly below him.

Blake Butera was named the eighth full-time manager in club history. And at the ripe age of 33, he’s by far the youngest. He’s been working to fill out his coaching staff, which we know includes the return of Sean Doolittle.

Toboni has made some of his first roster moves since taking over the Nats as well. He traded left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for top catching prospect Harry Ford and right-hander Isaac Lyon.

Santa Claus isn’t the only one who is busy on this Christmas Eve. The Nationals made a move to add depth to the roster after checking their offseason wish list twice.

The Nats have signed first baseman Matt Mervis to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, per a source, adding depth to a position of need. The New York Post was first to report the signing.

Mervis, 27, was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Potomac, Md. He played high school baseball at Georgetown Prep, with the Nats originally drafting him in the 39th round in the 2016 MLB Draft. But he didn’t sign with the team and instead decided to play collegiately at Duke.

He went undrafted in the five-round 2020 MLB Draft, shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and signed with the Cubs as a free agent.

After making his major league debut on May 5, 2023, he went on to play 27 games with the North Siders, hitting .167 with a .531 OPS, three home runs and 11 RBIs.

Friday’s joint Zoom meeting with new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and new general manager Anirudh Kilambi of course gave us insight into how the new dynamic at the top of the front office will work. And we’ll have much more on that to come.

But it also gave us the first chance to ask Toboni about a recent roster move he’s made since leaving the Winter Meetings in Orlando.

The 35-year-old executive could not comment on the reported signing of left-hander Foster Griffin to a one-year, $5.5 million deal, as that has not been made official yet. But he could discuss a trade he made with his former organization in a swapping of minor league pitchers.

On Monday, Toboni made his second trade since taking over the Nationals front office by sending left-hander Jake Bennett to the Red Sox in exchange for right-hander Luis Perales. Both pitchers have a lot of upside, but both are recently returning from Tommy John surgery. And of course, Toboni knows Perales well from his time overseeing Boston’s player development department.

“On the Perales-Bennett trade, a great opportunity to trade for a great talent in Luis,” Toboni said on the Zoom press conference Friday afternoon. “He's got swing-and-miss stuff. He's still coming back from the injury, but he should be ready to roll in spring training and ready for the start of the season. He's got a really exciting fastball, exciting secondary. And then just having been around him a good amount in Boston, he's a stud competitor. I think a number of us were just really drawn to that and kind of what he can achieve as a pitcher going forward for us. So really excited about the add.”

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.

As the baseball world comes together in Orlando this week for the annual Winter Meetings, so many questions will swirl around the industry.

Which free agents will sign? What big names will be traded? Which teams will appear to be going all-in for 2026?

Unfortunately, sometimes the Winter Meetings leave a lot of questions unanswered. On the other hand, sometimes we get an eventful week where a lot of questions are answered, leading to more intriguing follow-up ones for the upcoming season.

For the Nationals, there are a number of questions revolving around them and new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni this week. One of them was answered last night with the Nats trading left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for two prospects: catcher Harry Ford (Mariners' No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline and No. 6 per Baseball America; No. 3 catching prospect in baseball per Pipeline) and right-hander Isaac Lyon (2025 10th-round pick out of Grand Canyon University).

We might not get the answers to the rest of them, but here are some other questions we should get answers to …

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.

Thanksgiving week is special for the Nationals, who not only enjoy the celebrations but also take the time to give back to the community as the holiday season officially gets underway.

Turkeypalooza, Nationals Philanthropies’ annual holiday meal distribution event, served packaged Thanksgiving meals to people in the D.C. community last week leading up to Thursday’s holiday.

On Monday, volunteers from the Nationals front office and partners AARP, Giant Food and DoorDash, members of the Lerner family including principal owner Mark Lerner, current players CJ Abrams and James Wood, and team legend Ryan Zimmerman packed meal kits that included a turkey, fresh produce and shelf-stable food items and then distributed them outside the center field gate at Nats Park.

“This is a great opportunity,” said Wood, who grew up in nearby Montgomery County, Md. “I’m just happy to be able to stop by and do whatever I can to help out the community a little bit.”

“It’s always good to give back,” said Abrams, who has spent the majority of his four-year major league career in Washington. “Coming out here, handing out turkeys at the stadium, couldn’t ask for a better day.”

Throughout this offseason’s hiring process, we’ve been able to connect some dots to people who we wouldn’t have otherwise believed to be connected.

Despite operating in varying roles in the same division for a long time, the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni (who spent the last 10 years with the Red Sox) and new manager Blake Butera (who spent the last the last 10 years with the Rays) had never met in person before Butera’s first interview. In fact, Monday’s introductory press conference for the new skipper was only the second time they had met in person.

Toboni came to learn more about Butera from a phone call from Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who employed the new Nats manager as his bench coach for Team Italy in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Butera is very close with new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, who coached him during his only two seasons as a professional baseball player in the lower levels of the Rays minor league system.

And so on and so forth.

Little did we know that when the Nats’ new leadership hired a previously unknown name as their new pitching coach that 1) They would also be retaining at least one beloved holdover from the previous coaching staff and 2) That person would already have a close relationship with the new guy in charge of pitching.

When Blake Butera steps into the visiting dugout at Wrigley Field for the Nationals’ Opening Day game against the Cubs on March 26, not only will it be the 33-year-old’s first time in a major league dugout, it will be the first time he’s been in any dugout since 2022, his last season as manager of the Charleston RiverDogs in the Rays’ minor league system.

The Rays had since moved Butera into a front office role. In 2023, he was Tampa Bay's assistant field coordinator. And for the past two years, he’s been the Rays senior director of player development.

That experience helped make Butera one of the fast-rising names around baseball, eventually landing him on new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni’s list of managerial candidates and then as the choice to become the youngest major league manager since the Twins hired Frank Quilici in 1972 (also 33).

“I obviously enjoyed my time managing with the Rays and then when they brought this next opportunity up to me, it was something that was obviously on a broader spectrum, with a lot more players, a lot more staff members to oversee,” Butera said of his move to the Rays front office during his introductory press conference at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon. “I think it was something that gave me a much better perspective of how to build an organization from the ground up and what goes into creating a winning culture, creating a winning team, creating a winning organization. And I think when this next opportunity came about, I always loved being on the field. I love the competition. I love being with the guys every day. So this is a no-brainer.”

After spending four years managing the lower levels of the Rays’ minor league system – earning his first managing gig at just 25 years old and during which he guided his teams to four straight first-place finishes and back-to-back league championships in 2021 and 2022 – the organization felt he was ready to oversee one of the best minor league systems in all of baseball at just 30 years old.

While most of today’s festivities at Nationals Park were focused on the official introduction of 33-year-old Blake Butera as the Nationals’ new manager, some news on his coaching staff also came out.

Sean Doolittle, the Nats’ former All-Star closer and fan favorite reliever who became a pitching strategist after his playing career on former manager Davey Martinez’s coaching staff, will remain on Butera’s staff, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni announced in a scrum with the local media after today’s press conference. Doolittle’s exact title has not yet been determined, but Toboni believes that will be made known in the next week or two.

“Sean Doolittle is going to be coming back to the staff, so we're really excited about that,” Toboni said. “Sean, I just really liked getting to know him over the course of the past month, or however long it's been. I think the world of him. And coincidentally, he's got a great relationship with the pitching coach that we hired (Simon Mathews). They're very tight, so it ended up just being a really good relationship, I think, from the get-go, and it actually became an appealing part of Simon signing on here. Those decisions were totally independent of each other, but it turned out to be a really nice thing. So it speaks to Sean and the type of person he is, and how good he is at what he does.”

A product of the University of Virginia, Doolittle came to the Nationals along with fellow reliever Ryan Madson in a July 2017 trade with the Athletics. The left-hander was named an All-Star in 2018, with the All-Star Game taking place at Nationals Park for the first time, and he was one of Martinez’s few trusted high-leverage relievers during their run to a World Series championship in 2019.

Doolittle became a free agent after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and after stops in Cincinnati and Seattle, returned to the Nationals in March 2022. But after six appearances, he underwent an internal brace procedure on the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in July, which ended his season.

We will finally hear from new Nationals manager Blake Butera tomorrow afternoon, with his introductory press conference at Nats Park scheduled for 1:30 p.m. It will air in its entirety on MASN, and be sure to check back on the site and on the MASN Nationals social channels for more coverage.

This has been the most highly anticipated day on the Nats’ offseason calendar since Butera was hired over two weeks ago, the delay in the presser being due to his wife giving birth to the couple’s first child on the day he accepted his first managing job in the major leagues.

Of course, there will be plenty to dissect from what Butera and new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni say tomorrow. But the new leadership duo will have to get straight to work because there are important offseason dates coming up …

* Tuesday, Nov. 18 – Qualifying offer acceptance deadline at 4 p.m.
Toboni and Butera will have all day Monday to celebrate the new skipper’s official introduction. But the very next day, they have to get down to work.

Though this deadline does not directly affect the Nationals, who did not extend the $22.025 million qualifying offer to any players, Toboni and Co. will know after this deadline passes which free agents will cost them a draft pick if they chose to pursue and sign any of them.

We’re nearing the end of awards week for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s four highest honors that are handed out after every baseball season.

The third was announced last night as Paul Skenes was unanimously named the Cy Young Award winner in the National League. And it just so happens yours truly was among the 30 BBWAA members who submitted ballots to determine the league’s best pitcher for 2025.

My ballot was similar to those of the other 29 voters in that we all had the same top two selections. Skenes and the Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez were the only pitchers named on every ballot, and this was the first time the winner received all the first-place votes and the runner-up all the second-place votes since the BBWAA went to a five-player ballot format for the Cy Young Award in 2010.

I was one of just four voters whose ballots had the Brewers’ Freddy Peralta in third place (he finished fourth), and I was one of 11 who had the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto fourth (he finished third). I was also one of seven who had the Padres’ Nick Pivetta fifth (he finished sixth).

But the award rightfully went to Skenes, who became the 13th pitcher to be unanimously elected the NL winner.

Baseball – a game that spans generations around the globe – is a vast world. And yet, sometimes we discover hidden connections that make it seem oh so tiny.

Much like that Disneyland theme ride says: It’s a small world after all.

When the Nationals announced Blake Butera as their eighth manager last week, very few people (if any) in local circles knew much about the 33-year-old former senior director of player development with the Rays.

In fact, even the guy who hired him, new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, had only heard about Butera without ever meeting him prior to the interview process, though he did scout Butera as a draft prospect coming out of Boston College in 2015.

“We didn't know each other personally,” Toboni explained Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters to discuss his first major hire. “I heard a lot about him, actually, even though I'm not much older than him (35), I scouted him when he was at Boston College. We just have a lot of mutual connections where I'm actually surprised that I had never met him prior to this process kicking off. So many mutual connections. I can't remember exactly the first time I really heard about him, but there had been a number of people over the years that had told me about Blake. I really went into this process having an understanding of what I thought it was going to be like, but didn't honestly know until I really hopped into it. I'm really fortunate that we did reach out to interview him because he blew me away throughout the process.”

While the Nationals continue to make plans for new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni to formally introduce new manager Blake Butera, we now know how the two young heads will begin their journey together in the spring.

The Nats, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced their 2026 spring training schedule, during which we’ll get the first game action of the first team Toboni assembles and Butera puts through his first big league camp.

Grapefruit League play for the Nats will open on Saturday, Feb. 21 with a split squad traveling to Jupiter, Fla., to face the Cardinals while another group stays back in West Palm Beach, Fla., to open the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches schedule with their co-tenant Astros.

The Nats will then welcome a rare cross-state trip from the National League East rival Phillies on Monday, Feb. 23 before making their own trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast to face the Yankees and Phillies on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 25-26. The Nats welcome the Yankees to West Palm on Saturday, March 7.

Another fun wrinkle in next year’s spring calendar is an exhibition game against Team Venezuela in West Palm on Wednesday, March 4 ahead of the World Baseball Classic.

Blake Butera has officially been the Nationals’ new manager for five days. But we won’t hear from the 33-year-old skipper for a couple of weeks while he and his wife, Caroline Margolis, get settled after welcoming their first child, Blair Margaux Butera, literally hours after he signed his new contract.

Thankfully, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni took questions from members of the local media over a Zoom call yesterday to give his perspective of his first major hire and what ultimately made Butera his choice.

“I think it just starts with the person that Blake is,” Toboni said. “I think he just very much aligns with the values that we hold sacred as an organization. And then, I think Blake's leadership skills really jumped out to us from the get-go. And so I think those two things, in conjunction with each other, were two of the main driving factors. And then also, he's got a pretty unique set of experiences that didn't necessarily lead us to making the decision in isolation, but I think were very beneficial as we considered Blake's candidacy relative to the other candidates.”

That “unique set of experiences” Butera has includes serving as the Rays' senior director of player development over the past two seasons following a successful run as a minor league coach and manager in one of the best farm systems in baseball.

Not many people make the jump from a front office role in player development to first-time major league manager, but Butera now has. Given the Nats’ young group of players (Trevor Williams is the only player on the 40-man roster who is older than the new skipper and only by 3 ½ months) and need to continue developing players at the major league level, was experience in player development something Toboni was searching for in this hiring process?

On what was supposed to be a quiet off-day from this year’s very entertaining World Series, the Nationals made headlines Thursday by reportedly hiring Blake Butera to be their new manager.

At just 33 years old, Butera will become the youngest major league manager since the Twins hired Frank Quilici in 1972, an odd connection to the former edition of the Washington baseball team.

Butera comes from the Rays, where he mostly worked in the minor league system. So what do we know about him?

He most recently served as Tampa Bay’s senior director of player development over the past two years. Before that, he spent one season as a minor league coach and then four as a manager on the Rays farm, which has been highly regarded as one of the best player development systems in baseball. He took his first job as manager when he was just 25 years old, three years after the Rays selected him in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft as an infielder out of Boston College.

The Louisiana native went 258-144 (.642) in his four years managing short-season Single-A Hudson Valley and Single-A Charleston with four first-place finishes. In his final two seasons at the helm in Charleston, he went 170-82 (.675) and won back-to-back Carolina League championships.

We are already 10 days into the Nationals’ offseason and it has already been busy with the introduction of Paul Toboni as the new president of baseball operations one week ago. But before we look ahead at what’s to come this winter and in the 2026 season, let’s take some time to look back at what was a very eventual 2025 season.

Amy Jennings and I took a deep dive into various storylines during this week’s episode of the “District Chat” podcast, but here is a small sampling of the big picture topics that were discussed. You can check out our full breakdowns on your favorite podcasting platform or watch the show here.

We’ll be taking a break from new episodes until after the World Series. So we’ll be back in November with new episodes of “District Chat” that you can watch live on the MASN Nationals YouTube channel and Facebook page or listen wherever you get your audio.

Without further ado, some of our top storylines …

A tale of two halves
Now as it pertains to the team, it may be more like a tale of ⅓ and ⅔ of the season. After proclamations in spring training from then general manager Mike Rizzo and then manager Davey Martinez that this team would be competing for October, the Nationals were 28-30 at the end of May, good for third place in the National League East and only five games out of Wild Card spot.