Though they certainly intend to add more players from outside the organization this winter, the Nationals could theoretically field an Opening Day lineup comprised solely of players already on the 40-man roster and compete.

Except for one position.

While there are enough players to fill out the outfield (James Wood, Dylan Crews, Jacob Young) and have a leftover guy to serve as designated hitter (Daylen Lile), as well as three infield spots (Brady House, CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr.) and a catcher (Keibert Ruiz), there really isn’t anybody viable in place to handle first base.

Andres Chaparro is the only true first baseman on the 40-man roster at the moment, and his contributions through the first 67 games of his major league career include a .203 batting average, .358 slugging percentage, five homers, 20 RBIs, a .627 OPS and minus-0.4 bWAR. Not exactly the guy you want to pencil into the heart of your lineup for March 26 at Wrigley Field.

So, while there certainly are other items on Paul Toboni’s wish list this winter, a first baseman would probably need to be high on that list.

The Nationals’ decision to tender contracts to all of their arbitration-eligible players Friday was something of a surprise. Given the new regime now running baseball operations, it stood to reason there would be at least one or two non-tenders, signaling a desire to make at least some changes to the roster this group inherited.

President of baseball operations Paul Toboni went a step further, though, when he also agreed to terms with Riley Adams on a 2026 contract, avoiding arbitration. Adams’ salary isn’t known yet, but that move all but solidified his return next season, which would seem to say a lot about the state of the organization’s catching corps.

Adams, 29, had another difficult season at the plate. While playing a career-high 83 games and taking a career-high 286 plate appearances, he batted only .186 with a career-worst .308 slugging percentage. He did show improvement on the defensive side of things, but his offensive production was down from each of the last two seasons despite far more opportunities for playing time than he had ever received.

Bringing back Adams for something in the range of $1 million-$1.5 million isn’t that noteworthy of a move. What is noteworthy is what this decision suggests about Toboni’s overall view of the catching position.

Adams is a perfectly capable backup, one who typically has caught about 40-45 games per season while Keibert Ruiz started the other 115-120 games. But Ruiz played only 68 games this season, only two after June 23, when he was struck in the head by a foul ball while watching from the dugout at San Diego’s Petco Park.

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.

With more than two decades of their own history to call back upon now, more and more players from Nationals history are beginning to show up on the Hall of Fame ballot.

This year’s ballot, as a matter of fact, includes three ex-Nats players for the first time: Gio Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick and Daniel Murphy.

OK, so none of those three is likely to garner much (if any) support from BBWAA voters. But it’s a distinct honor simply to make the Hall of Fame ballot, and not too many Nationals have over the years.

This year’s trio brings the grand total of Nats players to appear on the ballot to 19. Only one has earned election to Cooperstown: Ivan Rodriguez who made it in 2017 on his first attempt, receiving 76 percent support. But only four others have ever even received any votes, and none came anywhere close to induction.

Alfonso Soriano got six votes in 2020. Jonathan Papelbon got five votes in 2022. And Liván Hernández (2018) and Adam Dunn (2020) each received one vote. (No, none of those came from yours truly. I have stricter standards than that.)

The first major decision made by Paul Toboni and his new Nationals front office: To retain all of the players currently under club control for now.

The Nats tendered contracts to all of their unsigned 40-man roster players before this evening’s deadline, opting to keep all seven of their arbitration-eligible players. Infielders Luis García Jr. and CJ Abrams, left-hander MacKenzie Gore and right-handers Jake Irvin, Josiah Gray and Cade Cavalli all were tendered, with their salaries to be determined at a later date (either by agreeing to terms with the club or filing for arbitration).

Catcher Riley Adams, meanwhile, not only was tendered a contract but already agreed to terms on his 2026 salary, avoiding arbitration, the team announced. Figures were not revealed, but Adams made $850,000 this season and was projected to receive a raise up to about $1.5 million via arbitration.

Though these moves don’t necessarily guarantee all of the above players will be part of the 2026 roster, they do suggest Toboni and his newly assembled team at least are willing to pay all of them what they could command in arbitration, barring any trades this winter.

That’s particularly notable for García, Irvin and Adams, who appeared to be the most likely of the group who could’ve been non-tendered, essentially getting released and becoming free agents.

The Nationals have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract for 2026 with Riley Adams.

The Nationals have also tendered contracts to all of our other unsigned 40-Man Roster players.

The 40-Man Roster remains at 37.

We’ve reached a potentially important day in the still-nascent stages of the Paul Toboni era of Nationals baseball. It’s non-tender day across the major leagues, which means the new president of baseball operations has some significant decisions to make, probably his most significant roster decisions since taking the job about two months ago.

By this evening, all MLB clubs must tender 2026 contract offers to all arbitration-eligible players. What does that mean? In a nutshell, teams must officially inform all players with at least three but fewer than six years of big league service time whether they are being retained for next season. Their specific salaries will be determined at a later date, with the two sides either agreeing to a figure on their own or filing for arbitration.

Any players who aren’t offered contracts today are “non-tendered,” which serves the same purpose as getting released. They immediately become free agents, allowed to sign with any club.

Toboni’s predecessor, Mike Rizzo, made plenty of news on this day in seasons past. Just one year ago, he surprised most by non-tendering Kyle Finnegan before eventually re-signing the All-Star closer during spring training for a lower salary number than he would have received via arbitration. (Tanner Rainey also was non-tendered last year, a less surprising move.)

The Nationals have seven current players who are arbitration-eligible, including several big names: CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Josiah Gray, Cade Cavalli and Riley Adams. And while the decision to tender contracts to some of these players is obvious, it’s not such an easy call on several others.

Simon Mathews’ pitching career ended right as the entire world was shutting down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The then-24-year-old right-hander with an 89-mph fastball had maxed out his abilities as an undrafted free agent with the Angels, reaching Triple-A but released by that organization shortly after spring training was halted by Major League Baseball.

Still needing money to pay the rent, Mathews used some personal connections to take a job in business development that he despised but allowed him to then pursue the coaching career that now appealed to him. He spent the free time he had in 2020 doing work for a pair of noted pitching labs (Push Performance in Arizona, Driveline Baseball in Seattle) and met Sean Doolittle, who was working to keep his MLB career going.

The next thing he knew, Mathews was hired by the Reds to run the pitching program at their Dominican Academy, then climbed the organizational ladder to work as a roving pitching instructor and ultimately as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach this year.

And then last week this previously unknown 30-year-old was named the Nationals’ new pitching coach, a member of Blake Butera’s still-under-construction staff who is even younger than the majors’ youngest manager since 1972.

From washed-out minor leaguer to big league pitching coach in five years? Was this somehow Mathews’ grand plan all along?

Turkeypalooza will distribute 1,100 complete holiday meal kits
at four locations across the region from Nov. 24-26

Washington Nationals Philanthropies, the official charitable arm of the Washington Nationals, will distribute 1,100 turkeys and thousands of pounds of food during Turkeypalooza. The annual event serves families across the region, supporting residents with four pick-up locations from Monday, Nov. 24, through Wednesday, Nov. 26.

Now in its eighth year, Turkeypalooza will provide meal kits, including a turkey, fresh produce, and shelf-stable sides like stuffing and macaroni and cheese, with support from Washington Nationals Community Impact Partner AARP, Giant Food and DoorDash.

“Nationals Philanthropies tackles food insecurity throughout the year through nutrition education, a weekly produce market and grants that improve access to healthy food in the communities with the greatest need,” said Lauren McCarthy, Vice President and Executive Director, Washington Nationals Philanthropies. “We are grateful that we can serve so many families across the region this holiday season with support from partners like AARP, Giant Food and DoorDash.”

Turkeypalooza will distribute Thanksgiving meals at locations throughout the region, which have been selected based on the needs of residents. Each distribution will begin at 3:00 p.m. The four locations include:

As significant as Blake Butera’s hiring was – and, let’s be clear, it’s incredibly significant – there has been just as much interest in learning who will fill out the new Nationals manager’s coaching staff.

Given Butera’s almost unprecedented youth (at 33, he’s the youngest major league manager since 1972) and lack of experience (he never played, coached nor managed above Single-A), conventional wisdom said he would look to surround himself with older, more experienced coaches.

That’s partially the case so far, but not entirely the case.

The Nats are still in the process of hiring several more staff members, so we don’t know what the full makeup will look like yet. But while Butera has hired a more experienced bench coach in 50-year-old Michael Johns, his pitching coach (Simon Mathews) is actually only 30. And while the other three known members of the staff (Bobby Wilson, Sean Doolittle, Tyler Smarslok) all have some big league coaching experience, their ages range between 33 and 42.

“I don’t think we really set out to either hire for or not for experience,” Butera said. “I think what was first and foremost was that we wanted to bring in people who align with our values. We wanted people that would help hold each other accountable, come in with a tremendous amount of work ethic and make sure they were in this thing for the right reasons.”

The Nationals added left-hander Jake Bennett, outfielder Christian Franklin and right-hander Riley Cornelio to their 40-man roster this afternoon, protecting all three prospects from being lost in next month’s Rule 5 Draft and signaling the new front office’s interest in them as potential parts of the club’s long-term plans.

Faced with a 6 p.m. EST deadline to purchase the contracts of any minor leaguers who are Rule 5-eligible this winter, new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and his assistants chose to add Bennett, Franklin and Cornelio. None is likely to make the Nats’ Opening Day roster, but all three could find their way to the majors sometime during the 2026 season.

Bennett is the organization’s sixth-best prospect, according to Baseball America. The 24-year-old lefty, a second-round pick in the 2022 draft out of Oklahoma, made 18 starts (plus one relief appearance) for three minor league affiliates this season, finishing with a 2.27 ERA and 1.075 WHIP for Double-A Harrisburg, High-A Wilmington and Single-A Fredericksburg. He went on to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, posting a 4.50 ERA, with a league-high 25 strikeouts and only five walks in 20 innings.

This was Bennett’s first season back from Tommy John surgery, and he was limited to a total of 95 1/3 innings across all of his stops. It remains to be seen if he’ll open 2026 back at Harrisburg or at Triple-A Rochester, but as a new member of the 40-man roster, he’ll be in big league camp next spring regardless.

Franklin, 25, was one of two prospects the Nationals acquired from the Cubs at the trade deadline for right-hander Michael Soroka and quickly made a name for himself with a strong 31-game stint at Rochester to close out the season. Combined with the 86 games he played for Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate in Iowa, he finished the year with a .272/.390/.427 slash line, 23 doubles, five triples, 12 homers, 64 RBIs and 19 stolen bases.

The Washington Nationals selected the contracts of left-handed pitcher Jake Bennett, right-handed pitcher Riley Cornelio and outfielder Christian Franklin on Tuesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni made the announcements.

Bennett, 24, went 2-5 with a 2.27 ERA, 64 strikeouts and 19 walks in 75.1 innings across 19 games (18 starts) between Single-A Fredericksburg, High-A Wilmington and Double-A Harrisburg in 2025, his second professional season. The No. 6 prospect in the organization according to Baseball America, Bennett posted a 0.87 ERA (2 ER/20.2 IP) with 20 strikeouts in six starts from June 15-July 13 for Wilmington before being promoted to Harrisburg on July 22.

Bennett is coming off an Arizona Fall League season in which he led the league in strikeouts (25) and finished second in innings pitched (20.0) in five games (four starts) for Scottsdale.

A native of Bixby, Oklahoma, Bennett was originally selected in the second round of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Oklahoma. He’s pitched to a 2.67 ERA with 137 strikeouts and a .238 opponents’ batting average in 34 professional games since the start of the 2023 season.

Cornelio, 25, was Washington’s 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year after leading the system in ERA (3.28), opponents average (.205) and starts (26) and ranked second in strikeouts (135), WHIP (1.15) and innings (134.1). He went 6-7 with a 3.28 ERA, 135 strikeouts and 55 walks in 134.1 innings across 27 games (26 starts) between High-A Wilmington, Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester, setting career marks in nearly every category during his fourth professional season.

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.

Well before he even knew he would be a candidate for the Nationals’ managerial job, let alone get the job, Blake Butera tuned into Paul Toboni’s introductory press conference and found himself captivated by the franchise’s new president of baseball operations.

The 33-year-old with zero major league experience came to an immediate conclusion: “I can work alongside that guy.”

Turns out Toboni also had Butera in his sights, one of several names on a long list of managerial candidates he circled as ones to remember. And that feeling was only bolstered when he got a call out of the blue from Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who employed Butera on his Team Italy coaching staff at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

“I have no idea what you’re doing with your search,” Piazza told Toboni, “but there’s this guy that you’ve got to interview.”

Six weeks later, these two previously unknown 30-somethings with an affinity for each other from afar, now sat behind the same dais at Nationals Park, a room packed with reporters, cameras, team executives and family members all watching as they officially began working together as the two people now in charge of this baseball club.

It's been 18 days since news first broke the Nationals were hiring Blake Butera as manager. And at long last, today we will finally get to hear from him about his vision for the job and the path that brought him here.

Butera will be formally introduced during a 1:30 p.m. press conference at Nationals Park – you can watch it live on MASN – with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni also scheduled to speak about the first major decision of his tenure here.

Why did it take 2 1/2 weeks from hiring to press conference? Because Oct. 30 was a big day in the Butera household for reasons that had nothing to do with baseball. On the same day he signed his contract with the Nats, Butera’s wife, Caroline Margolis, gave birth to the couple’s first child: Blair Margaux Butera.

With Butera’s immediate priorities focused on family in Raleigh, N.C., the Nationals decided to wait to hold the press conference until this week. Not that he hasn’t already been busy working out of the home office. Butera has hired three members of his coaching staff so far: bench coach Michael Johns, pitching coach Simon Mathews and catching coordinator Bobby Wilson (whose addition has not officially been announced yet but has been reported).

There should be plenty of opportunities for reporters to ask Butera (and Toboni) questions today. Here are some of the most interesting ones …

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.

While the 2025 season ended long ago for most members of the Nationals organization, eight prospects did continue to take the field throughout October and into the first two weeks of November, participating in the Arizona Fall League.

The AFL is held annually, with prospects from all 30 clubs coming together to face each other over a six-week season and see how everyone performs against their counterparts. It’s often a stepping stone for players on the cusp of the majors, though you’ll also find a number of prospects who are still a few years away.

This fall’s crop of Nats prospects included a recent first-round pick in Seaver King, an even more recent second-round pick in Ethan Petry and an organizational top-10 prospect in Jake Bennett. They were joined on the Scottsdale Scorpions by outfielder Sam Peterson, right-handers Austin Amaral and Sean Paul Linan, plus lefties Pablo Aldonis and Jared Simpson.

King was the most notable and most successful of the group. The 2024 first-round pick from Wake Forest was a force at the plate, batting .359 with a .468 on-base percentage, .563 slugging percentage, eight extra-base hits, 24 RBIs, six stolen bases and a solid 11-to-15 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 18 games played. The versatile defender played exclusively at shortstop and committed only one error while totaling 101 innings in the field.

Petry was the only 2025 draftee to play in the AFL, the second-rounder from South Carolina showing off a good eye (13 walks in 75 plate appearances) but not showing off his noted power swing (one double, one homer). Playing primarily right field, he finished with a .228/.400/.298 slash line, holding his own considering he had only 24 games of professional experience at low Single-A Fredericksburg prior to this.

In an offseason loaded with major questions, the Nationals have already answered two of the biggest ones: Who will lead baseball operations, and who will manage the big league club?

Among the high-ranking questions still to be answered: How much money will they spend compared to previous years?

That’s the kind of question that comes up every year, and it’s never really answered publicly in words by anyone. The answer only comes through actions, once you see what the team’s payroll is come Opening Day and once you learn what kinds of other investments have been made to strengthen the organization.

But it’s especially notable this winter because it’s widely believed Paul Toboni would not have taken the job as the team’s new president of baseball operations without some kind of understanding from ownership how much he would be allowed to spend.

Here’s what managing principal owner Mark Lerner said when asked that question Oct. 1 during Toboni’s introductory press conference:

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.