The Nationals know exactly where the pressure point is this offseason: the pitching staff.
If Washington is going to move toward contention again - or even get itself positioned for a playoff push in 2027, the target the organization has set - the rotation and bullpen have to get better. The problem is that the path to doing it may not run through the kind of expensive reliever market the club is expected to avoid.
So the focus is shifting inward, and that’s where president of Paul Toboni is making his mark. Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic laid out a detailed look at the front-office changes Washington believes can help reshape the pitching operation, starting with the hire of John Morris from the New York Yankees.
Morris, who worked as the Yankees’ assistant director of quantitative analysis, is now the Nationals’ vice president of baseball research. According to Nusbaum, he’ll be part of an expanded analytics department and will also work on Washington’s pitching model, which is still in a key developmental stage.
He wasn’t the only notable addition. David Besky was also brought in this offseason after leaving his role as director of baseball sciences with the Boston Red Sox. He’s now serving as a pitching strategist for the Nationals.
Taken together, those hires show how the organization is continuing to lean harder into the tech side of the game under Toboni. Washington believes that adding more people with that kind of expertise will pay off in both the short term and down the road, especially when it comes to building a stronger pitching staff.
The Nationals are also looking to widen their scouting reach. Nusbaum reported that the club plans to add more in-person evaluators, writing, “Washington also plans to hire at least two in-person pro scouts.”
That’s a notable step after the department was pared back when Toboni arrived. The first-year executive was clearly intent on bringing in his own people and remaking the operation around his vision, and that meant some areas were underbuilt in 2026 compared with where the organization wants them to be. After a full season of reviewing both the baseball operations side and the on-field product, Toboni now has a better read on where the gaps are.
That should matter in a big way for player acquisition. Washington has struggled there, and Nusbaum noted that the Nationals made 21 pitching additions through waiver claims, minor-league deals, or cash-for-player trades since Toboni took over. None of those pitchers are expected to be on the 2027 Opening Day roster.
The idea is that a sharper sense of what the Nationals want in a pitcher, paired with more eyes in the field, will improve the process. More scouts means more coverage, more information, and a better chance of finding the right arms to add.
How quickly that turns into real results is still to be seen. But at the very least, Washington expects to show some progress next year as it keeps building out the baseball operations side of the organization.
In Other News...
Nationals Prospects Just Put More Focus On A Tough Roster Decision
R.J. Sales got the start in a Salt River game that ended with the Javelinas edging the Rafters 6-5 and closing out the season, and he was one of several Nationals prospects to get a look in the finale. Sales worked 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out four, and Kevin Bazzell, Teo Banks and Noah Dean also appeared as Washingtons pipeline kept drawing attention in the desert.
The bigger picture for the Nationals is arriving quickly, with the offseason now in view and the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster getting closer. For a front office that has to weigh development against protection, these late-season performances matter, and the situation is made even trickier by the possibility of an MLB lockout and union decertification hanging over the winter. [Read more 🡒]
Marlins Just Added A Familiar Name In A Very Different Role
The Marlins made a notable front-office addition this week by bringing in former outfielder Trayce Thompson for a baseball operations role, a move that also signals the end of his playing days. For a division rival like the Nationals, it is another reminder that the offseason is not only about roster churn on the field, but also about the people being added behind the scenes as clubs reshape how they evaluate and develop talent.
Around the league, the pitching market is still moving too, with the Braves signing reliever Evan Phillips and the Tigers adding Emilio Pagan while both teams remain linked to a possible reunion with Raisel Iglesias. Washington has made its own back-office move by hiring John Morris as its new vice president of baseball research, a step that fits into the broader push to sharpen the organizations decision-making even as other NL East clubs keep tweaking their own infrastructure. [Read more 🡒]
Jarlin Susana Just Gave Nationals Fans A Reason To Believe Again
Jarlin Susanas trip to the 2026 Arizona Fall League was about more than just getting innings. After missing significant time because of injuries, the right-hander was sent there to regain competitive mound time and keep building toward the kind of impact arm the Nationals have been hoping to develop. Instead, he left with a louder statement than anyone could have expected, finishing as the AFL Pitcher of the Year after leading the league in strikeouts and flashing the kind of high-velocity fastball that still turns heads.
For a Washington organization that has spent plenty of time waiting on young pitching to take a step forward, Susanas showing offered a welcome dose of optimism. Assistant general manager Devin Pearson said he was pleased with both the performance and the development Susana showed in the league, and the Nationals will now have a clearer sense of where the right-hander stands after a lost stretch in his career. The bigger question is how much of that momentum carries into his next stage, because the raw material is obvious and the ceiling remains one of the more intriguing ones in the system. [Read more 🡒]