The Washington Nationals are making their first notable move of the offseason, and once again the path runs through Boston.
According to Kyle Williams of The Baltimore Banner, the Nationals are hiring David Besky away from the Red Sox to serve as their new pitching strategist on the major league staff. Chris Cotillo of MassLive first reported that Besky would not be returning to Boston in 2027 after serving as the club’s director of baseball sciences since December 2024.
For Washington, the hire fits a pattern that has become impossible to miss. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni came over from the Red Sox last offseason, and since then he has brought multiple members of Boston’s front office with him. Besky is the latest addition from that pipeline.
The role he’s stepping into was previously held by Sean Doolittle. The former two-time All-Star and 2019 World Series champion with Washington was tasked with acting as the bridge between the pitching staff and the analytics department. After Toboni took over the front office, Doolittle was shifted into an assistant pitching coach role.
Besky arrives with a different background. Before joining Boston, he worked with Driveline, then was hired by the Red Sox as their coordinator of player development in January 2023. This move will also mark his first uniformed role, a notable step in his career.
How much influence Besky will have at the major league level remains to be seen, but the direction of the hire is clear. Washington is leaning harder into analytics and technology as it keeps reshaping its baseball operations under Toboni.
There were signs of progress on the pitching side in the minors, too. The Nationals saw improvement in their pitching development at that level, and later in the season two minor league arms, Erik Tolman and Jack Sinclair, emerged as reliable bullpen options.
With Besky set to take over as the team’s new major league pitching strategist, Washington continues to add pieces as it tries to rework the entire baseball operations structure around Toboni.
In Other News...
Nationals Suddenly Face A Tough Abimelec Ortiz Decision
The Nationals are heading into the kind of offseason that exposes every weak spot at once. Behind Cade Cavalli, they still have two rotation spots to sort out, and the bullpen remains a lingering concern after setting an MLB record for blown saves. Even with those bigger-picture pitching issues hanging over the roster, the club is also weighing a move at first base as it tries to settle a lineup that never found much consistency.
Abimelec Ortiz is still very much in Washingtons plans, but the way he finished the 2026 season has left the organization open to alternatives. A short-term addition at first base would not necessarily signal a change in direction on Ortiz, but it would buy the Nationals some stability while they wait to see how quickly he can turn things around. For a team trying to balance development with the need to win more games now, it is one of the quieter but more consequential decisions on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Took A Risk On Luke Williams For One Big Reason
Paul Tobonis first draft running the Washington Nationals was never going to be a simple best-player-available exercise. The organization clearly needed pitching, yet he spent three of his picks on position players, including third-rounder Luke Williams, a Pennsylvania high school shortstop whose athleticism stood out enough to override some of the obvious caution flags. The idea is straightforward enough: if a player has this kind of tool set, you can dream on the upside, even if the path to getting there is less than tidy.
Williams is expected to move to center field, where his speed and overall athletic profile could play, and he has already flashed some power in exhibition settings. The part that makes him such a swing-for-the-fences pick is also what makes him tricky to project, since he has faced limited high-level pitching and still has questions to answer about his approach at the plate. For a Nationals team trying to rebuild with both urgency and discipline, he represents the sort of bet that could look smart in a few years, or feel a lot riskier if the bat never catches up. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Face A Real Jake Irvin Decision This Offseason
Jake Irvin has become one of the more familiar arms in the Nationals rotation since his 2023 call-up, and durability has never really been the question. The larger issue is what the club is getting for that workload. Over the past two seasons, Irvin has carried an ERA above 5, even as there have been signs of progress, including more strikeouts and a curveball that played well in 2024.
Now Washington has to decide whether that profile is worth keeping around at a projected cost of about $3.4 million. The possibility of tendering him a contract this offseason is tied not just to whether the Nationals still believe in his starters ceiling, but also to whether a move to the bullpen might make more sense if they want to keep his arm in the organization without committing to the same role. [Read more 🡒]