You have to imagine that Paul Toboni’s suite in the J.W. Marriott at Grande Lakes in Orlando is buzzing with phone calls and action. While Washington Nationals fans wish that Toboni was signing a top free agent, the buzz is about MacKenzie Gore is a top pitcher who the Nats are willing to deal. The best package will win.

Last night, MLB Network dedicated an entire segment to Gore. The left-handed starter was a 2025 All-Star pitcher who flashed brilliance during several starts during the season. While his second half wasn’t good, teams are betting on their hopes and dreams that they can fix him, and take advantage of his final two years of control.

An acquiring team has the safety net that they could flip Gore if they needed to trade him. That is exactly how it went with Juan Soto after the Nats traded him with 2 1/3 years of team control to the San Diego Padres. Before his final season with the Padres, they traded Soto to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal.

An acquiring team bidding on Gore will get a cost-controlled pitcher with a $4,700,000 projected 2026 salary. That makes Gore extremely attractive compared to dishing out 7x that amount for a much older free agent pitcher with a qualifying offer that will cost a team their second pick in the draft and international money as penalties and quite possibly CBT tax penalties.

This is why The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal said there at least 15 teams “in” on Gore.  If you trust Buster Olney’s latest writings, GORE will be GONE by the time the Winter Meetings wrap up on Thursday as Olney wrote, “There is a perception in a couple of front offices that the Nats’ MacKenzie Gore will definitely be among those moved in the days ahead.”

The Nationals did not even wait for the Winter Meetings to start as they created weekend buzz on a trade that seemingly caught everyone by surprise. Toboni traded with the Mariners to acquire a top prospect, Harry Ford, who officially heads to D.C. in exchange for closer Jose Ferrer. In the trade, the Nats also received right-hander Isaac Lyon. We pointed out in an article on Saturday that this trade has all the feels of when the Nats traded closer Matt Capps to the Twins for catcher Wilson Ramos, who was ranked №58 at the time by Baseball America and the Nats also received and pitcher Joe Testa. That trade happened over 15 years ago. If you remember, Ramos was blocked by a star catcher named Joe Mauer, similar to Ford being blocked by Cal Raleigh.

All trades can be debated and discussed when they happen. But in fairness, they are best judged in hindsight. In addition to Gore, there is also buzz that Toboni has received inquiries about trading middle infielder CJ Abrams who has three years of team control remaining. Another player who nobody would be surprised to see traded is infielder Luis Garcia Jr. So again, Toboni is going to be busy.

With Toboni’s time with the Red Sox, he was involved in Boston’s acquisition a year ago of Garrett Crochet from the White Sox to Boston. That trade went official on Dec. 11 and Boston gave up two top prospects  Kyle Teel (ranked №32), Braden Montgomery (ranked №55), along with  Wikelman González (unranked), and Chase Meidroth (unranked). So Toboni knows what a potential Gore trade should cost a team.

In addition, the Nats MLB coaching staff is nearing completion. Could Toboni give us any insight when he, or manager Blake Butera, do their interviews at the Winter Meetings. Each will talk on MLB Network, MLB Network Radio, and also with the media in traditional hallway media sessions.

We don’t know exactly what position Dustin Glant will fill on the Nationals’ staff. Will he be the bullpen coach or the assistant hitting coach or some other spot? The 44-year-old would be one of the older coaches on this Nats’ squad. Glant was drafted in the 7th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003 and made it all the way to Triple-A. Most recently he was the pitching coach for Indiana University.

Still to this point, the Nationals have only confirmed officially two coaches on Butera’s staff with just bench coach Michael Johns and pitching coach Simon Mathews. It has been nearly a month since a rumor broke that Bobby Wilson was hired as the team’s catching coordinator. And Wilson still isn’t official, nor has he changed his status on social media. That makes Indiana’s announcement of Glant’s hiring a little odd. Every other rumored coaching hire has laid low. Everything about the secrecy of each rumored hire is just odd to wait this long to see them not be made official.

Again, maybe the media will press Toboni and Butera on the coaching staff and on other directions of the team. You can hear Toboni discuss the building out of his coaching staff on Buster Olney’s podcast last week:

For Nats fans, you are waiting on trade news, coaching hires, and hopefully a key free agent signing — and don’t forget, the Nats are expected to draft a player on Wednesday in the Rule-5 draft.