There has always been that teacher-to-student relationship. A great teacher has been known to change lives. Coaching is teaching. A Little League coach probably has a greater impact on a player at an early age, than does a minor league coach on one who has been in the game for 15+ years. Impact can be felt in many ways. Even a superstar can try to improve in some aspect of their game. A coaches guidance and encouragement can go a long way.
With a pro player, you are looking to make tweaks — not a full reconstruction of their mechanics that got them to the pro level. A 10 percent improvement is a reasonable target. When you try to improve too much, you often fail. Changing too many moving parts on a pro player is usually a recipe for disaster. A .600 OPS hitter has to get to .660 before they can get to .725, right? Keep that thought as this is highlighted below in an example of Dylan Crews. Everyone wants him to get to .800 and above. He’s been nowhere close to that so make some meaningful tweaks.
The Nationals changed their approach this offseason. Instead of information overload of trying to change too much as they had done in prior offseasons, this time the team took 1-to-2 areas of concentration. How do we know this? We have our sources and spoke to a few players.
Per sources, players on the Washington Nationals were given Powerpoint presentations this offseason of areas to work on. We were able to obtain a full Powerpoint presentation from a player who has left the organization on the condition of anonymity. He was given just two items to work on. The Powerpoint took photos throughout his career — and when he had his most success in form and mechanics. In one side-by-side comparison, it compared him to a superstar player. The pages were easy to read with different colors and fonts. The graphics were excellent. At the bottom of each page was a Curly W on the left and on the far right the words, “Washington Nationals.”
“Every player in our system will enhance his talents and work hard to eliminate deficiencies through individualized player plans.”
— President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni said
“We will create “priority goals” for each player, ranked by those which offer the greatest benefit once improved. Perhaps that goal is developing a pitcher’s third pitch, improving a hitter’s strike zone discipline, or increasing an infielder’s range. Each goal achieved unlocks the next, creating a journey, and eventually a culture of continuous improvement.”
Players have heard from their coaches with a lot of positive reinforcement. There was honest conversation, some of which you heard from newly installed manager Blake Butera, who has been on the job for less than two months. Butera said when he spoke to Daylen Lile that the rookie immediately expressed a strong desire to improve his defense, stating, “My defense is horrible.” That is a mature and honest response, especially since TalkNats had been writing about Lile’s poor reads and routes since his first week in the bigs. The first part of improvement is knowing what you have to improve on. Too many players have bloated egos that hold them back from progressing. James Wood had a similar conversation with Butera, and he revealed that his young slugger was fully open about his deficiencies.
When bench coach Michael Johns (MJ) phoned Wood, the outfielder told Johns he would be doing some of his training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where Wood attended high school. It just so happens that Johns offseason home is close to there, and they’ve made plans to work on outfield defense together. Wood is already working in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on his hitting with his offseason coach, Gerardo Caceres, also known as ‘Coach G.’ These are workouts that Wood personally pays for.
Wood is on top of his offseason workouts earlier this year to allow him to work on defense with more intensity. “MJ was like, ‘Man, James really wants to be a good outfielder,’” Butera said. “Somebody that young that has had the success he’s had offensively with the amount of home runs, the fact they actually want to go work on their pre-pitch and their first step in the outfield in December is pretty cool to see.”
It is good to see that the relationships are already forming, and the offseason is a time of work for not only the players, but the coaches too.
“One thing, as a staff, we’ve talked about is reaching out to players. Form relationships. Start the ball rolling now. We have a 12-person staff [right now], it’s a lot of people. But it also shows them how much we care about them, want to get to know them, want to get this thing rolling rather than waiting until day one of Spring Training. Let’s start that now.”
— Butera said this week
This feels like new beginnings, and the entire coaching staff turned over except for Sean Doolittle who was the only coach to return to the big league staff. On top of that, there are two additional coaches in uniform on the MLB staff. Tyler Smarslok was added to a new position of MLB Field Coordinator for the team.
Remember when Butera’s predecessor said, “It’s never on the coaches” in a postgame tirade that most of us were shocked by? We will see if Lile, Wood, and others improve. Again, easier said than done.
“We’re not going to finger-point here and say it’s the [failure of] coaches. It’s never on the coaches. They work hard. The message is clear. All the work is done prior [to games]. So sometimes, [the players] have to go out there — and play the game. It’s always been about the players. Always.”
— Dave Martinez in mid-June 2025
Here are the 2026 Washington Nationals Coaches:
Manager – Blake Butera
Bench Coach – Michael Johns
Field Coordinator – Tyler Smarslok
Hitting Coach – Matt Borgschulte
Assistant Hitting Coach – Andrew Aydt
Pitching Coach – Simon Mathews
Assistant Pitching Coach – Sean Doolittle
Assistant Pitching/Bullpen Coach – Dustin Glant
First Base/Outfield/Baserunning Coach – Corey Ray
Third Base/Infield Coach – Victor Estevez
Catching Coach/Run Game Coordinator – Bobby Wilson
Bullpen Catcher/Development Coach – Grant Anders
Some of those coaches aren’t household names. Some will be out of the limelight. As we know, Butera, hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, pitching coach Simon Mathews, first base coach Corey Ray, and third base coach Victor Estevez will be the most physically visible of the coaches.
We certainly hope that all of the coaches have a good energy level and have the players backs, and we say that because that was a major issue with the 2025 coaching staff sans Chris Johnson and Miguel Cairo. By the way, Johnson was rumored to be returning, but so far, he has not surfaced. Johnson was ejected twice in the 2025 season for arguing on behalf of his players — and Johnson was just the assistant hitting coach. Cairo managed for just 72 games and was ejected five times. That’s impressive. Martinez had one ejection in 90 games. You get the point.
While being physically visible is one thing, most of the work is done away from prying eyes. It’s that work that is far different from the third base coach windmilling a runner to go home, or Butera pulling his starting pitcher at the optimal point. Trust me, we will all play some form of armchair coach when the real games begin. Butera will be second-guessed, but hopefully not too much.
This is a lengthy interview with Borgs that you should watch when you have an hour. We pulled some video interviews that MASN did with ex-Orioles hitting coach, Borgschulte, to show what we are talking about with small tweaks that he did with Gunnar Henderson. “The way you relate to a player is extremely important … and what you say has some substance,” Borgschulte said.
If you go back to the Orioles successes in 2022-2024, it aligned to when Borgs was their hitting coach. He took a job with the Minnesota Twins for the 2025 season, and after he left the Orioles they took a dive as a team with their OPS dropping to .699 in 2025 from .751 in 2024. Henderson with Borgschulte was an .893 OPS in 2024 and dropped to .787 in 2025. Talk about that extra 10 percent, there you go.
More dramatically changed was Ryan O’Hearn who left the Royals with a .611 OPS in 2022, and was purchased by the Orioles for the 2023 season. Borgs turned O’Hearn into a star, and he put up an .801 OPS in his first season with Baltimore. That’s an unheard of 31 percent improvement for a player who was 29 years old at the time. Who says coaches don’t matter? By the way, O’Hearn is a free agent.
While Simon Mathews was not the pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds, he was the assistant pitching coach after a promotion from the Reds minor league system. Doolittle credited him for working with him in his short stint with the Reds.
While specific improvement and which coaches to give credit to is subjective, the Reds made the playoffs in 2025 on the strength of their pitching staff. They had a staff ERA of 3.86 in 2025 compared to 4.83 two years ago. In 2025, Andrew Abbott (led with 5.6 WAR, 2.87 ERA), Nick Lodolo (4.9 WAR, 3.33 ERA), and young arms like Connor Phillips (0.7 WAR, 2.88 ERA) showed huge jumps for the Reds in 2025, with Brady Singer (14 wins, 4.03 ERA) and reliever Tony Santillan (2.44 ERA, 3.0 WAR) also delivering big seasons as the team exceeded expectations, especially after injuries to other starters.
We all know that these coaches will be judged in future results based on the processes. If their students do well, that should be a positive for the coaches. Some have said, well the only way to go is up. In the case of O’Hearn, he was in a decline with the Royals and was in the .600’s for his OPS every season after his first year there.
Looking for a 10 percent increase is a doable marker, and in some cases you really want more. But again start small and build on that. Crews might be the poster child for that. The №2 overall pick in the 2023 draft and the Player of the Year and National Champion from LSU, he was destined for stardom. In his pro career, it has been a struggle for Crews. He put up a paltry .631 OPS last year. A 10 percent improvement would put him at .700 OPS. A good first step for the Golden Spikes Award (top amateur baseball player), Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, SEC Player of the Year (twice), SEC Male Athlete of the Year, and an ABCA Gold Glove for his perfect fielding, leading LSU offensively to a College World Series title.
While Crews says all the right things, he must start doing the right things. Chasing fastballs at his shoulders and sliders off the plate have plagued him. He might be the biggest challenge for Borgschulte and assistant hitting coach Andrew Aydt. You can add Brady House and Jacob Young to other hitters who must improve also.
On the pitching side, take your choice from all of the under-achievers. If MacKenzie Gore isn’t traded, he has to reach his ace form for a full season. Did you know that Gore regressed in ERA from 2024 to 2025? Yes, he went from a 3.90 to a 4.17. Gore was an All-Star in 2025 but pitched to a 6.75 ERA in the second half. That won’t cut it. But he was still arguably the Nats best pitcher purely on most pitching stats. The Nats have three pitching coaches this year with Dustin Glant coming over from a successful college program at Indiana University as their pitching coach. Between the three of them and the research/analytics staff, they have 13-pitchers to fix including Griff McGarry who the Nats just signed as a Rule-5 draftee who has no MLB experience.
The offseason grind has started, we have seen players in labs and working. Luis Garcia Jr. is playing winter ball in the Dominican. Third base coach, Victor Estevez, is managing Los Toros del Este in the Dominican Winter Ball League, where García is playing for Los Gigantes del Cibao. That goes a long way, and was mentioned by Butera to the media this week.
We already have seen player workout videos and social media posts. Enjoy this lab session of Young at Driveline’s facility in Tampa, and his work with Travis Fitta:
Both Mathews and Aydt come with experience working for Driveline. The backgrounds of these coaches are immense. Not only was Aydt the Director of MLB Training at Driveline, he was also a first baseman in college. That could be an asset to work with players who have not played the position before.
The plan is for Aydt to visit shortstop CJ Abrams at his offseason training facility in Georgia even though Abrams is also being mentioned as a potential trade candidate. “CJ is great; we’ve connected over the phone,” said Butera. “He’s working out at one facility and then hitting at Maven [Baseball Lab] in Atlanta. He was like, ‘Hey, come down. Let’s meet up. I want you to see where I’m hitting.’ I know their elite hitting guy at Maven, we have that connection … We already had a lot of conversation with CJ, and he wants our help and direction. It’s pretty fun.” Additionally, Butera said that Aydt plans to meet up with Young. Butera estimates in-person meetings with somewhere between 15 and 20 players.
On top of all of this — expect the Nats to acquire more new faces. There are currently two open spots on the 40-man roster.
Leave a Reply