A busy news day without any big signings for the Washington Nationals to open the first full work week of January 2026. Now Joey Wiemer‘s family would probably disagree and say he was a big signing by the Nats. Okay, the soon-to-be 27 year old former top prospect was scooped up by the team via a waiver claim yesterday.
Wiemer
The Nats had already added outfielder Christian Franklin to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule-5 draft, and give the team a deep outfield 40-man presence with James Wood, Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile, Jacob Young, and Robert Hassell III. By adding Wiemer, he becomes the 7th outfielder on the 40-man roster which is now at 40 with no vacancies.
Wiemer is a right-handed outfielder who only played in 27 games in 2025 for the Marlins but did flash some power in that small sample with a .436 SLG that gave him a .715 OPS. The bad news is that his batting average was .236 and a disappointing. 279 OBP which coincidentally matches his career OBP of .279.
Basically a journeyman in his career, he is now out of minor league options. For a front office that appeared to be interested in collecting high OBP players like Franklin and Harry Ford recently, the Wiemer move reverses that trend to a player who needs to make better contact. His defense is good, and you have to wonder if the team sees him as a replacement for Young or even Hassell.
Does the Wiemer acquisition foreshadow a trade of Young or Hassell?
Serrano and Suarez
We are less than 10 days from the opening of international free agency on January15. Baseball America uploaded their rankings and have the Nats signing two 17 year old outfielders who BA has ranked in their Top-30 players overall:
№17 — Samil Serrano, OF, Dominican RepublicBorn: Nov. 1, 2008. B-T: L-L. Ht. 6-3. Wt.: 175
№19 — Isaias Suarez, OF, Dominican RepublicBorn: Dec. 10, 2008. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 6-2. Wt.: 165
The Nats signed 14 players last year on rhe first day of the international signing period. Serrano and Suarez will be just two of what will certainly be at least 10 new players that the team will add to their Dominican Academy in Boca Chica.
More on this next week.
Sinnarajah
There were rumors last summer that the Nationals contracted with a search firm to hire a President of Business Operations — and on Monday, they filled that position. News broke, and we were able to confirm that the Nats have hired Jason Sinnarajah away from the Kansas City Royals where he was their Chief Operating Officer. The move was made official today.
“I am honored and excited to join the Washington Nationals at such a pivotal moment in the franchise’s history. The organization has a clear vision for the future—one built on innovation, excellence and a deep commitment to the fans and the D.C. community that my family and I are excited to make our home. I look forward to working alongside Paul and this talented staff to build an organization that benefits our players and our fans, and which sets the standard for organizations within and beyond Major League Baseball.”
— said Sinnarajah
Sinnarajah is being hired to run the business side of the Nationals, and he has some ties to the region with an MBA from the University of Virginia. Sinnarajah did his undergrad at Boston College where Blake Butera attended. Newly hired Chris Zaber, the Chief Revenue Officer, will report to Sinnarajah. First with this news was Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post.
On Sinnarajah’s extensive résumé were positions at the Buffalo Bills in the NFL, and the Cleveland Indians 10 years ago. There were also private sector jobs that included Google.
Just to clarify, Sinnarajah is on the business side while Paul Toboni is the President on the baseball operations side. Yes, they will have some collaboration, and they both report to the executive level. Not exactly sure how the org chart will look with Alan Gottlieb in there as the long-time Chief Operating Officer, of Lerner Sports, Washington Nationals.
Departing from the Royals, Sinnarajah had been involved in their ongoing multi-year saga with their TV situation. Their regional sports network model had been an issue for years with Diamond Sports Group going bankrupt in 2025 to their new look, Main Street Sports Group which is now on shaky ground. While Main Street is “working to finalize a complex strategic investment” that would make DAZN the primary owner of FanDuel Sports which operates as Main Street for nine MLB teams, that DAZN deal is no sure thing.
While Sinnarajah transitions to the Nats, his challenges will take on the Nats new TV deal, and creating new business opportunities like finalizing the stadium naming rights, raising attendance (currently 22nd in MLB), and new corporate sponsorships.
In the Nats entire history, they had never had two separate team presidents on the business side and baseball operations side.
Arbitration Salary Exchange deadline
On Thursday, any arbitration-eligible player who was tendered a contract and has not settled on a 2026 salary by the deadline, the team and player must submit to MLB their proposed salary figures. If they don’t settle on a contract and go to an arbitration hearing, the arbitor can only choose one number: The team’s number or the player’s number — there is no in-between.
Luis Garcia Jr. (4.142): $7MM
MacKenzie Gore (4.000): $4.7MM
CJ Abrams (3.130): $5.6MM
Jake Irvin (2.152): $3.3MM
Cade Cavalli (2.141): $1.3MM
Spring Training facility
The Nationals official Spring Training home at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches is also their year-round training center since 2017. After just eight years, the facility is already getting a makeover at the direction of Toboni. Not only more employees from the medical and rehab staffs to coaches — but also field and interior design upgrades.
The photo above shows a new artificial turf field that isn’t ready just yet for use. As the team arrives for Spring Training in about five weeks, we can hopefully see more changes at the facility.
News & Notes
From new hirings to facility upgrades, the team is certainly spending money in other ways — just not extensively in player payroll as the team’s only MLB free agent to date this offseason was for Foster Griffin at $5.5 million. Shockingly, four teams have spent less money.
Yesterday, Jack Curry of the Yankees YES Network said that the team has inquired recently about pitcher MacKenzie Gore.
Gore is one of a few pitchers, along with Freddy Peralta and Sandy Alcantara, about whom the Yankees have held conversations with their respective teams about trade talks. Curry has noted that while the Yankees are continuing to look into options like Gore, no deal is imminent at the moment, and the Nationals’ asking price is reportedly high.
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