The Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, appeared on MLB Network Radio two weeks ago. He sounded like an executive in acquisition-mode — yet also an executive who could make a blockbuster trade at any time.
Much of what was discussed, you have heard before from Toboni, then he was asked by the hosts of the radio show, @JimBowdenGM and @JimDuquetteGM, if he was ready for West Palm Beach, referring to the team’s Spring Training site. Toboni answered, “In NO WAY are we set going into West Palm.” And Toboni said that before he traded MacKenzie Gore. Now he has one more gaping hole in his Swiss cheese.
There are so many questions to be answered. Who is the Opening Day starting pitcher? Who is the primary first baseman? Will CJ Abrams be traded next? Who is the closer? All fair questions, and Toboni might not even know the answer to any of those questions — today or tomorrow.
We head into Saturday’s Hot Stove event with Toboni and manager Blake Butera, and the burning question is whether this team will make any sizeable moves to help the MLB roster win more games.
For the past two weeks — and besides the Gore trade, Toboni has been shuffling roster spots via waiver claims. They claimed Mickey Gasper, then before you could count to 10 days, Gasper was gone. In another day was Tsung-Che Cheng, out two days later was Cheng. Also off the roster is Andry Lara, Riley Adams, and Konnor Pilkington. Yes, and Lara and Adams both cleared waivers and were assigned to Triple-A Rochester.
And as the woman asked at Wendy’s, “Where’s the beef?” Ok, we get it, you like Big Mac. We have the boxes packed with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun — but no all-beef patties.
And Toboni wasn’t shy early into his employment when he clearly said what he wanted in his roster construction that included the catcher position, first base, and pitching. Toboni addressed the catcher position via a trade for Harry Ford, and they signed Foster Griffin as a starting pitcher. But with Gore gone, the team could use a No. 1 starter. Keep in mind, Toboni traded his closer, Jose A. Ferrer, for Ford. One spot filled, another one opened. Just more holes in the Swiss cheese.
❝… We’re going to be really open-minded [on offseason signings]. I don’t think you can ever have enough pitching. We’ll be open-minded at the first base position, and potentially at the catching position. We’re going to see how it plays out, and what opportunities present themselves.❞
— Toboni said at the GM Meetings in November
The first base market hasn’t changed in two weeks. Rhys Hoskins, Paul Goldschmidt, and Carlos Santana are all still available. In Spring Training, Abimelec Ortiz who was acquired in the Gore trade and is already on the 40-man roster, along with non-roster invitees, Matt Mervis and Yohandy Morales, will all be in camp competing for a first base/DH spots.
You have to hopefully fill spots for the starting rotation and the back of the bullpen. The Nats don’t have a pitcher with more than two career saves. They don’t have a starting pitcher, besides Josiah Gray who has started an Opening Day. And Gray hasn’t playing in a meaningful game since April 4, 2024 — and truth be told, his Opening Day start in 2024 of giving up 7-earnies in 4.0 innings was a day that Nats fans want to clear from their temporal lobe.
In that interview on MLB Network Radio, Toboni appeared to be making a pitch for free agents by saying, “We’re an attractive landing spot” and he explained why. Well, it doesn’t take much to do waiver claims. The team claimed George Soriano today, Richard Lovelady yesterday, and Gus Varland last week. Toboni has mastered the art of making a waiver claim.
Other than the Griffin acquisition, Toboni hasn’t paid any acquired player more than league minimum. Griffin signed a $5.5 million deal with an incentives clause. That money paid to Griffin was basically cleared off when Gore was traded with his $5.6 million salary. So the team is essentially back to where they were in the Winter Meetings with a $110 million CBT payroll. Not good at all considering the team was at $140 million on Opening Day of 2025.
If you are someone looking for silver linings, Keith Law of The Athletic, just ranked the Nationals’ farm system as the 6th best in baseball. That rise up the charts came after the Gore trade which netted back five ranked prospects of which three were in the team’s Top-12 per MLB Pipeline.
The other encouraging news is that Toboni and his staff have filled all of the positions at the minor league staffing level as well as the player development group. On top of that, as we reported and since confirmed by Erik Kratz of the Foul Territory network, the Nationals have Trajekt Arc machines for Nationals Park, the West Palm beach facility, and for Triple-A Rochester. These are areas where Toboni has been spending money in tech and player development.
While we want to see some cash spent on some free agents who can improve the roster, there is hope that the player development group will make the farm system stronger which in turn will make the top prospects an asset to the organization as they matriculate to the MLB roster. That is how the Nats built their 2012 to 2014 rosters that won two NL East titles. Those key players were mostly farm system top prospects turned into MLB stars.
We are just two days from turning the calendar to the month of February, and 10 days to the official opening to Spring Training camp at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. The Nats announced that the first Pitchers & Catchers workouts would be on Feb. 11. What can Toboni and his staff accomplish in that amount of time? Time is certainly short to finish that roster for West Palm.
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