Photo Andrew Lang/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals have announced the signings of 18 of the 20 players selected in the 2026 First-Year Player Draft, including eight un-drafted free agents (UDFAs). Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni and Assistant General Manager, Acquisitions Justin Horowitz made the official announcements.

On the morning of the 10ᵗʰ day after the draft, the Nationals announced their entire slate of their signings of 24 amateurs to pro contracts. The fact this came in as of yesterday morning tells you these signings were completed as of Tuesday with all physicals passed and pen to paper.

We knew from the extreme overslot money spent on Luke Williams and Cooper Harris that it meant there wouldn’t be enough spare cash in the slot system to get Anthony Murphy to forego his college commitment that he switched earlier this month from LSU to Miami.

We created a draft spreadsheet similar to how the teams do it to make sure the final gold box is a positive number.

For all players chosen after Round-10, teams can spend up to $150,000 without slot hits, and any money over that counts toward their slot money. The Nats had $12,278,300 in slot money and $613,915 in first tier penalty money to not exceed $12,892,215. In the end, the Nats spent $12,890,000 allocated to the slot, and in total with cash penalties, the Nats spent on the draft a total of $14,498,775 plus whatever Toboni spent on the UDFAs which is capped at $150,000 per player without penalty.

These are the dollars that often go un-noticed that Toboni spent above and beyond to bring in eight UDFA pitchers. This was an actual drafting/player development strategy of signing amateur RELIEVERS to create a pipeline of competent bullpen arms internally.

In the slot money era, no team has gone past their first tier penalties — because if you do you forfeit your first draft pick in the following year’s draft. That made it clear per our math that we presented over the weekend that there wouldn’t be enough money for Murphy.

As mentioned, the Nats signed 18 of their 20 drafted players and as expected, all players from rounds 1-to-10 were signed as is crucial and most of those deals are agreed to in advance of announcing the names at the draft. Anthony Murphy (Corona HS) the team’s 16ᵗʰ round draft pick was the 108ᵗʰ ranked prospect and was not signed. That became very clear that they wouldn’t have the needed slot money when the Nats went extreme overslot on Luke Williams and Cooper Harris who were the teams 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ round players respectively. The other player not signed, was high schooler, Isaiah Galason (Houston County HS of Georgia).

All in all, a great year for the draft group and the earliest the Nats have ever announced their full signing class. On top of that, the final count was eight signings of un-drafted free agents. What was so unusual is that they were all pitchers and a few were relievers. This was another strategic move for the future to build bullpens internally. Among the top UDFA’s was Trevor Moore, the closer from Stanford.

Round/ Drafted Player/Position/School
1. Chris Hacopian (2B) – Texas A&M University
2. Chase Brunson (OF) – Texas Christian University (pictured above)
3. Luke Williams (SS) – Franklin Sr. Regional HS (Pa.)
4. Cooper Harris (RHP) – Flower Mound HS (Texas)
5. Daniel Cuvet (3B) – University of Miami (Fla.)
6. Cooper Allen (RHP) – UNC-Wilmington
7. Gage Peterson (RHP) – Appalachian State Univ. (N.C.)
8. Max Hansmann (RHP) – University of Evansville (Ind.)
9. Cashel Dugger (C) – UCLA
10. Nick Williams (OF) – Michigan State University
11. Weston Moss (RHP) – Texas A&M University
12. Matthew Dallas (LHP) – Wake Forest University (N.C.)
13. Cody Howard (RHP) – University of Texas
14. Zack Konstantinovsky (RHP) – Rutgers University (N.J.)
15. Francisco Rivero (C) – Canyon del Oro HS (Ariz.)
16. Anthony Murphy (OF) – Corona High School (Calif.)
17. Isaiah Galason (SS) – Houston County HS (Ga.)
18. Avery Ortiz (INF) – Oklahoma State University
19. Jack Brooks (OF) – University of Oregon
20. Anson Seibert (LHP) – Johnson County CC (Kan.)

Non-Drafted Free Agents — Player/Position/School

Cooper Carlgren (RHP) – Lamar University (Texas)
Ciaran Caughey (RHP) – Kent State University (Ohio)
Kaleb Kantola (RHP) – Lipscomb University (Tenn.)
Trevor Moore (RHP) – Stanford University (Calif.)
Anthony Neubeck (LHP) – Indiana University
Tyler Papenbrock (LHP) – University of Louisiana
Bennett Roemer (RHP) – North Greenville University
Miles Smith (RHP) – Kansas State University

For the UDFAs, they were all signed as pitchers. You will see a pattern here. Carlgren was mostly a reliever at Lamar, and had four spot starts. Kantola was a reliever and closer at Lipscomb. Moore, as mentioned, was Stanford’s closer. Neubeck was both a starter and a reliever in college and then finished his final season strictly as a starter. Papenbrock was a reliever and closer in his final season in college. Roemer was a reliever in college. Howard was the only drafted pitcher who was a reliever. Yes, there is a pattern here, but the team hasn’t disclosed their plans with each pitcher. Some are obvious that they will only be relievers and were signed strictly for that purpose.

Well done by the draft group to wrap this up so quickly. The Florida Complex League wraps up today, and expect to see the Nats 1ˢᵗ round pick, Chris Hacopian, at some point in Single-A Fredericksburg before their season ends.

All of the signed draft picks are currently in the West Palm Beach facility and working out. In the past, only some of the draft picks would be sent after signing to the West Palm Beach facility. Before the FCL schedule was shortened, we used to see newly drafted players in FCL games. For now, we will wait and see on any drafted players making it to minor league games.

The great news in all of this is there is a plan. Player development started even before the draft. Detailed plans were given to players the Nats were interested in. That was all part of the continual development plan. Hacopian was impressed in the Nats detail of what he needed to work on. He knew that before he was officially drafted.

But maybe more impressive is that Toboni and the staff finally will not be looking to take failed starters and convert them to bullpen arms as the first part of their plan to internally produce competent relievers per a source — and that the plan is to find competent amateur relievers who they believe possess what is needed to be competent pro relief pitchers.

Besides Jose A. Ferrer, name five other internally produced relief pitchers who positively benefitted the Nats for more than two seasons? You might have to go back to Drew Storen and Craig Stammen over 15 years ago. That had to change. The cost to acquire competent relievers through trades over the years further weakened the farm system. The cost to acquire costly free agent arms was more of a miss over the years.

The other part of the drafting and development that has changed is the new draft archetype of hitters who control the zone like Hacopian. Look at the K/BB rates of some of the draftees. It is difficult to change a batter like Elijah Green, and this development crew of coaches is trying — but the resources spent on one player takes away from others. By drafting to this new archetype and having a total buy-in on drafted players by the player development group was also a marked change under Toboni. He had his VP of Player Development, Devin Pearson, and their group agree to the players they wanted to draft per our sources and as we previously reported.

All of this is a fresh new approach. Now none of this matters if the prospect stars don’t turn into MLB stars. That will take time, and here’s to new beginnings. Cheers.