When Paul Toboni declared that he wanted his baseball team to be the “Envy of [his] sport,” many felt that was just a young guy talking BS. Toboni presided over one of the swiftest overhauls the sport has ever seen on his way to trying to achieve that goal. He is turning heads in an industry that doesn’t change much. Change takes time. Toboni accelerated the clock.

When you inherit a bottom-15 farm system in what Toboni called the “lifeline” of a team while hiring Devin Pearson to oversee that part of the organization, they have turned it within 10 months into a top-7 system and top 25 percent in the sport. They have showed that coaching matters. How they got there — and how quickly they got there is amazing.

Toboni changed most of the staff with over 50 people let go, and brought in much more than 50 people to replace them. He didn’t go to traditional lifers in baseball, and instead went for mostly younger minds, many without any pro baseball experience at all. Names that were not top of mind that began with Blake Butera, a 33 year old who only had lower-level managerial experience, and he was named manager of the Washington Nationals.

For the first few months, all people could do was talk about their age. Some were waiting for this to fail. Now some of those people are believers and have shut up about that. Of course this all could have backfired in Toboni’s face, and some of it hasn’t worked out — but most of it has. They essentially kept the majority of players from the previous team and did exactly what they promised that they would get an “extra gear” out of each player.

In 2025, the Nats were the 20th scoring offense in baseball with 687 runs scored — today, the Nats are No. 1 in runs scored (662) with virtually the same lineup and 25 percent of the season still to play. The Nats might beat last year’s run total by next week.

All of this really shouldn’t be a tribute to the old regime although some want to give them victory laps because Toboni has many of the same players from last year. The difference is clearly the coaching, analytics, and technology along with implementing in the 2026 season. Toboni got more by doing more versus the old group got less by sticking by poor coaching, player development, and not embracing analytics and technology. If anything, the old regime should be embarrassed.

Everything had to work simultaneously, and Toboni was hiring personnel at the same time as they began redoing facilities at the West Palm Beach baseball complex and bringing in technology. He was spending millions of his budget on people, infrastructure, and technology. They were hard wiring every backstop on each field in West Palm Beach for his new tech. He didn’t get one Trajekt Arc machine — he got three of them. Toboni hired people who understood the technology and how to communicate with the players. The undertaking was enormous. There were reasons to be skeptical at the time, and he pulled it off.

Small steps became big steps as every full-time player from the 2025 roster improved in 2026. Compare James Wood, CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., Keibert Ruiz, and Jacob Young from last year to this year. We did — and here are the results: Wood .825 to .928, Abrams .758 to .898, Garcia .701 to .873, Ruiz .595 to .751, and Young .583 to .720. That’s a 20.5 percent increase.

It shows first and foremost that the Juan Soto trade probably saved the Nats since that yielded Wood and Abrams, and also MacKenzie Gore who was trade for top prospects. And still in the wings from that trade is Jarlin Susana. But it also shows that there was more to get out of the players. That is not the same Wood and Abrams of yesteryear. The old regime did trade for them, and the new regime is turning them from good players to great players. As Toboni and Butera talked the talk, they are not walking the walk as they did find an extra gear in each player.

If you aren’t a player who improved year-over-year, a good chance that you were already released or demoted. At least that is clear with the position players. With the pitching personnel, the system has not worked out as well. There just is not the same level of success to point to. As a source from the offensive side of the Nats said to me, maybe the pitching says more about the issues with the quality of the players than the coaching. That is for Toboni to decide where or if changes need to be made.

One of the players, you might know the name, Elijah Green, was the team’s first round draft pick in 2022. For his first four years, he stayed at Single-A or rookie ball. He was struggling offensively. With Pearson’s player development people, he is now putting up the best numbers of his career. Last week Green was promoted to Double-A Harrisburg, and his numbers so far are good. Yes, his K rate is still high at 38.7 percent, but he also has a huge improvement when he puts balls in play. Last year at High-A Wilmington Green hit .171 with a .531 OPS. This year, he hit .227 with a .714 OPS. His numbers are even better in Harrisburg in a small sample.

Where Green ends up is anyone’s guess. But he might be the greatest of the player development triumphs. Branded as a failed prospect, he is finding success for the first sustained part of his career. He might even be representing the team in the Arizona Fall League per a source. What a turn-around.

Again, if you weren’t progressing with these coaches, you were probably released. The system was built for improvement. This improvement is why the system is now ranked so high in baseball. Toboni talked about building the proper and strong foundation. He got there quicker than most of us expected.

The next phase should be in bringing in pitching because this is the flaw in the system. Toboni at the trade deadline went after relief pitchers and a couple of promising starters like Jack Cebert and Josh Hartle. To build a bullpen, you need arms within your system, and Toboni’s group did that by trades, draft picks, and signing several through the amateur free agent route after the draft.

The team is better, the system is thriving, and the pitching is the next order of business. Fix the pitching, and this will be a playoff team. Hopefully the Nats’ ownership understands that. Their job is to support Toboni with the financial resources to make the next step forward.

Are you a believer?