LAS VEGAS — When I tell my friends and family I am covering a baseball game, it doesn’t require much more explanation than that. They assume, I assume, that I watch from the press box and talk to some players and eventually write about it all. If so, their assumptions are correct, at least directionally.
But when I mention MLB’s general managers meetings, which are happening in Vegas this week, it’s much less intuitive. Somewhere inside the Aria Resort and Casino, the league’s 30 front offices have been in various types of meetings over the past couple days. In that sense, the annual event is true to its name. Reporters, though, have spent the same time stalking the long casino hallways, waiting for a familiar executive or agent to walk by. The goal is to pick up any scraps of information or opinions on how specific clubs are operating. And on Tuesday afternoon, each team’s lead exec was available for questions for about an hour, all of them cramped inside a windowless room.
Well, Paul Toboni, the Nationals’ president of baseball operations, actually took questions just outside of the windowless room. But those are the kinds of details that make my friends and family stop listening.
A sampling of how Toboni addressed a few of the more pressing topics with the Nats, who are coming off a 77-85 season, his first in charge: On whether fan sentiment — or, really, fan angst — could factor into how much the team spends next season: “I think it should be at the forefront of what we’re doing. I would actually separate like the dollar side of it with making good baseball decisions. I think they’re like two separate questions — and, you know, on the baseball front, which obviously I am responsible for, like we’re going to do our best to to sign really good players that can help us in 2027, and just see where it takes us beyond that.”
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On what position Toboni envisions CJ Abrams playing in 2027: “I think he’ll get run at both second and short. We’ve messaged to him like: ‘Hey, come ready to play both.’ Having said that, you know, nowadays, I think so much of your work, even if you’re a second baseman 100% of the time, is taking place at shortstop in the offseason and just in your training. So it actually doesn’t change a ton for him. But, you know, we’ve been pretty candid about like: ‘Hey, there’s work that has to be done on the shortstop front, and then also on the second base front.’”
On how the Nats might address their glaring bullpen issues: “I don’t think there’s one way to skin a cat, you know what I mean? So I think a lot of it also has to do with how that market shapes up, and if the guys at the top are getting like a crazy, crazy amount of money, like, OK, we might be looking at other parts of the market to figure out how to fill the needs.”
These are typical answers at the GM meetings, a very it’s-only-November-and-I’m-also-limited-in-what-I-can-say-about-free-agents-and-trades kind of deal. And that’s not a knock on Toboni, either, it’s just how these interviews tend to go, especially this early in an offseason that is about to get derailed by a work stoppage.
Abrams’ position has been a thing since the team said in mid-August that he’d start splitting time between shortstop and second, which felt like the first step toward a full move away from short. Abrams wound up making 12 starts at second in the final six weeks of the season. He’s maintained that he wants to stick at shortstop, where he started for the National League in July’s All-Star game. The bigger question, though, is whether the Nats will look to trade Abrams in the near future — maximizing his value given his recent performance and the two remaining years of team control — or eventually attempt to extend him.
They recently agreed to a four-year, $23 million extension with outfielder Jacob Young with a club option for a fifth, which came after they agreed to a four-year, $47 million extension with starter Cade Cavalli in September (which also includes a club option on the back end). Extending Abrams, however, would take a much bigger commitment, in years and dollars, than either of those contracts.
The Cavalli and Young deals are very similar in structure. Each buys out the player’s three years of arbitration eligibility, covers what could have been their first season on the open market, then gives the Nationals the choice to keep them for an additional year. The Young extension, which Toboni said the Nats first discussed with his agents during the season, locked in as a plus defender alongside James Wood, Daylen Lile and Dylan Crews. But on Tuesday evening, The Athletic reported that some teams have expressed interest in acquiring Crews, making him a potential trade candidate.
The Nationals picked Crews, 24, with the second pick in the 2023 draft, more than two years before Toboni took over. If they did move him this winter, it would have to come in the next three weeks or after the expected lockout lifts. And if they dealt Crews and still wanted some kind of four-man rotation in the outfield, they’d likely have to fill the fourth slot from outside the organization, seeing that they lack outfield depth in the upper minors.
When it comes to free agency, no one in Toboni’s role is going to come out and list their top targets, nor would it make sense for him to share the range of the club’s expected payroll as he’s not responsible for setting that. (Either way, this might be a good time to mention that the Nats have the lowest returning payroll in the league, making it clear why fans are eager to see some substantial contracts.)
As the Nationals check in on a wide variety of pitchers, as expected, three agents described a possible small advantage to me: Because their bullpen was so bad last season, these agents said that whenever spring training comes around, they might try to steer their fringe relievers to the Nats if they’re choosing between minor league offers. In their eyes, the potential for opportunity differentiates the Nats as a destination. And depending on how many other agents agree, it could help the Nationals stockpile low-cost “quad-A” arms, the ones floating between AAA-quality and fit for a low-leverage role in the majors.
That’s not the end-all solution for the pen, by any means. But an inside track to some interesting reclamation projects would not be nothing, either.
“I think it’s going to mostly be about pitching for us,” Toboni said when asked about the biggest roster needs. “Now I think if you polled 29 other clubs, they might tell you the same thing. But at the same time, we had this great offense last year and this awesome position-player group, and you’ve heard me say it: I don’t think we can just assume that that’s going to show up in 2027. You got to have players making strides, and I’m hopeful that’ll happen. But at the same time, we do want to explore what opportunities might look like on the position-player front.”
Otherwise, Toboni wove a few minor tidbits through his blocked time with the media Tuesday. The plan is for Andrés Chaparro, who excelled in a platoon at first base in the second half, to play some third base in winter ball, which could help the Nats get his right-handed bat in the lineup more often. Infielder Seaver King is drilling at shortstop and second and third base this offseason, which could accelerate his path to a major league debut. Toboni said King “definitely” has a chance to make the opening day roster, whenever opening day might be.
As for staff, the team will not replace CJ Gillman, who was its director of hitting before the Mariners poached him in October to be their major league hitting coach. The Nats will instead fill the void internally, trusting their returning hitting coaches to build on last season’s offensive success.
Here was another brand of November answers, the sort of housekeeping stuff that nudges each offseason into motion. The only difference is that this offseason is about to hit a hard stop.
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