PAUL TOBONI: It Feels Like The Washington Nationals Just Hired Their Version Of Theo Epstein

PAUL TOBONI: It Feels Like The Washington Nationals Just Hired Their Version Of Theo Epstein

A lot of people have asked how I felt about the Nationals hiring Paul Tobani as their president of baseball operations. And I tell them that I feel as if the Washington Nationals just got their version of Theo Epstein. [Music] You are locked on Nationals. Your daily Washington Nationals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And thank you all for making Locked on Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. And yes, I am your host Ryan Clary. You can catch me on Twitter at Ryanclary1 and we are part of the Locked On podcast network where it’s your team every single day. And later on in today’s Locked on Nationals episode, we will discuss just how good of a hire this is with Paul Tammani, but also they will be searching for their next GM. So let’s kind of discuss that and what it could open up for Paul Tani, your president of baseball operations. But in the second segment, what has to happen for Paul Tobani to work out as your president of baseball ops? I got a couple of things that we’ll tell you in the second segment of the show today, but I’m going to tell you why I feel as if that the Washington Nationals just got their version of Theo Epstein. Here’s my number one thing. It’s his youth. Someone that is so young at just 35 years old making the jump from assistant general manager for a very successful franchise with the Red Sox. making the jump to not just the general manager of the Nationals but the president of baseball operations. This is a very wellthought of name with Paul Tammani. And looking at him right now, number one, the youth really shows. This tells me that around baseball, this guy has been praised. the Nationals and more importantly the learner family, they have never really kind of gone out on a limb at this point. They have never really kind of gone out there and take this big of a swing. I cannot reiterate this point enough to you. This is a massive, massive swing that in my opinion will work out. And with that in mind, again, hearing what Jeff Pass had to say, seeing what Barry Feluga, the Washington Post reported on the Nationals, or not reported, but kind of saying like, I did not see this move coming at all. This is such a savvy move by ownership. Quite frankly, I did not think the Learners had this club in their bag. I did not think that they were able to get a top executive in the game to come here to DC. When we were talking about some massive names, we were talking about Eric Neander, the president of the Tampa Bay Rays, someone who has been wildly successful in his time with Tampa. I thought that maybe that would be the splash move. Maybe called me a fool, but I like getting my own Eric Nander. I like getting my own Theo Epstein. I like having a guy who has not done it yet. But also, while he is unproven, the sky should be the limit for Paul Tammani. I think Paul Tobani and what he did with the Red Sox will be easily kind of put on a plan here in DC. What he did so well with the Red Sox was number one, draft and develop. Seeing that the fact that Paul Demani and really everybody out there that is saying good things about Tobani, the first thing that they say is that he ran the amateur version of the draft. He had his part in drafting guys like Christian Campbell who was a 2024 minor league player of the year. He got the next face of the franchise for the Red Sox with Roman Anthony. He helped put together a trade package for Garrick Crochet. This is someone who has an eye for talent. The Nationals over the years drafting wise, they have not had that eye under Mike Rizzo. And that is not a knock on him. Again, Mike Rizzo is a legend. He had his time here. Do not get this twisted. But Tobani is going to bring the 2020s here to national the nationals at this point. You cannot sit there and tell me that the Nationals were not behind because they were behind. and Tobani is going to bring that draft and development and player development, not even just at the minor league level, but also at the major league level. That is something that the Red Sox have done over these past handful of seasons, probably better than anybody. They have been able to develop prospects. They have been able to keep guys on the field, number one, but number two, make them play their best baseball. That in my opinion has to do with analytics. And here’s my number three reason why I feel as if the Nationals got their version of Theoepstein. The R&D department will finally be up to speed. This is something that Tobani, in my opinion, he would not take this job if he could not have the resources to make every change that he wants as far as baseball operations goes. Will there be meetings behind the scenes regarding budgets and payrolls and all that different things? I’m sure there will be. But right now, the first thing that Tobani has to do is get this R&D department finally back up to speed. He needs to go in and figure out what is wrong with the analytics that the Nationals have been using, what equipment is outdated, and get the brand new shiny toys. That is a big deal here. In my opinion, Tobani would not have taken this job if he did not have those resources with him. So with that in mind, having those analytics now back in DC, someone who is young, someone who is youthful and going to be at the office for 12 plus hours every single day, that is going to be a big deal in my opinion for how things get done. And so my number four reason I think savvy moves could be coming. When Theo Epstein took the job with the Boston Red Sox, the most notable move that he made was trading away their franchise shortstop Nomar Garcia Parara back in what what was this like 2003 at this point or 2002. He traded away the Boston Red Sox franchise shorts stop. Someone who is beloved in Boston. It was a move that was not greeted very kindly by Boston Red Sox fans. I think Paul Tobani has the opportunity to do that potentially this off season. He’s not going to trade Dylan Cruz. He’s not going to trade James Wood, but maybe he does what with CJ Abrams. Maybe he doesn’t like the analytics surrounding him. Maybe they think they can get more value back in return than having your franchise shortstop be there every single day. Maybe it’s your ace pitcher has two years left of his deal, McKenzie Gore. The Nationals were trying to trade him this off season, but also keep in mind with Gore, the Red Sox were also pretty heavy contenders for the left ace. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Tobani was behind that. He probably liked McKenzie Gore and liked what he brought to the table. So maybe he wants to keep McKenzie Ward, but I could see easily right now a big savvy move this off season. And it may not be buying talent, but in the future, we may look at it as, wow, the Nationals really won that deal. Because I look back to Theo Epstein with the Red Sox when he first joined and it helped them get Curt Schilling, Bill Mueller, and a move that really ultimately helped them get over that hump and win the World Series back in 2004. These are the moves that I think will win you championships. These are the moves that will get you back in October baseball. And that is why I feel as if the Nationals finally have their version of Theo Webstein. Before we get too caught up in all the good stuff here, I want to remind you this. Things will still have to happen. I’m not saying that the Paul Tobani is going to be your Theo Epstein. That is the dream. and things have to go our way. But right now, the expectation should not be that the Nationals in 2026 make the playoffs. It should not be that you expect a 50 home run season from James Wood. You should not expect a Sai Young season from McKenzie Gore, a gold glove season from CJ Abrams. But what I do expect is change and change in a big way. And I think that this hire with Tammani as the president of baseball operations in town will be the best move that this learner family has made in the 2020s, bar none. I love this move. But as we were saying, things have to happen. And when I mean things, I mean big things. So I’m going to tell you why there are some risks in this hire. and really what has to happen moving forward. I’ll tell you all about that after this. And yes, the NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure that you are ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And I love using FanDuel because it fits however you like to bet. player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. 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He jumps from an assistant GM role with the Red Sox, who probably would have been elevated to the general manager role this off season. He bypasses the GM role and gets the president of baseball operations job here in the nation’s capital. And I love this move. But I got to tell you this, things have to happen. Things have to happen to make sure that this is a success. And the number one thing, it starts with ownership. Ownership has to give Paul Tobani every resource possible to make this work. They have to open up the checkbook. They have to spend in free agency. And number two, they also have to spend in analytics. You have to get all the nice new shiny toys, the analytic tools, the fancy batting cages where you can sim every single pitcher in Major League Baseball and have the exact curveball that comes out from Clayton Kershaw and have those timing skills down and all the different things out there surrounding this team. Ownership is the start of that. Now, I will mention this. Ken Rosenthal of the Washington Post or Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic rather, he actually reported last night alongside Britt Jolie who is very tied in here to Washington DC. And they had this to say that all the other moves surrounding the Nationals front office. The learners are taking a step back. They’re not involved and it’s all on Paul Tobani. Now, typically speaking, that I think in my opinion, you can kind of read between the lines on this. I’m not poking holes through the report at all, but obviously ownership is going to have to check off every single move. And some people might say, well, I want the learners more involved. I’m here to tell you, you do not want them involved. But that’s just my opinion. But ownership has to be allin. And again, I think they will be like, this is not a move that you say, “All right, Paul Deonti, here you go. There’s the keys to a Ferrari.” He kind of just got a key to, let’s say, a minivan at this point. They do. The Nashville have young talent, but there’s a lot of work that has to be done. And in my opinion, a lot of the work will happen behind the scenes. Again, we’re not going to go in this off seasonason and trade for Tariq. You’re not going to go in this off season and sign Alex Bregman. Don’t expect that. That’s a silly thing to expect. But I do expect a big turnaround these next two seasons. And in my opinion, if ownership is willing to finally dish out the money in the R&D department in free agency as well, then I do believe that this will work out because it really comes down to the resources that Tobani has. What made him and the Red Sox regime there so successful in Boston was the fact that they do have resources. They do have the ability to spend in free agency. They have the ability to get the new shiny R&D toys to the Boston Red Sox facilities there. That is something that the Nationals have not been able to do. They have not been willing to dish out the money, at least at this point, to get those new shiny toys. this offse or actually earlier this season, the Washington Post reported that the Nationals did not have this one technology that again allows you to kind of mock the way that a Clayton Kershaw curveball goes. And really any pitcher for any pitch out there. They were one of five teams in baseball, actually. In fact, I think there are fewer than five teams that had that tool there. Now, was that a Mike Grizzo decision? Was that a Learner family decision? Who knows? at this point. But it sounds as if the Nationals will be getting that if they have not had it already at this point. But those are the kind of moves that you’re like, why don’t you have that? Being able to go and face a Garrett Crochet before you actually go face a Garrett Crochet is crucial. Obviously, it’s like being given the answers to the test before you actually take it. And now, it’s not going to be as easy as circling in every letter. It’s not going to have James Wood bat 900 on the season, but it’s going to give you a big-time advantage and it’s again goes into that analytics field. So resources and having the right resources will be a massive deal with Paul Tobani. And again, these are things that are not like negotiable and like, hey, maybe he doesn’t get this part of the equipment or maybe he doesn’t get that. he has to get everything that he wants. And the learner ownership group, they are going to have to be willing to dish out the money to do exactly that. And if they don’t, then I could easily see this kind of going another way. Because right now, again, I feel good about this hire. I feel awesome about this hire. In fact, this is again probably the biggest home run that the Nationals could have possibly hit when hiring a president of baseball ops here in town. You’ve got that young sexy name that a lot of baseball uh guys around town are just thrilled about. You see what Jeff Pass said, what Ken Rosenthal is saying, what Britt Jerolei of the Athletic is saying. All these people who are around baseball, they love this guy and they love this hire. But also what made it work so well in Boston was the fact that their ownership was all in and they were all in on analytics and they were okay with dishing out money in that aspect. So again, it is going to be up to ownership. So if this goes sideways in my opinion, I’ll be the first to say it. I blame ownership. So that’s another thing that you will have to watch moving forward. But last but not least, again, would having a current Nats executive potentially help them? Think of it this way. The Learners right now are a weird ownership group. Two years ago, they were floating around the possibility of a sale. And then last year it was like, nope, we’re not going to sell the team actually. And ever since then, it’s kind of been this weird gray area of, okay, are they going to sell eventually? It feels as if they’re going to sell, but they’re saying that they’re not going to sell. And Ted Leons keeps saying, “I’m interested in the Nationals, but it takes two to tango.” And the Nationals right now in the Learners, they have no interest selling their team. So, it’s kind of like, okay, we hear that from Leon’s, but can we hear that from Mark Learner himself? Maybe that’s kind of another question that in my opinion is a big one to get over the hump. But it helped Tobani kind of navigate that messy situation that I think we’ve heard a lot about with the learners. And again, Barry Saluga of the Post this past week wrote a story about how current and former employees of the Nationals described that ownership group as kind of a mess. And it’s a really hard to get things done because of that messy ownership group and that muddied water of people who quite frankly maybe some of the family wants the team and some of them don’t. That’s kind of what it sounded like in that article from Swuga. But would having a current executive who has kind of dealt with that ownership before, would that be beneficial? I think in my opinion right now it would be. Having someone who has been around them, who has been around the organization, who has been there and done that, that would be a smart decision in my opinion. And having that executive would help Tobani kind of navigate those waters because that is a real thing here. As we were mentioning earlier this segment, ownership has to be allin and they are a very hard ownership group to navigate right now to get things done to get budgets passed. These are real things that have to happen to make sure that this team stays afloat going into 2026 and beyond. So, I do believe right now another thing to really kind of make this thing work is to have that executive, even if it’s someone that we have no idea about, that is behind the scenes, could help Tobani really run this group. And I think that the Nationals, they should 100% consider having that hire. And if I’m Tobani, I’m talking to people like Mike Dearlo. I’m talking to other assistant GMs around the facility. I’m talking to scouts who have worked within the learner family. I am talking to high executives on the business side, on the baseball side, on all sides of things here. That’s a really big key for the Washington Nationals in my opinion. So having that executive executive who has done that with the nationals, I think that’s going to be a crucial part and to help Tobani really kind of navigate this thing and navigate what has quite frankly been a very hard situation as far as ownership goes. But I’m excited about this move because not only the Nationals just hired their president of baseball operations, who I believe will be a slam dunk of a hire, they’ll also have the opportunity to add a GM into the mix. So, let’s talk about that after this. And yes, guys, you have probably heard of Viagra or Seialis. Maybe you’ve even tried them. But if you’re looking for something beyond the usual pill, it’s time to meet Rouette Golong. That’s exactly where Rouett’s Golong comes in. This isn’t just another ED pill. It’s a total gamecher for confidence. And Golong combines two doctor trusted medications in one dualaction formula so you can get hard and go the distance. The effects can last up to 36 hours. That’s confidence all day, all night, and even into the next day. The process is simple. Connect with a board-certified doctor 100% online. And if prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly right to your door. 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So I think that is a very interesting thing to say by the Nationals and Barry’s Feluga because quite frankly I really like Mike Darlo and he was one of the finalists to be the Nationals president of baseball operations. Like they really liked Darlo and I honestly really liked what Darlo did at this year’s deadline. I I think that he ran the draft very well. Well, I think the Nationals had by far their most talented draft class probably since pre2020. I mean, that was a long time ago. So, as of right now, the Nationals are going to be looking to hire their next GM and Paul Tobani will be the head of that operation at this point. So, he’s getting down to work like right away. And quite frankly, I would expect the Nationals to hire their next GM probably pretty soon here. And I would expect this search to be relatively quick. And if they do decide that it is Darlo, I think that solves one of my big issues and kind of my big worries about the Nationals of which how to navigate this ownership group. Darlo has been with the Nationals since 2012. He has seen the rise of the Nationals really throughout the whole entire 2010 2010’s run that they had. He has seen the downfall with ownership in Mike Grizzo and Dave Martinez, but also he could be a part of the comeup of the 2020s Washington Nationals headed by Paul Tammani and having that navigation of someone who has had the GM role already for a half season or whatever it is, but also behind the scenes be a big decision maker and also kind of have those same thoughts as far as analytics go. I think Tobani and Dardalo would be an awesome pairing for this team. And I think that right now with where the Nationals are, having Darlo probably would make the most sense. Although, here’s another thing to kind of keep in mind for the Washington Nationals that I do think there are some people within the organization that probably want something new. They probably want some a fresh just breath of air at this point. And unfortunately for Darlo that might be him like that might be moving off from him and that’s unfortunate because I do think Darlo is a very very bright executive and in fact I would probably love for him to be the GM hire at this point but going outside the organization in my opinion is that you get someone with an outside voice again and you completely clear house but also that provides you this you don’t really know what you’ll be getting with that new GM because while Tobani will be running the show, we have to think of it this way. The president of baseball operations with a GM under him, the GM is typically doing the dirty work. And the president is again, they’re doing the stuff and Tobani is so young that I still feel like he’ll be very hands-on in every single decision that they will make. But with Rizzo in town, he was the president and the general manager. He held both those titles, which is a very, very loaded talent there for Mike Rizzo. But I think here in town, it’s going to be a little different. Like I think a lot of Nationals fans, if draft picks don’t go their way, you’re not going to know who to blame. You’re not going to know if it’s Darlo, if it’s Tobani, or if it’s that assistant general manager or that aerial scout that maybe scouted the guy wrong. Who knows? But I do believe that right now it feels as if this is open and it feels as if that the Nationals, if they were to go with Mike Dearlo as the GM moving forward, I think that would solve a lot for at least for my opinion a lot of the Nationals issues. He knows what’s there, what works and what doesn’t. He knows how to navigate ownership. And he also has a lasting relationship with a lot of the players, especially some of the younger prospects down in the minor leagues. He drafted them. He drafted Eli Will. It’s your number one overall pick. He drafted a lot of these guys and handpicked in a lot of different ways the Juan Sodto package that got you CJ Abrams, James Wood, McKenzie Gore, Robert Hassel, Harleen Susanna. He knows how to kind of work this area with the Washington Nationals. I would not be surprised if it is Debarlo, but we’ll get more into some of the GM search on tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Nationals and just more into what Paul Tobani is going to bring to the Washington Nationals. So, if you’re a Nationals fan today, you got to feel good because as we mentioned in the first segment, I feel as if the Nationals got their the Epstein today. I feel as if this was the best possible hire for the Washington Nationals. Getting a young, exciting, sexy GM name with Paul Tobani from the Boston Red Sox is a massive, massive win for this organization and probably the best thing that probably could have come from this president/GM search. So, welcome to town, Paul Tobani, and no pressure. Good luck with everything going forward. We’ll talk more about the GM search on tomorrow’s show and also get you the latest on the reporting of whatever Paul Tobani could be bringing with him from the Boston Red Sox. So, I will catch you guys on the flip side. Have a good one. Go Nats.

The Washington Nationals have named Red Sox assistant GM Paul Toboni their President of baseball ops, and it feels like this is the Nats version of Theo Epstein. Ryan discusses why he feels so good about this hire for the Nats. But also, there is some risk with this hire. Ryan tells you what MUST happen for this to work, and it starts with the Lerner family. The Nats are also looking to hire a GM under Toboni, and Mike DeBartolo could be at the top of that list…. Feel good about that?

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