When Paul Toboni was hired as the Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations, a lot of people assumed he would hire a GM underneath him. That structure has become very popular in the modern game. The POBO is the big boss, who makes all of the biggest decisions, while the GM is more involved with day to day operations.
However, as we get more news on Toboni’s hirings, I am not so sure that he will hire a GM. Instead, it looks like Toboni will rely on a strong group of Assistant GM’s that he has a lot of familiarity with. Toboni has now hired two high profile AGM’s in Justin Horowitz and Devin Pearson. These are two people Toboni has worked with in the past and are young minds with big reputations in the sport.
They were also two natural candidates for that GM position, if it were something Toboni wanted to do. We wrote a story about potential candidates for the GM job after Toboni was hired. Both Horowitz and Pearson were on that list, as was former Interim GM Mike DeBartolo, who is staying in the organization.
We were spot on about Horowitz and Pearson coming to the organization, but neither got that GM role. That is very interesting to me and tells me that the GM role may not be filled. DeBartolo has not been assigned a new role in the organization yet, but I would be pretty surprised if he was the GM at this point.
It seems more likely that DeBartolo would be another AGM. His skillset would be useful in this new group. Horowitz and Pearson both came from scouting director positions, so both are very familiar with the draft. On the other hand, Toboni is more familiar with the MLB side of things, especially after his stint as Interim GM. He knows what it is like to run the day to day side of things.
DeBartolo is good at managing the 40 man roster and making some of these smaller moves. As Interim GM, we saw DeBartolo very active with waiver claims and trying to churn through relievers. He hit on some of those arms like PJ Poulin and Luis Garcia. That pro experience would be useful in rounding out the group.
I am interested to see what other hires are coming. A lot of these early hires have had some overlap. Everyone Toboni has hired so far has a history in the Red Sox organization. It is probably easier to hire people you know as your first hires because you do not need to vet them as much. Just because everyone so far has Red Sox ties does not necessarily mean he will exclusively hire people he has worked with before.
Also, there is still a chance that Toboni does hire a GM. He might be looking for someone he does not have as much experience working with, which would make the vetting process longer. However, it felt like Pearson and Horowitz would have been natural candidates for that GM role, but they are coming to DC to be AGM’s.
Despite the AGM title, I think these guys will have a lot of power in the organization. Things will be less centralized than they were under Rizzo, who ruled the Nats with an iron fist for most of his tenure. We will be hearing about these AGM’s contributions more than we heard about AGM’s under Rizzo.
These guys would not come to DC if they were not taking on increased authority. Both Horowitz and Pearson were running successful draft rooms, so it would take an exciting project to attract them. While their relationship with Toboni certainly helped, these guys are also coming to further their career ambitions.
It is exciting to see such a young and fresh front office as well. All of these new hires are in their 30’s and are on the cutting edge of the game. Regardless of whether Toboni hires a GM, it is an exciting time to be a fan. However, I am less confident that Toboni hires a GM than I was when he took the job.