Paul Toboni made a surprising but exciting decision yesterday when he named Ani Kilambi the new general manager of the Washington Nationals. As the GM, Kilambi will serve as the second in command to Toboni, handling more of the day-to-day aspects, including, but not limited to, waiver claims and lower-level trades.
At just 31 years old, Kilambi will fit right in with what is becoming the youngest front office in all of sports easily. He brings with him a strong background of analytical skill, a common theme of this entire new front office, but also a great ability to explain his knowledge in ways that players and coaches can understand and apply. Let’s take a look at how he got to the point of becoming the youngest general manager in all of baseball, and the third youngest GM in baseball history, behind only Theo Epstein and Jon Daniels at 28 years old each.
Like POBO Paul Toboni, Ani Kilambi attended the University of California, Berkeley for college, where he double majored in statistics and operations research & management science from 2012 to 2016. In the summer of 2015, he got his beginnings in MLB with an AL East Team, similar to Paul Toboni, joining the Tampa Bay Rays as a baseball research and development intern for the summer.
After graduating, Kilambi joined the Rays full-time as a baseball R&D assistant. He would then spend the next 5 years working his way up the Rays front office, taking on multiple analytical roles such as a predictive model analyst and assistant director of baseball R&D, before finally becoming the Rays director of decision science in 2021. Tops Rays executives often cited Kilambi during that 2021 season as one of the reasons for their strong bullpen and ability to continually churn out great relievers.
There aren’t many better organizations in baseball to jumpstart your career than Tampa Bay, and Kilambi proved he not only fit in there, but that he was one of their brightest young minds.
Unfortunately for the Nats, the Phillies realized what a sharp baseball mind Kilambi was before they did, poaching him from the Rays to become one of their assistant general managers in November 2021. Along with the assistant GM role, the Phillies also placed Kilambi in charge of the club’s baseball research and development, as well as the use of data throughout the organization.
While this may seem like a large responsibility to place on the shoulders of a 28-year-old, Kilambi not only handled it, but he thrived, nearly doubling the organization’s R&D department in 2 years and taking the Phillies from one of the most old-school organizations in baseball to one of the most forward-thinking.
The Phillies reached the World Series in Kilambi’s first season with the club, and his improvements to the ballclub’s analytical methods played a large part in that. Over his 4 years with the club, the Phillies have been a powerhouse in the NL, making large strides, especially in their pitching development, churning out studs such as Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez, and Orion Kerkering.
New Chapter In The Nation’s Capital
Kilambi now takes on his greatest challenge yet, becoming the second in command to an organization that is one of the most old-school in the sport and coming off their 6th consecutive season under .500. I have no doubt a large reason Kilambi landed this job was the confidence of Toboni that he could turn this organization’s way of thinking around, much like he did in Philadelphia, and he will be supported by a front office which shares the same goal. Kilambi has gone to 9 consecutive postseasons as a member of the Rays and Phillies front offices, and while it would be a long shot, perhaps he can help make it 10 in a row in 2026 with the Nats.