The Washington Nationals have found their ways into the news for a number of different topics so far in the 2025-2026 offseason. The team is obviously going to look abundantly different than they did to end the miserable 2025 season, and the hope is that a lot of new coaching will help the franchise modernize to present-day techniques.

Over the last few years, coaching had become a sore spot for fans of the Nationals, as it had become painfully obvious to anyone who had watched the club for even one full game that the team was severely lacking in the fundamentals. Whether it was the abysmal baserunning, horrible defense, or awful plate discipline, it’s honestly almost impossible to pinpoint a single area in which the previous coaching staff helped to improve players at the big league level.

We further saw evidence of this when numerous top prospects like Dylan Crews, Brady House, Robert Hassell III, Daylen Lile, and even James Wood at times first came to the majors and immediately struggled to break bad habits they had developed. Some of those guys were able to figure things out by themselves like Wood and Lile, but even they had large bouts of struggle.

However, while the Nationals coaching staff is now finalized for the 2026 season as of the last few days, the Nationals had some relevant news happen in the last few days as well with a former player finding a new career opportunity with another organization.

That player would be Corey Dickerson, who retired back in January of 2025, and he once had a short cup of coffee with the Nationals for a little bit. He was unspectacular as a player for the Nationals, but had a solid career overall with numerous other programs. As of now, Dickerson has agreed to become the new first base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, in what will be his first opportunity to coach at the big league level.

In a sense, this completes the Nationals and Rays coaching swap, as the Nationals nabbed new skipper Blake Butera from the Rays’ organization as well as bench coach Michael Johns. Dickerson of course last appeared in any big league capacity for the Nationals, so both teams were able to find new coaches from the others’ organization.

What do you think of Corey Dickerson getting his shot to coach at the big league level? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.