It was a quiet first week for Paul Toboni as Nationals President of Baseball Operations. There had not been much noise when it came to the managerial search or what Toboni would do to overhaul the front office. However, he has sprung into action in his second week on the job.
Andrew Golden reported that the Nationals will be making “sweeping changes” to their front office. The first casualties of this overhaul are assistant GM Mark Scialabba and farm director Eddie Longosz. Both were let go today and had played key roles on the player development side.
Longosz was the more well known of the two. He joined the organization in 2010 and had worked his way up the scouting department. Longosz took over as farm director in 2023. Given the lack of success on the player development side, these firings are not too surprising.
Both had been in the organization for over a decade and were Mike Rizzo guys. Paul Toboni is going to need to remake the front office in his image. To do that, he is going to have to bring in his own guys. The player development side is an easy place to start.
Toboni comes from a scouting and player development background, so this is the area where he will have the most conviction. It is also an area where the need for improvement is obvious. Mike Rizzo is out of a job because of the Nationals failure to draft and develop. Any new POBO would likely make these moves. I doubt this was much of a surprise for Longosz and Scialabba.
However, this appears to only be the start of the Toboni overhaul. A source told the great Barry Svrluga that this overhaul would be a bloodbath. You hate to see people lose their jobs, but this is exactly what a lot of Nationals fans wanted to hear.
Since the World Series in 2019, the Nats franchise has fallen behind the rest of the league. Baseball is an adapt or die business, and the Nats failed to adapt. Now the front office is going to face the consequences of not adapting.
Seeing this shakeup is exciting. Hopefully Toboni can bring in new voices that can help modernize the organization. Bringing the Nationals into the 2020’s is Toboni’s number one priority this offseason and this is a step towards accomplishing that.
However, not everyone will be gone. It was reported that Mike DeBartolo will be staying in the organization. There was no word on what role he will be filling, but he will stay around. After Mike Rizzo got fired in July, DeBartolo was the Interim GM. He also interviewed for the full time gig.
This is going to be something to follow throughout the offseason. Big changes are coming to this organization, and they were needed. I am very interested to see who stays and who goes. The next thing on the agenda for Toboni is determining what happens on the coaching side. It has not officially been announced, but I would be shocked if we didn’t see massive changes there.
The offseason is underway and the stove is heating up for the Washington Nationals. Paul Toboni has a big job ahead of him and big calls to make. He made the first of those big calls today.