Nationals Hire Away Another Former Red Sox Staffer in First Major Offseason Move
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Things are starting to get rolling for the Washington Nationals this offseason.
While free agency won't officially begin until the World Series comes to an end, that hasn't stopped president of baseball operations Paul Toboni from adding to his organization.
According to Kyle Williams of The Baltimore Banner, the Nationals are set to hire David Besky away from the Boston Red Sox to become their new pitching strategist on major league staff. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was the first to report that Besky would not be returning to the Red Sox in 2027 after he was the director of baseball sciences for Boston since December 2024.
Nationals Hire David Besky as New Pitching Stategist
The overlap between the Nationals and Red Sox should not surprise anyone at this point.
Washington hired Toboni away from Boston to become the team's newest president of baseball operations last offseason, and that prompted Toboni to bring multiple front office members with him to the nation's capital. Adding Besky is the latest crossover, and it hopefully will result in some improvement when it comes to the pitching staff for the Nationals moving forward.
Previously, the pitching strategist role was held by Sean Doolittle, the two-time All-Star who won the World Series with Washington back in 2019. His responsibility was to serve as the liaison between the pitching staff and the analytics department, which is likely what Besky will be doing after Doolittle was moved into an assistant pitching coach position when Toboni took over the front office.
Besky, who was previously with Driveline before he was hired by the Red Sox to be their coordinator of player development in January 2023, will now transition into a uniformed role for the first time in his career. This is a huge step in his career, and it's the latest example of how Toboni is continuing to tinker with staff positions under his leadership in the nation's capital. It's unclear just how large of an input Besky will have on what transpires at the major league level. However, it's clear the Nationals are continuing to embrace analytics and technology by making this hire.
Washington saw improvements when it came to their pitching development at the minor league level. Some fruits of their labor materialized later in the season when two of minor league pitchers -- Erik Tolman and Jack Sinclair -- became go-to guys coming out of the bullpen.
The Nationals are trying to reshape their entire baseball operations department under the leadership of Toboni. And with Besky set to become the team's new major league pitching strategist, they have added another piece to the puzzle to make that happen.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai