Paul Toboni Gives Insight Into How He's Approaching This Nationals Rebuild
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There has been palpable excitement surrounding the Washington Nationals ever since they hired Paul Toboni to become the team's new president of baseball operations.
The change in philosophy that has been ushered in throughout the baseball operations side of things has made many in the fanbase confident that this rebuild will get done the right way. But once the season begins, that excitement will likely change when it's clear the Nationals are still years away from competing on a consistent basis.
Toboni knows that. And as he embarks on this rebuilding process, the 36-year-old was able to share some insight into how he plans on approaching things as the executive in charge of getting things back on track for Washington.
Paul Toboni Wants to Build From the Inside
A quick fix would be for ownership to spend money and buy some of the best free agents on the market to seriously upgrade the roster. But that isn't what the Lerner familiy wants to do, and it sounds like that is not how Toboni wants to approach things, either.
Instead, Toboni would prefer to build from the ground up. He believes that's the best way at making things sustainable year after year so the Nationals don't have to undergo another rebuilding process once they achieve high-end success.
"I'm a very strong believer that you win with the people that you have inside the building," Toboni said, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. "When a pitcher pops a year from now or a hitter really takes off in our system, it's not easy for people on the outside to follow the line of how it happened. When you're on the inside, you start to realize, 'There's actually some really good systematic elements in place that are allowing this to happen.'"
That line of thinking was evident in the MacKenzie Gore trade. It's unclear if he thinks Gore might have reached his ceiling or not. But Toboni was able to get five top 30 prospects into the organization by shipping out the lefty. That augmented what assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo was able to do when he was the interim GM, as he also infused this farm system with tons of young talent.
"I think we have a lot of the pieces that will be in place for the next Nationals run," Toboni stated, "whenever that might be."
Strong Farm System Creates Greater Chance for Success
Top 100 overall prospects and top 30 guys in each pipeline are lauded by the baseball world. But having a top-heavy farm system can also set a franchise up to have nothing in the cupboards once those players graduate from prospect status when they move on to the majors.
That's why Toboni wants to have a steady stream of talented players coming up the organization. Because, according to him, anyone in the minors could break out and place themselves onto the map to be an impact player in the bigs.
"You're not totally sure who's going to 'pop,' whether it's adding three or four or five miles per hour, or a new breaking ball that really helps a player turn the corner, but my guess is that we'll look up at some period in the future and say, 'Wow, this guy has become a really interesting piece for us,'" he said.
Always Evaluating for the Future
A main aspect of Toboni's job is operating in the present and focusing on building for the future. So while he will be invested in the upcoming 2026 campaign, he knows that a lot of what's going to take place this year is about how to best set up the Nationals for future success.
"Hopefully we achieve whatever potential we have in 2026, but if our goal is to make this the envy of the sport and having a consistent winner year in and year out, I have to have a really good understanding of how these pieces are going to fall into place in 2027, 2028 and 2029," he said.
There's no doubt Washington created a much brighter outlook for themselves after what DeBartolo and Toboni have done with this farm system. And now it will be up to the organization to make sure their current prospects are developed the right way and more talent is constantly added.
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