Nationals hire Phillies’ Kliambi as general manager

The Nationals have found their new general manager.

The franchise has hired Ani Kilambi, a former assistant general manager with the Philadelphia Phillies, to help oversee the rebuilding club, according to multiple reports released Wednesday night. 

Kilambi, 31, oversaw the research and development department in Philadelphia. He joins an overhauled Washington front office that is led by Paul Toboni, the Nationals’ newly hired president of baseball operations. 

Before joining the Phillies in 2021, Kilambi spent five years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. There, he worked in several roles, including as a data science director and as a predictive modeling analyst.

Kilambi takes over a job that was held for more than a decade and a half by Mike Rizzo, who became the GM in Washington in 2009 and added the title of president of baseball operations in 2013. Rizzo was fired in July during the Nationals’ sixth consecutive losing season. Manager Dave Martinez also was fired then.

Mike DeBartolo took over as interim GM after Rizzo was let go and oversaw the selection of 17-year-old high school shortstop Eli Willits with the No. 1 pick in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft in July.

Toboni, who was hired in late September after having been an assistant GM with the Red Sox, has now hired several key decision makers with experience in Tampa Bay’s analytically driven front office. New manager Blake Butera also spent seven years with the Rays. 

This article is based in part on wire service reports.