OPINION:
Paul Toboni, the new Washington Nationals president of baseball operations, spent last week taking the first steps of putting his fingerprints on the franchise by waving goodbye to many of the front office executives and player development field-level employees who were part of the organization that he inherited.
Assistant general managers, scouts, minor league managers and coaches and other support personnel — more than two dozen employees, some long-timers, hired by former boss Mike Rizzo, who was fired in July — were dismissed by Toboni, less than two weeks after he was officially hired.
“They’re my decision, and I own the decisions,” Toboni told 106.7 the Fan. “What you want to balance is doing what you think is best for the organization especially with the thought of where we want to go in mind while also having the utmost care and respect and empathy when you have some of those conversations.”
It’s not unusual for a new executive to clean house. But it would appear to leave the baseball operation with a number of vacancies less than three weeks before the Major League Baseball general managers meeting and the winter meetings in December.
Toboni has taken a significant first step toward building back the front office by hiring 31-year-old Devin Pearson, director of amateur scouting for the Boston Red Sox, to be an assistant general manager in Washington, according to the Boston Globe.
The two worked together in the Red Sox organization — Toboni starting as an intern in baseball operations in 2015 and Pearson joining the organization as an intern in pro scouting in 2017. They had been teammates on the University of California baseball team.
Like Toboni, Pearson is well respected and, according to overslotbaseball.com, “it’s a big loss for the Red Sox and a tremendous get for the Nats.”
I’m sure Toboni has had a vision of an organization he would run and who he would like working for him. That talent pool may come from, though not be limited to, the Red Sox organization, where Toboni rose to be an assistant general manager.
On the surface, this should come as welcome news for Nationals fans. The Red Sox player development system has been ranked among the best in baseball over the last few years. Before the 2025 season began, Baseball America ranked the Red Sox first in its farm system ratings.
During the season Boston promoted two of their top prospects, Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell and traded two others, James Tibbs III and Blaze Jordan at the trading deadline. The publication still rated the Red Sox as the fifth-best farm system in baseball after those transactions.
But a June 16 Yahoo Sports report detailed a Red Sox front office and player development system in chaos that led to the controversial trade of star third baseman Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
“It wasn’t the result of a trade demand or a front office trying to shed salary,” the report said. “It was the culmination of eroded trust, fraying relationships and a deeper breakdown inside one of baseball’s most visible franchises.
“The Red Sox have spent years telling fans that they’re building something sustainable. But when pressure mounts — whether over money, development or identity — the foundation keeps cracking. The Devers trade was not a fluke but a rupture.”
The story went on to say that “the coaching staff has grown frustrated with the state of player development, specifically how much emphasis is placed on swing mechanics and hitting data, often at the expense of fundamentals.
“For a franchise that once set the standard for modern baseball operations, dysfunction has become the new normal.”
It was so bad that team President Sam Kennedy addressed some of these issues — specifically the breakdown of defense at the major league level (the Red Sox led all of baseball in errors with 116) — in a July 3 appearance on WEEI radio.
“It’s been a systemic thing for a long time,” Kennedy said. “And that’s on us. That’s on everybody in the organization. It’s not acceptable to be out there at the major league level and making fundamental mistakes. If you do that in the big leagues, if you give away outs, you’re going to be in trouble. So yes, we need to improve. Full stop …
“I mean, you cannot be giving away outs and expect to win baseball games,” Kennedy said. “It just doesn’t work.”
None of this is necessarily a reflection on Toboni or Pearson. But those who hope for a Red Sox exodus to Washington should be wary.
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