Toboni doesn’t wait for the Winter Meetings tomorrow to make a big trade!

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Toboni acquires catcher Harry Ford and pitcher Isaac Lyon for closer Jose A. Ferrer

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

While the Winter Meetings start tomorrow on Sunday evening, the fireworks usually do not go off until Monday night — and Paul Toboni didn’t wait. Most were waiting for headlines of a blockbuster trade of MacKenzie Gore, yet it was a trade of Nats’ closer Jose A. Ferrer that stoked the hot stove quickly in a Washington state trade with Washington, D.C. For most of us, we didn’t see this coming. We heard the rumors of demand for Ferrer, and that the Nats wanted Ford. But nobody said this would be the trade!

With this Toboni trade to acquire catcher Harry Ford and pitcher Isaac Lyon for Ferrer, you hope this is Toboni’s equivalent to the Nats sending the Twins closer Matt Capps for catcher Wilson Ramos (ranked №58 by Baseball America) and pitcher Joe Testa over 15 years ago. If you remember, Ramos was blocked by a star catcher named Joe Mauer, similar to Ford being blocked by Cal Raleigh.

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Not a popular opinion, a full-scale rebuild might be the answer!

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Optical Illusion

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Did the Nationals quietly win the 2025 Trade Deadline?

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Nats Fanatics

Did the Washington Nationals quietly win the 2025 Trade Deadline? Let’s break it down, and begin with some background. During one of the wildest stretches in franchise history, the Nationals fired GM Mike Rizzo, and replaced him with Mike DeBartolo as the interim GM. The Nats flipped six veterans players of which five were going to be free agents after the season. In return, DeBartolo received back 10 prospects at the trade deadline. Only one has debuted so far, but the rest form one of the deeper prospect returns the Nats have had in years.

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Balling On A (Lerners) Budget: A numbers-based plan of attack for this offseason

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Ryan MacReynolds
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Happy holidays, everyone! It’s been over a month since we’ve seen live baseball, and over two since the Nats have been allowed to muddy our day. With that, we’ve entered the time of year where GMs and amateur couch GMs (such as myself) have to shine.

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Aura Farming was backed up by statistics

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats’ ownership must insist on signing a veteran leader on a longer-term deal

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Within the realm of possibilities, Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, could decide to be very conservative in his spending this offseason. The ownership group should be instructing him, at the very least, to sign a veteran leader on a longer-term deal.

When Ryan Zimmerman talked recently on his 11th Inning Podcast, Zimmerman said the team needs a veteran team leader on a 2-to-4 year deal, and added, “I’m not saying to go crazy to get the top of the [free agent] list — that would be cool too.”

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The Evolution of Pitcher Roles

Posted on December 1, 2025 by DonH

In 1969 Bob Gibson started 35 games with 28 complete games and a total of 314 innings pitched. Comparisons to Bob Gibson to today’s starting pitchers would be silly.

So lets look at Washington Senators pitcher Joe Coleman who started 36 games (plus 4 in relief) and pitched 12 complete games and pitched 247⅔ innings. In 2025 there were a total of 29 complete games and the most innings pitched by a single starter was Logan Webb (207 IP) and only two other starters had at least 200 innings: Garrett Crochet (205⅓ IP) and Cristopher Sánchez (202 IP).

Baseball has evolved over time and perhaps we will see an evolution of the concept of starting pitchers. Will we see some variant of tandem pitchers in the future? The idea is you pair two pitchers who can pitch multiple innings before handing it off to the bullpen.

Matt Borgschulte was recently rumored to be the Nats new hitting coach. He supposedly has said his analytics folks did simulation models for how to approach hitting. So, whoa DUH, it occurred to me that it was possible to simulate the viability of various approaches to tandem pitchers.

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The Nats will be busy at the Winter Meetings … fielding trade proposals

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats make a huge signing this week!

Posted on November 29, 2025 by Stan4Nats

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Black Friday marks the start of the last weekend in November

Posted on November 28, 2025 by Andrew Lang

Can you believe it is December 1st on Monday. We are now in the final weekend of November. For most baseball executives, the day after Thanksgiving has few “Black Friday” shopping opportunities.

There are some bargains that are out there for most teams as is normal with minor leaguers, lower level players, retreads, and finding players looking for rebound contracts. Three years ago on this day, the Washington Nationals did sign Jeimer Candelario after Thanksgiving in 2022. Candelario was coming off of a rough 2022 campaign in which he hit just .217 with a .633 OPS. That signing worked out very well for the Nats. Candelario did well in the 2023 season and was flipped at the July trade deadline for DJ Herz and Kevin Made.

Most Nats’ fans do not want to see the Nats shopping in that rebound aisle of the store because for every bounceback player that works, like Candelario and Jesse Winker, you have players like Lucas Sims, Nick Senzel, Eddie Rosario, and Joey Gallo that might not work. Nats fans want President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, shopping at the luxury stores in this offseason.

So far in this offseason, Dylan Cease seems like he is headed to Toronto, and Raisel Iglesias and Josh Naylor have signed new deals. Four more accepted their qualifying offers that includes Brandon Woodruff, Trent Grisham, Shota Imanaga, and Gleyber Torres and that leaves 43-names remaining in the MLB Trade Rumors Top-50 rankings.

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