The Nationals are full of surprises this season as their rebuild speeds up under new management’s watch

The Nationals won the 2019 World Series, then plunged off a cliff.

The franchise has not had a winning season since, finishing last in the National League East five times and averaging 96.4 losses over five full seasons.

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As other teams embraced using technology and advanced data to find and develop players, refine game plans, and accomplish other goals, Washington was a corner store trying to compete with Amazon.

General manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired a year ago. Former Red Sox senior vice president and assistant general manager Paul Toboni, 36, was named president of baseball operations in September.

Toboni hired 33-year-old Blake Butera, a former Boston College player, as manager a month later. He was the Rays’ senior director of player development and had not managed above the Single-A level.

Butera is the son of Barry Butera, who reached Triple-A as a Red Sox prospect in 1980.

Toboni also hired Red Sox amateur scouting director (and fellow Cal-Berkeley grad) Devin Pearson to be his assistant general manager for player development. Pearson works closely with special assistant to baseball operations Andrew Wright, who was the minor league field coordinator for the Sox last season.

Senior vice president and assistant general Mike DeBartolo, a holdover from Rizzo’s staff, said the new regime has provided a welcome jolt.

“Paul brought a great vision, a great culture,” he said. “We’re making investments in the player development system and analytics and everything else.”

Yet when asked what his goals were, Toboni didn’t lapse into techno-speak.

“When you hop into this role, you have more control over enacting it in your vision, like really putting a lot of thought towards setting the culture that you want to set,” he said. “We’ve been far from perfect here. But my hope is that a visiting [team] clubbie, or whoever it might be that spends an hour, three days, or a month around our group — that they feel what we really value, and that’s been really fun.

“A lot of that goes back to the hiring process, making sure that we’re bringing people on who have really bought into what we want to be about.”

On the baseball side, the Nationals were a surprising 45-43 after taking two of three from the Red Sox at Fenway Park last week. They also were second in the NL in scoring at 5.34 runs per game, just behind the Dodgers.

In outfielder James Wood (23), shortstop CJ Abrams (25), first baseman Luis García Jr. (26), third baseman Curtis Mead (25), and outfielder Daylen Lile (23), there’s a strong, young offensive core.

“I came into the year thinking that the best thing we could do for the future Nationals teams is really help our current players develop,” Toboni said.

“If James Wood takes a huge step forward, CJ Abrams takes a huge step forward, Daylen and so on, it’s going to help us win a ton of games in 2026, but also we’re going to go into 2027 and 2028 with better teams.”

The series win at Fenway gave Washington a 28-18 record on the road. Only the Dodgers and Brewers have been better in the NL.

The Nationals are in the mix for a postseason berth, and Toboni could face a tough call whether to stick to his long-term plan or take a shot at playing in October.

“We’re now thinking through what a scenario could look like if we are buying, whereas I don’t think that was the expectation of the public coming into the season,” he said.

If the Nationals were to add, it would surely be to the pitching staff. Lefthander Foster Griffin, who pitched in Japan from 2023-25, has been their most reliable starter since agreeing to a one-year, $5.5 million contract.

There’s also no set closer. Remarkably, 10 pitchers had at least one save through the first 88 games. Lefthander PJ Poulin, a Marion native who played at Tabor Academy and the University of Connecticut, has started 10 games as an opener and also picked up three saves. He has a 2.88 ERA.

That the Nationals are even considering being a buyer shows how far they have come in a short time.

“We were pretty careful about not setting expectations too high or too low coming into this,” Toboni said. “Just kind of see how it went with every passing day. I’ve been pretty vocal about it. We just want to get the best out of our roster.

“I don’t know what we’re going to be thinking a month from now. So the same mindset remains; we’re just going to keep going over the course of the next month, then see where we’re at, and we’ll go from there.”

DeBartolo, who grew up a Red Sox fan in Bedford, has played a role in the revitalization.

As the interim head of baseball operations after Rizzo was fired, DeBartolo made the decision to take Oklahoma high school shortstop Eli Willits with the first pick of the draft.

Willits has lived up to all expectations, posting a .922 OPS this season. The Nationals signed him to an under-slot deal and used the savings to nab 6-foot-4-inch, 235-pound high school righthander Miguel Sime Jr. in the fourth round.

Sime, a Cambridge native who grew up in New York, has hit 102 miles per hour this season and struck out 81 over 43⅔ innings.

DeBartolo also acquired shortstop prospect Ronny Cruz from the Cubs for righthander Mike Soroka. Baseball America has the 19-year-old Cruz 85th on its Top 100 prospects list.

Things are so different with the Nationals that they even made a trade last week with the Orioles, a first since the franchise moved to Washington in 2005.

Granted, it was just a swap of two minor leaguers. But it offered further proof of Toboni taking the team in a new direction and pursuing all avenues to get there.

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In the case of Cade Cavalli vs. Willson Contreras, MLB meted out seven-game suspensions for both players, for two different offenses.

The league got it right. Both deserved long suspensions.

Contreras might have gotten away with four or five games except for his decision to go find his batting helmet during the brawl on Tuesday night and attempt to throw it at Cavalli. He missed and hit Nationals first baseman Andrés Chaparro in the elbow.

After being ejected, Contreras went to the clubhouse and scrolled through Instagram, which is not allowed during a game. “Meet me at Fenway,” he responded to a person who insulted him. Presumably, that was not to have a friendly chat about their differences.

MLB noted his actions “during and following” the brawl were cause for suspension.

Contreras also initially sparked the incident by purposely cutting across Cavalli’s path when he was coming off the field after the first inning and bumping into him. It was an attempt to rattle the pitcher.

Jomboy Media reviewed video from previous games, and it was the first time Contreras (or any runner) had jogged in front of a pitcher like that this season.

Contreras has a career-long reputation for such gamesmanship and getting under the skin of his opponents. It’s no wild coincidence that he has been hit by a pitch 146 times in his career and has numerous ejections.

Two former major league pitchers told me the next day they were surprised Cavalli didn’t hit Contreras with a pitch when he came to the plate in the fourth inning.

Cavalli instead struck Contreras out and yelled, “Sit down, boy!” at him.

Cavalli has to know that’s not something you can say. It’s 2025, not 1947. That Contreras said he was more bothered by the tone than the actual words doesn’t change anything.

On Wednesday, Cavalli claimed he was upset about how his words were perceived and that he did not intend them as a slur. But how else could his words have been perceived or intended? He could have simply yelled at Contreras to sit down.

The umpires erred in not ejecting Cavalli. What amounted to a racial epithet was shouted out in the middle of the field, and that can’t be tolerated.

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

⋅ Sonny Gray joined some excellent company when he picked up his 2,000th career strikeout. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Gerrit Cole, Yu Darvish, and Kevin Gausman are the only other active pitchers on that list.

It also tied Gray for 90th all-time with Andy Benes. Another 20 would move him past Catfish Hunter and Orel Hershiser.

⋅ It’s astonishing the Sox have hit only 34 home runs over 44 games at Fenway Park and have the third-lowest OPS (.680) at home in the majors.

As one opposing manager noted earlier this season, teams used to worry about a series at Fenway wrecking their bullpen. Now, you can rest some relievers.

⋅ Music was playing in the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon after a 10-2 loss against the Nationals. A few of the players had their children with them, too.

That may not seem like a big deal, but there was a time when that clubhouse was so quiet after a loss that you barely heard anybody talking.

Whether that’s a sign of changing norms or evidence that this particular team isn’t all that invested in the season is open to interpretation.

It was a surprise, especially with so many games still to play. You’d like to think a veteran player or one of the coaches would have said something.

⋅ Triple-A outfielder Braiden Ward is an under-the-radar trade candidate.

In olden times, Alex Cora said the Sox saw him as a Dave Roberts-type who could steal a base when needed in the postseason. With the Sox facing long odds of playing in October, other teams could reach out.

Ward is 36 of 41 on steal attempts and has 247 in his minor league career. The 27-year-old has never played in the majors, but his speed could be a valuable weapon in the postseason.

The Pirates are winless in the last nine games Paul Skenes has started. He is 0-6 with a 5.36 ERA and 1.40 WHIP during the stretch. The 24-year-old righthander and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner was 6-2, 1.98 in nine starts before the skid.

Skenes averaged 96.3 m.p.h. with his four-seam fastball against the Phillies on Wednesday, when he allowed eight runs [a career-worst seven earned] in a 10-6 loss. He topped out at 97.9.

To use an April 1 start against the Reds as a comparison, Skenes averaged 97.6 with his fastball. Myriad factors affect velocity, but the Pirates have to be concerned. The team would not send Skenes to the mound with even a slight injury, so the issue is either mechanical or Skenes having to learn how to pitch without being able to blow the ball by opposing hitters.

That he has a 5.45 ERA in the first and second innings suggests it could be a problem with the game plan. His ERA is 1.59 for the third and fourth.

“There’s a lot being made about it, and it is tough,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said.

Skenes offered no explanation.

“I don’t know. It happens,” he told reporters. “We’ll figure out what it is, and we’ll just keep attacking it.”

In its latest proposal to the owners, the MLB Players Association pitched expanding rosters from 26 to 28 for the first 15 days of the season to protect players from injury as they build up innings. It makes a lot of sense, but the owners are sure to oppose the idea of 60 additional players receiving major league salaries and service time, even for just 15 days … The Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski threw 44 pitches between 100-103.8 m.p.h. in his start against the Reds on Thursday. A 105.5-m.p.h. fastball against the Cubs on June 26 was tied for the third-fastest in pitch tracking history with Ben Joyce (Angels, 2024). Aroldis Chapman hit 105.8 in 2010 (Reds) and 105.7 in 2016 (Cubs) … Roberts won his 1,000th game as a manager Tuesday. It took him 1,606 games. It seems fitting that Roberts broke the record set by noted baseball segregationist Cap Anson in 1894 … Mets owner Steve Cohen did “The Show” podcast with New York Post writers Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman last week. He was asked about telling Juan Soto in 2024 that the Mets would win 2-4 championships during his tenure if he signed with the team. “Thank God it’s a long contract,” Cohen cracked. The Mets are 461-436 since Cohen bought the team and have won two playoff series. After the firing of manager Carlos Mendoza, Cohen said president of baseball operations David Stearns, who is under contract through 2028, would “live out” his deal … It’s amusing that Max Muncy is one of the best third basemen in baseball — and one of the worst. Max Muncy of the Dodgers has seven Defensive Runs Saved. Max Muncy of the Athletics is at minus-12. The good defender is 35, and the bad one is 23. They were both born on Aug. 23, but aren’t related … MLB added a rule during the 2020 COVID-19 season that if a team lost its two catchers to injury, a designated bullpen catcher could enter the game. The rule remains on the books. So Charlie Madden, who finished his minor league career in 2019, could theoretically catch for the Sox …New England will be well-represented in the Futures Game next Sunday in Philadelphia. Cardinals Double-A lefthander Liam Doyle is from Derry, N.H., and played at Pinkerton Academy. He pitched for Coastal Carolina, Mississippi, and Tennessee before St. Louis selected him with the fifth pick of the draft last year. Dodgers prospect Mike Sirota, one of the National League outfielders, played at Northeastern from 2022-24. He was a third-round pick of the Reds, then traded to the Dodgers before the 2025 season for Gavin Lux … Happy birthday to Rick Lancellotti, who is 70. The first baseman and outfielder played professionally from 1977-91 and hit close to 400 home runs at all levels. A Providence native, Lancellotti lived in Vermont and New Hampshire before his family moved to New Jersey when he was in high school. Lancellotti was an 11th-round draft pick of the Pirates in 1977 and went on to play in the Padres, Rangers, Expos, Mets, Giants, and Red Sox organizations. He hit 268 homers in the minors — 58 of them for Triple-A Pawtucket from 1989-91. That earned him a call-up to the Red Sox in 1990, and he was 0 for 8 with a sacrifice fly in four games. Lancellotti hit 58 home runs for the Hiroshima Carp in Japan from 1987-88. His only two homers in the majors came for the Padres in 1986. Lancellotti also played in Mexico and Italy before retiring to the Buffalo area, where he coached and owned a sporting goods store.

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