The Nationals are set to hire Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Over-Slot Baseball. Previously the Pirates’ director of amateur scouting, Horowitz will now work under Washington’s new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni.
Toboni, like Horowitz, has a background in amateur scouting. In fact, Horowitz worked under Toboni in the Red Sox’s amateur scouting department for several years. That’s surely no coincidence. To that point, the first assistant GM Toboni hired this offseason was Devin Pearson, who just so happened to be his successor as Boston’s director of amateur scouting in 2023. Toboni clearly wants to improve Washington’s draft performance – years of poor drafting almost certainly led to Mike Rizzo’s unceremonious ousting just before the draft this past summer – and hiring Horowitz is a step toward achieving that goal. While it’s difficult to accurately evaluate a draft class without the benefit of hindsight, Pittsburgh’s performance in two drafts under Horowitz, 2024 and 2025, was widely praised.
The Nationals made several personnel changes after hiring Toboni, and former assistant GMs Eddie Longosz and Mark Scialabba were among the casualties. Mike DeBartolo, Washington’s interim GM between the Rizzo and Toboni eras, remains with the organization, but it’s unclear if he will serve as an AGM alongside Horowitz and Pearson or if he’s taking on a new role. DeBartolo has worked in the Nationals’ front office for than a decade, including as an AGM from 2019 until his temporary promotion in July.
The Athletic’s initially reported that Toboni would bring on a GM “soon,” but that was now a month ago, so it’s unclear if hiring a second-in-command remains a priority for the Nationals and their new chief baseball executive. Ironically enough, the Nationals are also without a director of amateur scouting after losing Brad Ciolek to the Tigers last month. According to Doyle, this is a hole the team does indeed still intend to fill.
Still need to sell the team
Nationals will be loaded with pitching prospects in no time.
Happy for Horowitz, but the Pirates should have promoted him before this happened. There’s no way he would have been worse than Cherington, or realistically any other assistant GM the Bucs currently have. Either way, I see why the Nats wanted him. The last Nationals first round pick to put up even just 3 bWAR in a Nats uniform was Anthony Rendon. Their last second rounder to even put up 1 or more bWAR was Jordan Zimmerman. Recent picks like Seaver King, Elijah Greene, and Cade Cavalli aren’t looking too great either.
Keith Law of the Athletic has a very positive write-up of Seaver King’s performance in the Arizona Fall League, and attribute’s his early struggles in the Nats’ farm system to coaching advice to change his swing that was counterproductive. He is apparently reverted to his college swing in the AFL, where one of his Double-A hitting coaches is available. Perhaps it’s too early to give up on King, or Cavalli, who had a decent stint with the MLB team late last season.
did it ever occur to you that maybe Cherington refused to give Horowitz more money, MLB1225?
After missing two+ seasons, anything Cavalli, and Gray, for that matter, gives you is gravy. Too early to give up on King, yet. He was kind of raw coming out of colkege and went to possibly the worst team for developing prospects. See Green, Elijah for reference. Too early to give uo on Crews, as well, who was polished coming out of college. The early returns are not great, though.
This is big blow to the Pirates’ front office. Horowitz was a big part of the last two drafts which look promising for the Bucs. Pittsburgh gets Pirated again! Good for the Nats!
Greene looking like a total dud but he’s set for life.
Toboni building up a nice front office. Now, if only the Lerners would give him more money to spend on the product on the field…
Yeah, the Front Office is a radical step in the right direction. Hope Colorado is watching how it’s done. Gut the old regime, bring in the young, gifted and bright, and let them tear the last-century thinking outta the organization from the root. Once the Astros and Orioles showed everyone how to re-boot a whole franchise, it’s become so en-vouge now.
As for the money, the first couple of years won’t need money in the field, but investments in infrastructure might be better suited; Spring Training facilities, foreign baseball Academys, and as many FO analytics guys as they can afford. Most of the rebuild should be internal for the first year or two.
Hopefully when they do need money, they will open their purse strings. But I’d wager the Learners will be selling before investing in Free Agents, like the Angelos family did in Baltimore. Sell it with that new-paint smell for better ROI. …is my guess anyway.
Son of Barry!
No one paid attention the Nats in the second half of the season (and I don’t blame them) but yes, Cavalli was actually pretty solid in 10 starts and looks like a lock for next year’s rotation. He’s no longer in the “draft bust” conversation.