Nationals Hire Matt Borgschulte As Hitting Coach

The Nationals announced what appears to their full coaching staff at this afternoon’s Winter Meetings (relayed by Andrew Golden of The Washington Post). The hiring of Matt Borgschulte as hitting coach is now official, after TalkNats reported six days ago that he had accepted the job. The Nats also added Victor Estevez as third base/infield coach and Dustin Glant as assistant pitching/bullpen coach.

Borgschulte spent the 2025 season as Minnesota’s hitting coach. The Twins moved on from him after one year following a managerial switch from Rocco Baldelli to Derek Shelton. Minnesota hitters ranked 23rd in scoring and finished between 16th and 22nd in all three slash stats. They were a middle-of-the-pack group in strikeouts and walks while tying for 11th in home runs.

It was a step back from a ’24 season in which they finished 10th in the majors in runs and were narrowly better than average in every slash category. The usual caveats about separating coaches from their personnel apply, of course. The 35-year-old Borgschulte had spent the prior three season as a co-hitting coach with the Orioles. He replaces Darnell Coles in the nation’s capital.

Estevez gets his first job on a big league staff. The 37-year-old had spent more than a decade coaching and managing in the Milwaukee farm system. He has seven seasons of minor league managerial experience, the past two of which have been at the High-A level. Estevez has also managed in the Dominican Winter League. He’ll have his work cut out for him with a Washington infield that ranked 28th in MLB with -60 Outs Above Average over the past three seasons.

Glant jumps to the professional ranks after spending four seasons at Indiana University. He’d been the Hoosiers’ pitching coach since 2022. Glant had spent the prior six seasons at Ball State as their pitching coach. The 44-year-old pitched parts of six seasons in the Arizona farm system in the 2000s.

The remainder of Blake Butera’s first staff, all of which had already been reported: bench coach Michael Johns, pitching coach Simon Mathews, assistant hitting coach Andrew Aydt, assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle, first base/outfield/baserunning coach Corey Ray, catching coach Bobby Wilson, field coordinator Tyler Smarslok, and development coach Grant Anders. It’s almost an entirely new group after the managerial change. Doolittle is the only holdover from Dave Martinez’s and Miguel Cairo’s 2025 group.