The Nationals are going to hire Anirudh Kilambi as general manager, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Kilambi, who had been with the Phillies as an assistant general manager, will be the second-in-command in the Washington front office under president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.
Kilambi, 31, began working for the Rays back in 2015 when he was in his early 20s. He worked his way up that organization to the position of assistant director of baseball research and development. In November of 2021, the Phillies hired him as assistant general manager when he was just 27 years old.
The Nationals have been busy overhauling their franchise. Their recent rebuild wasn’t showing enough progress, so president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired midseason. Toboni and Blake Butera have since been hired to take on those roles and Butera has also made a number of coaching changes. Since Toboni was hired, it has been reported that he would eventually hire a GM to be his top lieutenant, with Kilambi now tapped for the gig.
A key feature of the new regime has been youth. Toboni is 35 years old and Butera 33. New pitching coach Simon Mathews is 30. New first base coach Corey Ray is 31, as is Kilambi. “That wasn’t on purpose,” Butera recently said of the youth of his staff, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. “We weren’t trying to get young staff. Someone made a joke like, ’Did you tell Paul when you got hired that the staff has to be under 40 years old?’ You might not believe me, but no.”
While the Nats are surely looking at attributes other than age, it does make for an interesting symbol of the changing of the guard. Many in the industry viewed the Nats as behind the curve when it came to data and analytics as the front office was run by Rizzo, who is now 65 years old. Kilambi has a strong research and development background and is the latest injection of fresh blood as the Nats try to charge forward into what they hope is a bright future.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
Big news!
Phillies assistant GM? Nationals are going forward.
Exciting
Anirudh Kilambi needs a nickname.
The AK-47
yeah, not to go all woke on this, but I live in Sydney and with the anger that is percolating throughout the world with, well, just about everything, probs not a great choice for a new moniker.
I was thinking the “the rude lamb” or something totally off the wall..
Lamb Chop
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_Chop_(puppet)
Already an AK in charge of the Boulez
All Im getting is Kill Bambi.
It’s pronounced “Andruw “
Well I understand he goes by Ani, so perhaps “the chosen one”?
“….ambi…” ?
If he played ball, he had to have one…
leftykoufax, why do you feel he needs a nickname?
Shouldn’t everyone?
Absolutely!
Anirudh Kilambi sounds like a generic Star Wars character.
He will be on the next movie as a Jedi knight
I’m a big fan. Phillies are going to feel him being gone. He helped form a great rotation.
They literally won’t feel this at all.
He did a lot of great work in Philly. Highly praised and credited with helping build that rotation outside of Wheeler and Nola.
Ehh, I’m just messing with you. Just seems like every front office has like 4 of these guys now. Never touched a baseball. Fancy degree. Can tell you all kinds of analytic information about arm release point, spin rate, but if you asked him to throw a ball, he’d look like your kid sister. Remember when BB asked that guy if he ever played ball, and the guy said T-ball, and BB said, congratulations, you’re the new head scout? Yeah, you remember.
Well, you’re totally right about that. Haha.
I’m sure he’s touched a baseball and is capable of throwing one. Not that that is part of his job or anything.
This is real life, not Revenge of the Nerds dude
Man. Thanks for letting me know about real life. I rescind my comment and Anirudh was probably the best kid on his little league team in India. Wicked heater. Killer breaking ball. All the girls loved him. Man, what was I thinking?!
No he hasn’t played the game….pure analytics hire…UC Berkeley schooled….throws like his sister and has the looks that will help him fit right in in DC….
He grew up in Cupertino CA, went to high school in Florida, then went to UC Berkeley.
“ He often attended Giants and A’s games with his family and friends.
“Jason Schmidt was probably my favorite player,” Kilambi said Friday morning at BayCare Ballpark. “I don’t know that there’s any specific reason why. It was just an appreciation for his stuff, his ability to generate swing-and-miss on the changeup. I wouldn’t necessarily have framed it that way as a kid, but that’s sort of how I think about it now.”
Yeah, sounds completely out of his element.
We got Bush!
All the moves Washington is making this winter might result in nothing, but by comparison it sures makes it seem like the Nats front office had been operating on autopilot for the last five years.
At least now they appear to be trying to get better.
100%, love their first couple personnel moves too. I’m starting to hope again.
Yes! Me too!
I’m with you. I’ve seen what the grizzled old grew up on a bus to Wilmington, paid their dues guys do.
Let’s give the nerdy kids a shot.
Who’s first in command?
Paul
Peter & Paul or just Paul?
Paul and Mary but not Peter
first transaction : trade McKenzie Gore to his old team
Whose old team – Kilambi’s or Gore’s?
Send him back to Idaho he a dog
So cool that a dude I used to read in the comments section of McCovey Chronicles has made it all the way to GM of a big league ballclub.
Sure it’s the same guy? Might be a different Anirudh Kilambi.
Help me, Anirudh Kilambi, you’re my only hope.
You underestimate my power
Surprised he doesn’t bring in young Luke Weaver to nurture and teach him the ways of the Force play at second
It might be these are all young hires in correlation w lower paychecks… since they haven’t signed a notable FA in 5yrs it goes w the flow.
First password GM.
I said his name out loud and my couch started floating
COVER YOUR HEART, INDY! COVER YOUR HEART!
Beetlejuice Beetlej…ruh roh
Kumbaya to you too
The Phils, Mets and Braves making moves left and right, improving their bullpens and adding lineup pieces. And the Nats give us… Anirudh Kilambi. One can only imagine who will be in the Nats’ bullpen in ’26. The 66 wins of 2025 look mighty good right now. One wrongheaded trade and they’ll be the ’25 Rockies or the ’24 White Sox.
yeah because we’re just a couple bullpen arms away from competing with the rest of the east. I think you need to adjust your expectations for what the next 2–3 seasons are going to look like. The last rebuild failed and now we have to start over.
Sure, you can have our Asst GM but it’s a package deal. You have to take Casty and Taijuan too.
They are going to have to lose that AARP sponsorship.
These comments are a cesspit
The Nats really needed to improve their ability to develop position players and the injection of fresh blood with a data science background can only help.