Cubs Designate Nate Pearson For Assignment
The Cubs designated Nate Pearson for assignment, according to the right-hander’s official MLB.com profile page. The move clears a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Eli Morgan, who was activated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Iowa.
Pearson first joined the Cubs in a trade from the Blue Jays at the 2024 deadline, and he seemed to benefit from the change of scenery. After posting a 5.63 ERA in 40 innings for Toronto prior to the deal, Pearson stabilized things and posted a 2.73 ERA across 26 1/3 innings for the Cubs. Even though the secondary metrics had a less-favorable view of Pearson’s performance, it looked like he had earned himself a spot in Chicago’s bullpen picture for 2025.
However, Pearson got off to a rocky start and found himself optioned back to Triple-A by the middle of April. He has been recalled and optioned down a couple of more times since, with the end result of an ugly 9.20 ERA and more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven) over 14 2/3 innings in the Show. Pearson’s numbers in Iowa have been considerably better, yet even his 2.22 ERA and 30.6% strikeout rate over 44 2/3 Triple-A frames have come with the red flag of a 12.9% walk rate.
Walks have been a persistent issue throughout Pearson’s career, and his seemingly improved control in 2024 may have proven to be a mirage based on his 2025 numbers. He has also had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard, as Pearson has allowed 28 home runs over his 156 2/3 career innings in the majors. Formerly one of baseball’s top pitching prospects during his time in the Jays’ farm system, Pearson battled injuries while in the minors, and a move to relief pitching still hasn’t allowed him to find a niche on a Major League roster.
Pearson has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, so between that team control and his past prospect pedigree, there is a chance he might get claimed as a reclamation project. Since the 29-year-old has more than three years of MLB service time, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming he clears waivers. It seems probable that the Cubs might just release Pearson if he clears waivers — since he is a clear non-tender candidate anyway, an early release would give Pearson an early jump on the offseason free agent market.
Morgan posted a 12.27 ERA over 7 1/3 innings before his season was all but erased by an inflamed ulnar nerve in his throwing arm. The righty’s last MLB appearance was on April 14, and a setback during a minor league rehab assignment in June pushed his clock back even further.
Finally returning to the mound in August, Morgan has looked quite sharp in posting a 1.69 ERA over 10 2/3 innings with the Cubs’ high-A and Triple-A affiliates. With his 30-day rehab window over, he is now back on the 40-man roster and continuing his rehab work in Iowa, and it is unclear if he might get another look in the majors before 2025 is over. Given his long layoff, it seems unlikely that Morgan would factor into Chicago’s playoff roster plans unless other pitchers get hurt.
Astros Notes: Pena, Alvarez, Rodgers, Polanco
6:16PM: During the Astros’ pregame radio show, GM Dana Brown said that Pena’s oblique injury “could be just a two-day thing. It’s minor based on the initial evaluation of it.” Pena will still get some testing done out of due diligence. (Hat tip to Chandler Rome).
5:40PM: As the Astros head into a critical matchup with the Mariners tonight, Houston will be without one of its key players for at least this game and perhaps beyond. Jeremy Pena was included in the initial lineup but has now been scratched due to left oblique soreness, according to an announcement from the team.
Needless to say, losing Pena would be devastating to the Astros’ chances of winning the AL West, or even making the postseason given how the standings have narrowed. The Astros trail Seattle by two games in the division race after losing the first two games of this weekend series, and another loss tonight would put Houston out of the playoff picture entirely, as the surging Guardians would have a matching 84-72 record and the tiebreaker edge.
Because the Astros don’t play on Monday, it provides some extra time to evaluate Pena’s condition. If it is just a matter of soreness and tonight’s scratch was more of a precautionary move, it’s possible the shortstop could be back in action as soon as Tuesday. Oblique issues are notoriously hard to project, however, so even if Pena remains short of an actual oblique strain, there might still be enough discomfort that the Astros don’t want to risk putting him into a game.
Pena is having the best of his four Major League seasons, hitting .304/.363/.477 with 17 homers and 20 steals (in 22 attempts) over 543 plate appearances. Each of those slash categories is a new career high for Pena, and he has also matched his personal best in stolen bases. Between his big numbers and excellent defense, Pena has been worth 5.7 fWAR this season, even though he missed all of July recovering from a rib fracture.
Injuries have been the biggest problem of Houston’s season, as it is rather remarkable that the Astros are still in the race given how many key players have missed substantial amounts of time. Yordan Alvarez is one of those figures, as the slugger has been limited to 48 games due to a hand injury that included a finger fracture, and most recently a sprained ankle that sent him back to the IL on September 16.
Alvarez provided media (including the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara) with an update on his status today, saying that he has yet to begin baseball activities since the inflammation in his ankle hasn’t fully settled. On the plus side, Alvarez is no longer wearing a protective boot, and he feels he is healing a little quicker than expected. In the absolutely best case scenario, Alvarez would be eligible to be activated off the IL on Friday, when the Astros visit the Angels in the opener of their final series of the year.
One player who won’t be an option is Brendan Rodgers, as manager Joe Espada confirmed to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that Rodgers’ season is officially over. The news is no surprise, as Rodgers hasn’t played in a big league game since June 14. Initially sidelined by an oblique strain, Rodgers suffered a concussion and a nasal fracture after an on-field collision in his first minor league rehab game in July. He returned to play one more minors game in August but was then sidelined by back problems.
Signed to a minor league deal in February, Rodgers made the Opening Day roster, and thus locked in a $2MM salary for the 2025 season. He hit .191/.266/.278 over 128 PA and 43 games before his injuries prematurely ended his season, and Rodgers will surely have to settle for another minor league contract with Houston or another club this winter.
Rodgers was brought aboard to add second base depth due to Jose Altuve‘s planned move to left field, and he may have been a fallback plan after Houston missed on signing Jorge Polanco. The Astros were the runners-up to the Mariners in signing Polanco, as the veteran infielder told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times that Houston was “very close. They made a good offer, but Seattle came back with a better offer.”
The Mariners were also given the chance to counter, as Divish writes that Polanco’s agent gave Seattle a last chance to top the Astros’ offer. The end result was a one-year, $7.75MM guarantee plus a mutual option for 2026 that has now vested into a player option. Missing out on Polanco might well end up being the difference for the Astros in the AL West race, as Polanco rebounded in a huge way from a lackluster 2024 season to hit .265/.325/.489 with 24 homers for the M’s this year.
2025-26 Qualifying Offer Projected To Be Around $22MM
This offseason’s qualifying offer will be worth approximately $22MM, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The exact figure won’t be known for another five or six weeks, though Sherman writes that the final total will probably be a little under $22MM, according to sources within both the league and the players’ union. This would track with Sherman’s early estimates about the QO in each of the last two seasons — he reported a $20.5MM approximate for 2023-24 that ended up being $20.325MM, and a $21.2MM projection for 2024-25 that wound up at $21.05MM.
The value of the QO is determined by calculating the mean salary of the league’s 125 highest-paid players. This has usually meant an increase in the year-to-year value of the qualifying offer, as detailed in this breakdown…
- 2012-13: $13.3MM
- 2013-14: $14.4MM
- 2014-15: $15.3MM
- 2015-16: $15.8MM
- 2016-17: $17.2MM
- 2017-18: $17.4MM
- 2018-19: $17.9MM
- 2019-20: $17.8MM
- 2020-21: $18.9MM
- 2021-22: $18.4MM
- 2022-23: $19.65MM
- 2023-24: $20.325MM
- 2024-25: $21.05MM
As a reminder, the qualifying offer is a one-year deal that teams can issue to any of their own free agents. A player is eligible to receive a QO if he has spent the entire 2025 season on his current team’s roster, and he hasn’t received a QO in the past. (Here is the list of active players who have already received a qualifying offer.)
Once the World Series is over, teams have a five-day window to decide whether or not to issue a QO to any of their eligible free agents. A player who receives a qualifying offer then has 10 days to decide on accepting or rejecting the offer. Of the 144 players who have ever been issued qualifying offers, only 13 have accepted, as the top free agents are naturally looking for a richer and longer-term commitment than a one-year pact.
If a player accepts a qualifying offer, they’ll simply return to their team on that one-year, $22MM contract for the 2026 season. (The two sides can still negotiate a longer-term extension after a QO is accepted.) If the player rejects the qualifying offer, he is still eligible to be re-signed by his previous team, but he can now gauge the rest of the market.
Even if a player turns down the qualifying offer, simply being issued the offer has a larger-term impact. Should the player sign elsewhere, his former team will receive some manner of draft compensation in return. By that same token, a club that signs a QO-rejecting player will have to surrender at least one draft pick, and potentially some money from their international bonus pool. These factors have been known to influence the market for certain players, if teams are wary about giving up draft/bonus assets in addition to the financial cost of a signing.
Red Sox Activate Wilyer Abreu From IL, Designate Ali Sanchez
The Red Sox announced that outfielder Wilyer Abreu has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Catcher Ali Sanchez was designated for assignment in the corresponding roster move.
Abreu returns after missing a little over a month due to calf tightness. As of two weeks ago, Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t have a set timeline for Abreu’s return, so it’s good news that Abreu has been able to make it back with a week to spare in the regular season, let alone before the playoffs begin. Abreu is in the lineup as the designated hitter tonight, which could be a sign that his calf isn’t quite 100 percent, or the Red Sox might simply just be easing him back into action.
Assuming his calf is generally okay, Abreu should step right back into his normal strong-side platoon role as Boston’s everyday right fielder against right-handed pitching. One of the sport’s best defensive outfielders, Abreu won the right field Gold Glove in 2024 and he is a strong candidate for a repeat, with +15 Defensive Runs Saved and +8 Outs Above Average to his ledger in 2025. Between his superb glovework and solid bat (.253/.325/.486 with 22 homers in 395 plate appearances), Abreu has quickly become a major all-around piece of the Red Sox roster.
Sanchez’s 2025 began on a minor league contract with the Blue Jays, and he was claimed off waivers by the Red Sox in early August. The Sox DFA’ed him 10 days after that claim, and after rejecting an outright assignment, Sanchez landed with the Mets on another minors deal. He then found himself on the way back to Boston in a trade on September 1, as the Red Sox wanted some additional depth behind the Carlos Narvaez/Connor Wong catching combo. Over 12 big league games in 2025, Sanchez has a .522 OPS over 23 plate appearances (all but two of them with Toronto).
Sanchez has a career slash line of .183/.220/.283 over 133 career PA in parts of four different MLB seasons, as his bat hasn’t been productive enough to hold down a regular role even if his well-regarded glove keeps getting him looks. Sanchez is out of minor league options, which is part of the reason why he has been such a regular on the waiver wire. Because he has been previously outrighted, Sanchez has the ability to elect free agency if he clears waivers and is assigned to Triple-A, though he is probably more likely to just accept the assignment and stay in the organization as depth.
Bryan Woo Suffering From “Minor” Pectoral Inflammation
September 20: Woo’s MRI revealed “minor” inflammation in his pectoral muscle, manager Dan Wilson told reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times) today. Wilson added that the team won’t know for another 24-48 hours whether or not Woo will require a trip to the injured list due to the issue.
September 19: Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo made an early exit from tonight’s start, as Woo left the mound after a few warm-up pitches prior to the start of his sixth inning of work. Following the game, M’s manager Dan Wilson told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish that Woo was dealing with “a little pec tightness” and would undergo an MRI on Saturday to explore the extent of the injury.
Wilson said that Woo initially told him about the discomfort after the previous inning, so the warm-up pitches were just a precautionary way of testing things before the decision was made to pull Woo from the game. Catching any possible injury early left Wilson hopeful that Woo has avoided something more serious, though more will be known once the tests are complete.
Woo hadn’t shown any indication anything was wrong, as he was masterful in limiting the Astros to just one hit and one walk over five shutout innings. The bullpen kept up the good work in finishing off Seattle’s 4-0 shutout win, which put the Mariners a game ahead of Houston in the AL West standings. The M’s also moved into position for a first-round bye, by dint of winning their season series with the AL Central-leading Tigers. With the playoff push in full swing and the Seattle fans dreaming of October success, losing Woo to the injured list would be a huge setback for the streaking Mariners.
The usually dominant M’s rotation took an overall step backwards this season, but Woo has been a stabilizing force in what has been the best of his three big league seasons. Even before tonight’s gem, Woo had a 3.02 ERA and 26.8% strikeout rate over 181 2/3 innings. A .238 BABIP has certainly added to Woo’s success and helped counter his hard-contact issues, but Woo has helped his own cause with an elite 4.9% walk rate that sits among the league’s best.
Amidst all of the impressive stats, the 186 2/3 innings Woo has now logged may be the most noteworthy, given the injury concerns that plagued the early stages of his career. He was recovering from a Tommy John surgery in his college days when the Mariners made him a sixth-round selection in the 2021 draft, and Woo missed time due to arm injuries in both 2022 and 2023, though he was able to make his MLB debut in the latter season. Elbow inflammation delayed his 2024 debut until May 10, and between that IL stint and a hamstring strain, Woo was limited to 121 1/3 big league frames last year.
Zack Gelof To Undergo Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery
SEPTEMBER 20, 4:12pm: Martin Gallegos of MLB.com writes that Gelof will head to Los Angeles to undergo shoulder surgery next week, and that he “should” have enough time this offseason to recover and return for Spring Training in 2026.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2:41pm: As expected, the A’s placed Gelof on the 10-day injured list today. Left-hander Sean Newcomb was also placed on the 15-day IL due to left elbow inflammation, so Newcomb’s 2025 season will also come to an end. To fill the two roster spots, the Athletics called up right-hander Scott McGough from Triple-A, and activated infielder Max Muncy from the 10-day IL.
Newcomb quietly posted a 2.73 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate, and 7.9% walk rate over 92 1/3 combined innings with the Red Sox and Athletics in 2025. He began the season in Boston’s rotation before being shifted into a long relief role, and the Sox then designated Newcomb for assignment in May and traded him to the A’s. Assuming his elbow issue doesn’t lead to anything serious, Newcomb should be in line to land a guaranteed big league deal in free agency this winter.
SEPTEMBER 19: Athletics second baseman Zack Gelof suffered a dislocated left shoulder in tonight’s 4-3 win over the Pirates, manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other reporters during the postgame media session. Gelof hurt himself diving for a Bryan Reynolds grounder that ended up going for a deflected double, and had to be removed from the game immediately following the play.
The A’s will place Gelof on the 10-day injured list tomorrow, and needless to say, Gelof’s 2025 season is now officially over. The dislocated shoulder is a rough ending to a season already marked by notable injuries for the 25-year-old infielder, as hamate bone surgery and then a stress reaction in his ribcage prevented Gelof from making his 2025 debut until July 4.
From there, Gelof had just two hits over his first 28 plate appearances before the A’s opted to send him back down to Triple-A. Gelof was recalled in late August but hasn’t done much better, posting a .606 OPS over 71 PA between August 25 and September 18. For the season as a whole, Gelof has a miserable 35 wRC+ from a .174/.230/.272 slash line and two home runs over 101 plate appearances.
This makes it back-to-back disappointing seasons for Gelof in the wake of his big 2023 rookie season. That seeming breakout made it look like Gelof (a second-round pick in 2021) could be the Athletics’ second baseman of the future, but he followed up with an 82 wRC+ and a league-high 188 strikeouts over 547 PA during the 2024 campaign.
More will be known on the severity of Gelof’s dislocation in the coming days, and in a worst-case scenario, his availability for the start of Spring Training may be in jeopardy. Even if healthy, Gelof cannot be viewed as a lock for an everyday job even in 2026, let alone over the long term. With highly-touted shortstop prospect Leo De Vries now in the farm system, the Athletics’ future plans may now have De Vries at short and Jacob Wilson moving to second base, so Gelof will need to get healthy and re-emerge in 2026 to get himself back in the picture.
Tomoyuki Sugano Plans To Play In MLB In 2026
As he nears the end of his first Major League season, Tomoyuki Sugano is looking to make it an encore, as he tells the Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka that he is hoping to return to the bigs in 2026. Sugano will be a free agent this winter after the expiration of the one-year, $13MM contract he signed with the Orioles last offseason.
The right-hander chose to come to North America on the heels of a very successful and decorated 12-year run with the Yomiuri Giants, and the transition from NPB to MLB naturally came with a few bumps. Sugano has a 4.39 ERA over 28 starts and 149 2/3 innings, and this durability alone was a plus for a Baltimore team plagued by pitching injuries.
An excellent 5.5% walk rate is Sugano’s biggest calling card, but his other metrics have been much shakier. Both Sugano’s strikeout rate (15.6%) and barrel rate (11.4%) rank only in the seventh percentile of all pitchers, and only seven pitchers have surrendered more home runs than Sugano’s 28 big flies. There’s still time for Sugano to improve on these numbers, though keeping the ball in the park will be tricky since his last two starts are scheduled to come against the powerful Yankees.
Sugano has a six-pitch arsenal, headlined by a splitter that he threw 23.5% of the time. Looking back on his first Major League campaign, Sugano told Kostka that he felt he didn’t take full advantage of his pitch variety, as batters caught onto the righty’s habits of tossing high fastballs and splitters lower in the zone. Sugano’s traditional four-seamer didn’t fool many hitters, as Statcast graded the 92.7mph pitch with a -4 Pitch Value.
Looking ahead to next season, Sugano said that “from a personal standpoint, I know why I wasn’t successful. I know what to fix for next year.” He also made another midseason adjustment in taking efforts to prevent tipping pitches, and in general, it is fair to view any rookie season (even when the rookie is 35 years old) as a learning period for a pitcher facing MLB hitters for the first time.
Sugano turns 36 next month, so another one-year deal seems like a lock for any interested teams. Sugano’s advanced metrics won’t hold much appeal to some analytically-inclined front offices, yet his strong control and ability to take the ball every fifth day will work in his favor. Speculatively speaking, the Giants and Angels were both interested in Sugano last offseason, and could check in again once he is back on the market. A reunion with the Orioles can’t be ruled out, depending on how Baltimore chooses to address its rotation needs.
Brewers Designate Joel Payamps, Select Bruce Zimmermann
The Brewers announced that right-hander Joel Payamps has been designated for assignment. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann‘s contract was selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and he’ll replace Payamps on both the 28-man and 40-man rosters.
This is the second time Payamps has been DFA’ed this season, and his first designation resulted in Milwaukee outrighting the reliever off the 40-man roster and down to Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers selected Payamps’ contract back up to the big league roster at the start of September, and while he posted a 3.38 ERA over 5 1/3 innings after his return, it wasn’t enough to keep Payamps from being sent back to the waiver wire.
Payamps was one of the more underrated relief arms in baseball in 2023-24, recording a 2.78 ERA and 48 holds over 129 2/3 innings out of Milwaukee’s bullpen. Payamps appeared in 137 games over those two seasons plus three more appearances in the playoffs, and it is possible this workload simply caught up to the righty in 2025.
Over 23 2/3 frames and 28 games this year, Payamps struggled to a 7.23 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate. A 4.24 SIERA is a more flattering look at Payamps’ performance, as he received some bad luck on both the strand rate (58.7%) and batted-ball luck (.361 BABIP) fronts.
However, these caveats weren’t enough for the Brewers to keep him around, and Payamps’ status is complicated by his lack of minor league options. The Brew Crew have therefore been forced to DFA the reliever rather than just send him to Triple-A, and because Payamps has been outrighted once, he can now elect to reject any future outright assignments in favor of free agency.
Should he clear waivers after this DFA period, Payamps could leave the Brewers organization altogether. A parting of the ways this winter seems likely anyway, as Milwaukee will probably decline to tender Payamps a contract. He is earning $2.995MM in 2025, and is eligible for arbitration for the third and final time this offseason.
Zimmermann signed a minor league deal with the Brewers back in December, then opted out of that contract in July only to sign a fresh new deal with the club a few days later. After almost a full season in Nashville, Zimmermann now gets a chance to log his first big league innings since the 2023 season, when he was a member of the Orioles. All four of Zimmermann’s MLB seasons came in a Baltimore uniform, as the southpaw posted a 5.57 ERA over 158 1/3 innings and 38 games (27 stars) for the O’s from 2020-23.
The left-hander spent the entirety of the 2024 season in the Orioles’ farm system before moving to the Crew, and Zimmermann has a 4.11 ERA and an impressive 5.2% walk rate across 138 innings in Nashville. Zimmermann has worked as both a starter and as a long reliever this year, so the Brewers could use him to soak up some late-season innings to keep other pitchers fresh for the playoffs.
Orioles Claim Dom Hamel
The Orioles announced that right-hander Dom Hamel was claimed off waivers from the Mets. Hamel has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster so no further transaction was required.
New York designated Hamel for assignment earlier this week, and the 26-year-old will change organizations for the first time in his pro career. Hamel was a third-round pick for the Mets in the 2021 draft, and his time with the club culminated in his Major League debut this past Wednesday. Despite three singles and a hit batter over a single inning of work, Hamel escaped from his first MLB game without allowing any runs.
The long ball has been Hamel’s biggest obstacle in his climb up the minor league ladder, as his homer rate spiked considerably once he made his Triple-A debut in 2024. Over 192 1/3 innings at Triple-A Syracuse, Hamel allowed 35 home runs, which contributed heavily to his 6.27 ERA in the last two seasons. On the plus side, he did post a solid strikeout rate at Triple-A, and he cut his walk rate from 13.2% in 2024 to 7.4% this season.
The 2025 campaign has also seen Hamel go from a full-fledged starter role to more usage as a relief pitcher, sometimes in a regular bullpen role and other times as an opener or as a multi-inning reliever. At least the bottom-line numbers were somewhat better for Hamel as a reliever (4.61 ERA) than as a starter (6.18 ERA), though the role change didn’t exactly unlock a new level of success.
Baltimore’s claim gives the Orioles some time to evaluate Hamel both in the remainder of this season and into the winter. While Hamel might well be a DFA candidate again depending on how the Orioles upgrade their 40-man roster during the offseason, he has all three of his minor league options remaining, so that flexibility could give him some extra appeal to Baltimore’s 2026 bullpen plans.
Report: Nationals Ownership Criticized As “Inefficient” And “Directionless”
The Nationals are embarking on a transformational offseason, as the interview process is underway to find the team’s next full-time president of baseball operations. The firings of former PBO Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez in July marked a major sea change in how the Nats’ front office, as Rizzo had been running the baseball ops department since 2009. Interim GM Mike DeBartolo is a candidate for the full-time job, and several other prominent executives from other teams have been linked to the Nationals’ search.
Ideally, a new hire would be able to turn things around for a Washington franchise that is staggering to the end of its sixth straight losing season. The bigger-picture question, however, is whether or not any sort of meaningful turn-around is possible without clear commitment from ownership, and there appears to be plenty of uncertainty about how exactly the Lerner family is operating the team.
An eye-opening piece from the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga, Andrew Golden, and Chelsea Janes sheds some light on the Nats, as the Post trio spoke with “more than a dozen current or former employees of the Nationals and others around MLB familiar with how the Lerners run their team.” The overall opinion isn’t positive, as the story outlines a too-many-cooks situation that has left the Nationals without a singular leadership voice.
“It’s so inefficient. When there’s that many people in the room, it’s hard to come to decisions in an orderly fashion,” said one source. One former employee is still unclear on the decision-making process, wondering “How does [anything] get decided? Who has input into it? Who is influential and who’s not? I couldn’t tell you the first thing because I’m not in those meetings.”
Ted Lerner (who passed away in 2023) initially bought the Nationals in 2006, and his son Mark became the team’s official control person in 2018. Mark Lerner is the name most fans associate with being the Nationals’ “owner” in a broad sense, but Mark has been open about the fact that he is far from the only member of the family with a say in the team’s operations.
This seemingly means that up to 10 different people share input into the Nationals’ decisions, according to Svrluga/Golden/Janes. The list includes Mark Lerner, his sister Marla Lerner Tanenbaum, his brothers-in-law Bob Tanenbaum and Ed Cohen, four of Ted Lerner’s grandchildren (Jonathan and Jacob Lerner, Michael and Jaclyn Cohen), and “to a lesser extent” Mark’s wife Judy and Mark’s sister Debra Lerner Cohen.
The sheer number of people involved in the leadership structure is an obvious immediate issue. A former Nationals executive described this organizational structure as “chaotic,” and two different Post sources referred to the team as “directionless.” Another former employee said that “more than once, I had an owner tell me to do something and then had another say not to spend time on it.”
For some insight into the various personalities involved within the family, Mark is known to have the most overt interest in baseball operations, while the Post story notes that Ed Cohen “is more heavily involved in major business negotiations.” Marla Lerner Tanenbaum “oversees the Nationals’ philanthropic arm” and her husband Bob “is the least involved in day-to-day operations.”
The lack of a team president was noted as a flaw by several sources, as the Nationals haven’t had anyone in the position since Stan Kasten left the organization following the 2010 season. The specific responsibilities of a team president vary from club to club depending on who is in the role, but having someone from either a baseball or business background in the position would seemingly help the Nats, as it would mean fewer day-to-day decisions that have to be filtered through the many members of the Lerner family.
As it relates to the ongoing front office search, Cubs GM Carter Hawkins was a candidate but didn’t meet with any of the Lerners in person, which could explain why Hawkins is no longer under consideration for the job. Svrluga/Golden/Janes report that of the known candidates, former Padres/Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes is the only one who is known to have had an in-person meeting with the Lerners.
Whether or not a new chief baseball executive can help smooth this process remains to be seen, as there isn’t any indication that the Nationals will be looking higher up the ladder to install a president atop the organization. On a more positive note, one source feels the Lerners are cognizant of the leadership vacuum to some extent, as “these last 12 months have really kind of forced them to think more thoroughly about how they want to structure things on a day-to-day basis. I think there’s some soul-searching going on and they’re trying to figure out what’s the best way to move forward.”