The Washington Nationals are going to look a lot different moving forward into the future. For an organization that has struggled for the better half of a decade now, fans are getting restless, and basically resetting the rebuild that began during this offseason is not helping to ease any worries.
One thing is true however, and that is that the organization is progressing towards a new direction, and for that we should be optimistic. That reasoning is because the club is finally acknowledging a lot of previous mistakes and attempting to learn from them, and that all begins with their new leader in the front office, Paul Toboni.
But as the team has been very busy so far this offseason, even making a few signings already, the Nationals were back at it again over the Thanksgiving holiday season, as they inked another player to a minor league deal for the 2025 season. Of course, the team is in dire need of being able to load their farm system with organizational depth
As part of their efforts to provide their upper levels of the minor leagues with more depth, the team has brought in righty Tyler Baum, a former touted arm in the Athletics' organization. As for some background on Baum, he was a 2nd-round pick by the then Oakland A's back in 2019 with the 66th pick out of the University of North Carolina.
Now 27-years-old and turning 28 before the beginning of the 2026 season, Baum is now onto his second professional organization, and will be looking to improve his numbers at the highest level of the minors moving forward. Last season, he had a 10.97 ERA in 12 games for AAA Las Vegas, although the league they play in is notoriously known as hitter-friendly.
Clearly, Toboni and the rest of the front office have noticed something that they like in Baum's mix, and whether or not he gets an actual opportunity to play in the big leagues at some point remains to be seen, but given the draft pedigree, perhaps the front office thinks he could be a late bloomer. After all, Baum was ranked in the Top 30 list for the Athletics as recently as 2024, where he was the #27 overall in their organization, although fell out before the 2025 season.
What do you think of the latest signing for the Nationals? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.