Nats to hire Red Sox asst. GM Toboni to lead baseball operations (source)
ATLANTA -- The Nationals are set to hire Red Sox senior vice president/assistant general manager Paul Toboni to run their baseball operations, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Wednesday. The club hasn’t confirmed the news.
Washington parted ways with former general manager and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo on July 6, ending a 17-year tenure that was the second-longest active run in the Majors. Senior vice president and assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo was named interim GM at the time.
“Paul is ultra aggressive with his ideas,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said last week. “He's a sounding board to a lot of people in the front office.”
Toboni, 35, has worked with the Red Sox for 10 years. He was promoted to his role as Boston’s assistant GM in 2024, after the club hired Craig Breslow to be its chief baseball officer, replacing Chaim Bloom. Toboni has also served as Boston's VP of amateur scouting and player development as well as their director of amateur scouting, assistant director of amateur scouting, area scout and baseball operations intern.
Toboni received his undergraduate degree from the University of California-Berkeley and his MBA from Notre Dame.
Among Toboni’s first orders of business with the Nationals? Deciding on the club's next manager. Miguel Cairo has been serving as the club's interim manager since Dave Martinez was also dismissed along with Rizzo in July.
It also remains to be seen if DeBartolo, who has been part of the Nats organization since 2012, will stay with the team as GM or in another front office role.
Toboni steps in to lead a franchise that hasn't posted a winning season since capturing the 2019 World Series title. He’ll inherit a young roster headlined by promising outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews and starter MacKenzie Gore, along with a farm system that features three MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects -- led by 17-year-old Eli Willits, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 Draft.
The Nationals are 65-94 with three games remaining in the 2025 season.
Red Sox beat reporter Ian Browne contributed to this story.