5 things to know about the Nationals' new pitching coach

This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Simon Mathews is eager for his opportunity as the pitching coach on manager Blake Butera’s 2026 coaching staff.

The 30-year-old comes to the Nationals from the Reds, where he was the assistant pitching coach this past season. Mathews shared his enthusiasm for baseball and building relationships with the pitchers on a Zoom call with local reporters on Wednesday.

Here are five things to know about Mathews:

‘Falling in love with the game again’

Mathews was undrafted out of Georgetown University and pursued playing baseball for three years in the Minor Leagues. In March 2020, he was released by the Angels’ organization. Mathews began working at Push Performance and Driveline Baseball, and he also took a job as a business development specialist to pay his rent. Five years after Mathews’ playing career ended, he was hired as a Major League pitching coach.

“I wasn't very good as a pitcher, certainly at the end of my professional career, and that soured my relationship with the game in a meaningful way,” Mathews said. “Getting into coaching, getting into pro ball and then getting to the Major Leagues has really driven my love for the game again in a way that just really makes me happy.

“[Nationals president of baseball operations] Paul [Toboni] talks about ‘joy’ a ton with how he wants our organization to function. That really resonated with me because baseball has just been such a massive piece of my life. I've been extremely fortunate over the past five or six years to fall into a career that allowed me to fall in love with the game again. Then to have success to this point to where I'm being entrusted with this fabulous opportunity, I'm really grateful.”

Relationship with Sean Doolittle

Mathews met Doolittle at Push Performance in Arizona when Doolittle trained there during his playing days. Their relationship has blossomed even more now that Doolittle, who served as Washington’s pitching strategist last season, will return to the Nationals as part of Mathews’ staff coaching the pitchers.

“He's become a great pitching friend of mine in the industry,” Mathews said. “It's been really cool to see him transition into coaching. It feels like every single conversation I have with him, he's learned exponentially more and increased his skill set, so that's been awesome.

“When I found out that the Nats were reaching out to potentially interview me, he was my first call. I kind of wanted to know where he stood, but also what his feeling was around everything that was going on. He had a lot of really great things to say about Paul and Blake.”

Impressions of the Nationals

As Mathews gets to know the Nats’ pitching staff, he already had an up-close view of their talents from the opposing side. Last season, for example, MacKenzie Gore struck out nine batters in five innings on May 4 at Great American Ball Park.

“I remember sitting in the dugout feeling helpless watching MacKenzie Gore pitch against us in Cincinnati last year, and this feeling that there was a ton of talent on this staff,” Mathews said. “Diving into guys like Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker, watching Jose [A.] Ferrer come out of the bullpen slamming 100-mph sinkers from the left side. It's a really exciting group from a young talent perspective.

“But there's also a ton of guys coming up through the Minor Leagues that are really interesting and exciting in a lot of different ways. I'm excited to see what this group can do to maximize those guys’ ability to get to the Major League level and be ready to contribute.”

Value of communication

Mathews is bilingual and brings a fluency in Spanish to the Nationals’ coaching staff. When his mother, an English professor, earned a Fulbright Program grant to teach at the University of Barcelona, Mathews attended fifth grade in Spain. He studied the language in high school and college, earning a Minor in Spanish at Georgetown. Mathews continued to hone his Spanish when he worked at the Reds’ academy in the Dominican Republic.

“Living in the D.R. for six months in 2021 was what really took my Spanish to the next level from a baseball-specific standpoint,” Mathews said. “In terms of approaching guys and creating relationships with players on the staff, it’s so impressive to me that Latin American players have made such an impact on this game in, often, a language that they speak very little or don't speak at all or just make a tremendous effort to learn.

“Learning a new language in adulthood is extremely difficult, living in a country where you don't have access to the kind of food you're accustomed to, all these different things. So to just create a little bit of a level of comfort and understanding with a player by speaking their language, I hope makes an impact. But, man, they're doing the lion's share of the work still, and I give them so much credit.”

Baseball inspirations

Mathews credited his Georgetown baseball coach, the late Pete Wilk, Reds senior pitching coordinator Brian Conger and Reds pitching coach/director of pitching Derek Johnson for shaping his baseball mindset and mentality.

“My sort of foundational belief about pitching is that you really have to honor the individual gifts of the player,” Mathews said. “One of the things that's really fabulous about the modern age of baseball is we can shorten the feedback loop on identifying: What is it about this guy that makes him awesome? [What is it] that makes him a Major League pitcher? I want guys to feel celebrated for that, and I want that to become the centerpiece of how we approach building a successful Major League arsenal and game plan for them. I want to bring them in and feel like partners in the process.”