The Nationals, in recent years, have been known for being one of the youngest teams in baseball. This offseason, their front office and coaching staff joined those ranks.
The Nationals named 31-year-old Anirudh Kilambi as general manager on Thursday. The hiring was announced by 35-year-old president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, who also tabbed 33-year-old Blake Butera as manager last month.
With this trio, the Nationals have the youngest president of baseball operations, GM and manager of any team in the Major Leagues.
“We weren't looking for a young front office group or a young Major League staff,” Toboni said on a Zoom call with reporters on Friday. “We have been tasking ourselves with just building the best group. I think that's a combination of obviously bringing in people from the outside, many of whom happen to be on the younger side, but then also empowering folks within our walls. To me, that’s where the attention should be paid."
Of the other 29 clubs around the league, the average age of lead baseball operations executives is approximately 48 years old. The next-youngest lead baseball executives are Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey (38) and Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris (born in 1987).
Looking further at the front office, the average age of GMs of other clubs that have someone with a general-manager title under the leader of the baseball operations department is approximately 44 years old. The next-youngest executive in this role is Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll (35).
“This is a very exciting group,” Kilambi said on Friday. “I would say that my excitement is not about the age of the people who are working around me, but rather the ideas and the skills and the talents that everyone brings to the table. Ultimately, we want to surround ourselves with open-minded folks with great ideas about how to win baseball games, and they can come from all ages and backgrounds.”
The Nats also hired Devin Pearson, 31, and Justin Horowitz, 34, as assistant general managers this offseason.
As for managers, the average age of the other 29 MLB skippers is approximately 50 years old. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, 39, is the second-youngest in the role.
“This isn’t about Ani being young or me being young or Blake or whoever,” Toboni said. “It’s just, we're trying to bring together a group that is really high performing, that works together great and that is also exceptionally aligned.”
Butera also filled his coaching staff with eight coaches between the ages of 29 and 39, including 30-year-old pitching coach Simon Mathews. Bench coach Michael Johns, 50, is the most senior member of the staff.
“Someone made a joke like, ‘Did you tell Paul when you got hired that the staff has to be under 40 years old?’” Butera said with a smile at the Winter Meetings. “I'm like, ‘You might not believe me, but no.’ We wanted to make sure the biggest thing is we bring in good people.”
Last season, the Nationals were the second-youngest team of hitters (25.8) and pitchers (27.3). Their young core includes 23-year-olds James Wood, Dylan Crews and Daylen Lile. Washington’s longest-tenured player, Luis García Jr., is only 25. This past July, the Nats selected 17-year-old Eli Willits with the first overall pick, the youngest player to go No. 1 since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987.
“The common theme from a lot of the players is, we have a long ways to go,” Butera said. “... We're in the big leagues, but we're also super young. We want to continue to develop and get better. We want a staff that's going to push us to grow. That's kind of the staff we tried to build out.”
Thomas Harrigan contributed to this story.