Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is attending the GM Meetings in Las Vegas this week on the heels of signing a second player to a contract extension in as many months.
After extending right-hander Cade Cavalli on Sept. 18, the Nationals reached a four-year extension with center fielder Jacob Young last Friday.
“We've been very intentional with the couple [extensions] that we've had, extending players that we really believe in,” Toboni said. “Not just the player, obviously, but the person and the leader that they are.
“With the recent extension with J.Y., that's exactly how we feel. He's exactly what we want out of a position player. He embodies all the things we want our position players to embody. And to be honest, it's not all that different from Cade.”
Young and the Nationals reached a four-year, $23 million contract extension through 2030 with an $8 million club option for 2031, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. Young had been arbitration-eligible prior to the deal.
“We had had conversations over the course of the year,” Toboni said. “His representatives and I were talking about a number of different things over the course of the last few weeks, and one of them ended up being Jacob. We just finally decided as of whenever it was, a couple weeks ago, that it was probably something that made sense to roll up our sleeves and try and figure out if there was something there.”
Young, a 2021 seventh-round Draft pick, has become a defensive standout with acrobatic plays in the outfield. He was a back-to-back Gold Glove Award finalist in 2024 and ‘25. This season, he ranked in the 96th percentile of the Majors with +11 outs above average.
Young’s most drastic improvement this past season was at the plate. He recorded career highs in home runs (10), triples (three), RBIs (50), on-base percentage (.318), slugging percentage (.390) and OPS (.707). Diving deeper, he increased his average launch angle (12.2) and barrel percentage (5.7 percent) while lowering his strikeout rate (16.6 percent).
Beyond the numbers, the 27-year-old is a team leader on a young Nats roster. He was the recipient of the Nationals' Heart & Hustle Award for both the 2025 and ‘26 seasons.
“What he means to our clubhouse and the type of person he is, that’s where my mind initially goes,” Toboni said. “I think he really fits well with our way of doing things, and I think he still has a bunch of defensive upside remaining. But he made huge strides offensively this year, and I think there's this eagerness on both J.Y.'s end, but also our end, to see what can continue to come from that.”
With two contract extensions reached in less than two months, could more be on the horizon as Toboni navigates his second winter leading the Nationals' front office?
“I think I've spoken about it in the past: it's on our mind with a number of different players -- obviously, J.Y. having been one of them,” Toboni said. “So it'll continue to be on our mind, and we'll see where it takes us.”
MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo contributed to this report