The Washington Nationals are hiring 31-year-old Ani Kilambi as their new general manager, according to multiple reports. Kilambi joins from the Philadelphia Phillies' front office and will work under president of baseball operations Paul Toboni. This move continues the team's youth-driven overhaul following a 66-96 season.
The Washington Nationals are revamping their front office with the addition of Ani Kilambi as general manager. A source told MLB.com that the 31-year-old Kilambi, who has not yet been officially confirmed by the team, comes from his role as assistant general manager with the Philadelphia Phillies since November 2021. There, he oversaw the club's research and development department and data usage across the organization.
Kilambi's career began with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2015, even before his 2016 graduation from UC Berkeley with double majors in statistics and operations research and management science. He spent seven seasons with the Rays, rising to director of decision science and assistant director of baseball research and development. Rays executives credited him with helping build a formidable bullpen that contributed to their 2020 American League pennant run on a limited budget.
In Washington, Kilambi will serve as second-in-command to 35-year-old Paul Toboni, hired in late September as president of baseball operations after serving as an assistant GM with the Boston Red Sox. He joins 33-year-old manager Blake Butera, who also hails from the Rays' player development system and is the youngest big-league skipper since the 1970s. Butera recently noted the youth of the staff was unintentional, saying, “That wasn’t on purpose... We weren’t trying to get young staff.”
This hiring follows the midseason firing of longtime GM and president Mike Rizzo, 65, and manager Dave Martinez in July 2025, after the Nationals finished 66-96 and last in the NL East—their sixth straight losing season since winning the 2019 World Series. Interim GM Mike DeBartolo selected 17-year-old shortstop Eli Willits with the No. 1 overall draft pick that month. The organization boasts young talent like outfielder James Wood, 22, who hit 31 home runs and drove in 94 RBI while making his first All-Star team, and shortstop CJ Abrams, 25, an All-Star in 2024 with a .748 OPS in 2025—both products of the 2022 Juan Soto trade.
Toboni's first free-agent signing was left-hander Foster Griffin to a one-year, $5.5 million deal. The emphasis on analytics addresses perceptions that the Nationals lagged in data usage under Rizzo, injecting fresh perspectives into a franchise aiming to rebuild.
