New Washington Nationals general Manager Ani Kilambi breaks down what made him join the organization, his vision with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and more.
The latest key hire in the Washington Nationals’ front office materialized this week when former Phillies executive Ani Kilambi was announced as the organization’s new general manager. It marks Kilambi’s first time in the role after serving as the assistant general manager of the Phillies for four seasons, but the UC-Berkley grad - who also overlapped with president of baseball ops Paul Toboni for one year - also joins the organization with a unique background. Kilambi’s extensive background in baseball’s research and development department fueled his career where the Phillies saw drastic improvements under his watch, but for Toboni, that expertise “wasn't the end all be all.
“We're not looking to maybe plug a need in R&D and then like secondarily come on to a great general manager. Like we're looking to come on to a great leader and great general manager and it just so happens, I think that Ani’s set of experiences complement what we have here extremely well,” Toboni said on Friday.
“Kind of the calculus behind what made Ani such a great fit. I think it starts with the person. I know, I've said that a lot, but he's got a great sense of humor. He likes to laugh. He can keep things light. He fits culturally with what we're doing. But then also, Ani has a great ability I think to challenge and push us forward, but also not antagonize folks in the process. And I think that's really important. Listen, Ani is really smart…I think there are a lot of really intelligent folks that struggle creating influence because they lack humility, or maybe they fail to see the other side of an argument. But Ani is a great listener and someone that I think will do a great job relationship-building, building trust in really all corners of the operation and that will lead to really trustworthy relationships which will eventually lead to great collaboration. So, I could probably go on for much longer.”
Kilambi pointed to the Nationals’ alignment with the vision of the organization.
“I think Paul did a really great job laying out his thoughts in that letter to the city the other day, where he wants - he and I both want to build an organization that is the envy of sport. And in doing so, that means dominating both player acquisition and player development. And what I mean by dominating is identifying edges in the marketplace. Can we acquire players who we identify more quickly than the industry, that we are more accurate on than the industry? Can we develop players faster than the industry? And a lot of this comes down to a combination of urgency, competitiveness and just really sharp eyes for talent. And we want to surround ourselves with people who fit that bill. And we want to put in place processes that enable us to make the best decisions possible. And so ultimately, it's about winning ball games and we think those are the, those are the components that help the most.”
There’s also a different dynamic in DC this time around given Mike Rizzo previously served as both the general manager and president of baseball operations. With those two roles now split between Toboni and Kilambi, the vision is to become “extensions of each other” with new manager Blake Butera in the fold, compiling the youngest management group in baseball.
“As it relates to the role that Ani is in, I think at a high level, it probably starts with just being a key voice for the long term strategy of the organization,” Toboni added. “And then kind of underpinning that is doing the work to make sure that the structure is there, whether it's staff or process building, or whatever it might be, to deliver on that long term strategy, whether that's, you know, acquisitions or development, or any of the areas that you speak of. It'll be anything and everything. Ani is going to be completely integrated into all facets of the baseball operations group, just as I am, and we're going to work together to hopefully deliver on the vision of this becoming baseball's highest performing organization.”