Fortunately for the Nationals, change is on the way ahead of the 2026 season, as they have officially hired a new President of Baseball Operations in Paul Toboni, who came over along with some rave reviews for his tenure with the Boston Red Sox. He has a tall task ahead of him in determining who the long-term building blocks of the team should be, and one of the tougher decisions he has to make will be concerning Jacob Young.
Of the two, Bailey likely has the better odds of taking home the hardware simply because he was the most valuable defender in baseball, according to Baseball Savant's Fielding Run Value metric. Bailey's Fielding Run Value of +31 was the most in a single season since the metric started being recorded in 2018. The previous record belonged to, coincidentally, Bailey and Nick Ahmed, who both had seasons where they had a Fielding Run Value of +28.
