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What's Next for Nationals After Carter Hawkins Is No Longer in Running for GM Job?

Originally posted on Washington Nationals on SI
By Brad Wakai | Last updated Sep 17, 2025 5:40 PM ET

There was some frustrating news for the Washington Nationals and their fanbase on Wednesday.

Carter Hawkins, the current general manager of the Chicago Cubs who had reportedly interviewed for the open Nationals GM vacancy and was viewed as a top target, is now no longer in the mix. It's expected that he's going to stay in his current role with the Cubs.

To be honest, that's not overly surprising. While Hawkins could have been hired into the president of baseball operations role, which would have been a step up from what he currently has with Chicago, it wasn't clear if that's what Washington was offering him. So if it was strictly to become the next general manager of the Nationals, then it would have been considered a lateral move.

And considering where the Cubs are compared to the Nationals at this stage in both of their respective competitive windows, it made little sense for Hawkins to make a lateral move like this if he wasn't going to be offered the president of baseball operations job.

Washington isn't back to square one in their search since they have been targeting other executives around the league, but there's no doubt that hiring Hawkins would have been a major splash and one that could have gotten them back on track.

What's Next for Nationals Now After This Carter Hawkins Update?

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The Nationals will have to continue working through their process. Cleveland Guardians assistant general manager Matt Forman has been linked to the vacancy, as has Los Angeles Dodgers senior vice president Josh Byrnes, Arizona Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye and Boston Red Sox assistant GM Paul Toboni.

It's unclear if anyone in this group has interviewed for the role, but considering the organizations they would be coming from if one of them was hired, that at least should give this fanbase some confidence in what the future holds for Washington going forward.

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo is thought to still be in the running, as well. And with Hawkins no longer in the mix, that should give the longtime Nationals executive a better chance of getting hired into the full-time role going forward.

What owner Mark Lerner is looking for in his next hire isn't quite clear, either, which makes it hard to lean one way or another when it comes to the backgrounds of those being considered. Conventional thinking would suggest someone with a strong history in development would be at the top of the list since there are so many young players in the organization already. But that is not something that has been hinted at or directly reported upon at the time of writing.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses over the next few weeks as Washington heads into the offseason, because the right hire needs to be made as this franchise enters an important period when it comes to getting to the next step in their rebuild.